Lightouse Art Classes

Here are some photos from the art classes I taught in July at Lighthouse International ("Hope When Vision Fails"). This organization and the programs I teach in there have been extremely welcoming and rewarding for me for almost two years now. In July I taught teens in two programs. The teens are all visually impaired, meaning that some are blind but most have some degree of vision. One group you will see has made collages. In this class, we focused on making artwork that is %100 tangible so that the teens can work with their hands and also feel the compositions of their classmates. We used braille graph paper so that we can easily navigate the center and sides of the page. We collaged in poster board, foam paper, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, yarn, and more. The second group of teens are photographed here with the t-shirts we made together. We used fabric markers and puffy paint that is also tangible. For those with very low vision, we mapped out the compositions and concepts together, then drew together with two hands on the marker. I'm very proud of their work. Click here to view photos of my experiences with last year's students.


Here is Catherine and two of her collages. Catherine's enthusiasm and boundless creativity always impress me. I will give her several types of materials and she will assemble them into a beautiful composition in no time (she even made fridge magnets). I found this one (above) fascinating because while other kids were making red houses and yellow suns, Catherine insisted on green for everything. The result is a bold and striking color study.




Samantha's meticulous care in creating her Yankees shirt really paid off. We mapped out each point of the 'NY' logo together to ensure its form and balance. She cracked me up because she'd stress so much before drawing each line. She's now an expert at cross-hatching!


Yes! Here is Thomas presenting the front and back sides of his t-shirt. Thomas is a huge fan of the Insane Clown Posse (a 'horror rap' group from Detroit) and other acts on the band's Psycopathic Record Label. I was into some pretty funny goth/metal stuff as a teen so I couldn't help but quiz him about it all the time and we wound up joking around about it every day. I'm now an expert on Twiztid, Juggalos, ICP frontman Shaggy 2Dope, and their logo 'The Hatchet Man' (Thomas once wore it on his necklace, his hat, and his shirt. That's dedication). I pushed him to really go for it with this shirt and we sketched out a lot of evil spiders and nefarious skulls together. Total success.




Jasmine with her 'Emo Kitty' shirt and Angelito with his 'We Stay Cool 4Eva' shirt. The back of her shirt has a list of band names (My Chemical Romance, Atreyu, HIM). This back of his says 'Forget the Rest.' Angelito's vision makes it difficult for him to see lines as fine as the ones drawn by our fabric paint and markers. He and I planned out the color, shape and placement of each letter and then drew them together.


Here is Esdriel and a landscape he made.