Camilla Spadafino Art: Artists are Heroes - Lockeland Student Journals

(this piece commemorates Lockeland Design Center's 2010 theme "The Story of Heroes"
as well as the Nashville Flood of 2009 - click here to learn more)

Artists are brave, artists are bold, artists are heroes.
It’s time to explore the “Story of Art Heroes!” Heroes inspire us to want to be better people and do great things to help others. Art Heroes inspire us with new ideas, creativity, and their ability to see the world in new ways. Often artist lead us to important changes in society because they are able to think outside the box. Artists are sometimes the first to see social injustice and work to correct it through their art and/or actions.

Your child is bringing home a very special journal called, “The Story or Art Heroes.” The students have learned about the journals and practiced using them in art class. In the first lesson, your child was taught the general guidelines for using their journal. The second lesson was a guided practice using a true art hero, Erin Worsham. You can take a look inside your child’s journal for that example and learn more about Erin. (you’ll be hearing more about her later)

“The Story of Art Heroes” journals are similar to last year’s passports but the focus is on learning more about the inspiring heroic qualities of artist. The main purpose for the journal is for your child to have a guided method for learning about artists and becoming inspired by them. My hope is that your child will be inspired to become an inspiration not only in their art but in their life.

There are many artist listed on the inside cover of your child’s journal. Your child may need your guidance selecting an artist. There are a wide variety of artist to choose from and many others who are not on the list. There are many artists in our school community; so many, that I could not list them all with fear of leaving someone off. Please add names to this list and discover artist in galleries, museums and other areas of life.

Art and Invention Gallery (on Woodland Street) is a great place to take your child. Ms. Meg will be happy to show you around and inspire your child with an art hero in her gallery. Tiffany Dyer, at Talula gallery (located next door to the Pied Piper) will be glad to inspire your child with artist who are showing in her gallery. These are just two of the resources in our community that are free for everyone.

Answers to FAQ’s
- Your child can earn up to three charms for their SAG tags during the remaining nine week blocks of school for completing pages in their journals. Each nine weeks student’s may complete a minimum of one page in their journals. There are extra pages in case your child would like to explore more than one artist. If you run out of pages I can provide you with extras.
-The journals designed to be “family projects.” Much of the information about the artist is on the internet, at museums, and galleries. If you do not have access to these things you can encourage your child to check out books from our school or public library and talk to me.
-There are due dates listed inside the front cover of your child’s journal. Please send the journals back to school on or before these dates and I will return the journals in your child’s report card with their crystal.
- There is a place for student’s to draw a response to each artist in their journal. Your child should be looking at an example of the artist work when drawing that response. Drawing are done ONLY in crayon, colored pencil or pencil. No markers or paint. If your child would like to create a piece of art that is larger than the journal or use a different medium they are welcome to do so. Please take a photo of this work and attach the photo to the book. It is important to remember the your child is learning the story of how the artist inspires them along with viewing and responding to their art.

All artist are Heroes. It takes courage, determination, and the desire to make the world a better place to create art. The following information is intended for the parents of the students I teach at Lockeland Design Center. I am the art teacher at this K-4 Metro Nashville Magnet School and our school wide theme is: "The Story of Heroes."

The following is a list of suggested artist but students may select an artist from their family, community, museum or gallery. The artist can be found in books, at museums, in galleries, and online. I have been previewed each of these highlighted links but because of the shifting content on the internet parental preview/supervision is required when children are researching these artists or viewing images online. Each link is meant to be a starting place with a snippet of information that hopefully will capture your child's imagination and inspire them to want to learn more with your help. I have included videos whenever possible and when not possible found links to websites that I think your children would enjoy. The best I could find on a few artist were simply links to a google imgage search, sometimes seeing the collection of an artists work on one page can be inspiring. I hope you have fun finding the hero in each artist both online and in your community.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude