COMMUNITY ART
Art, Community & Connection
Art made by many hands, not just my own.
For me, making art has always been about more than the finished piece. Some of my most meaningful experiences have come from the places where creativity and community meet.
For eight years, I spent nearly every Monday at a community art center in Portland, Oregon. It became a formative part of my life as an artist and planted a lasting idea: how special it is to have a place where people can gather, make things, experiment, get their hands dirty, and learn from one another.
Today, that thread continues through my work as a Teaching Artist with the Museum of Northwest Art’s Creative Connections program, bringing hands-on art experiences into schools and working alongside teachers to create projects that invite children to explore materials, ideas, and their own creativity.
I love showing kids what I know, but just as much, I love seeing what they discover for themselves. I'm not afraid of a little mess, an unexpected direction, or a project that evolves once thirty different sets of hands get involved.
Creative Connections
Throughout the year, Creative Connections took me to schools across Skagit County, from one edge of the county to another. The projects below are just two examples from a year spent making, experimenting, and creating alongside students and teachers.
Fidalgo Elementary
Featured Project
I led the first Creative Connections classroom project with third-grade students at Fidalgo Elementary, creating a hands-on experience that brought art-making into the students' classroom learning.
Little Mountain Elementary
Featured Project
Creating a Rainbow School
When I was invited to imagine a project that could bring an entire school together, I returned to a childhood memory of students painting wooden fish. That seed grew into a school-wide celebration of salmon, color, individuality, and community.
Working with fellow Creative Connections artists, MoNA educators, teachers, and volunteers, we created an experience for roughly 430 students, ages four through twelve. Each student began with the same basic materials and a palette of colors, but had the freedom to make their fish entirely their own. I also adapted materials and tools so students with different abilities could fully participate.
Hundreds of individual fish ultimately came together as one rainbow-colored school, a collaborative artwork made from more than 400 individual expressions.
“I love that you can give the same material to each student and get different results.”
The Dream
The dream that began all those Mondays ago in Portland is still very much alive.
I imagine a community arts center here in Mount Vernon, a welcoming place where children can come together to make art, learn traditional and new ways of working with materials, experiment, get messy, and experience the freedom of creating something that is entirely their own.
