School Demo

I did a little painting today for the "Arts Alive" program at E.H. Greene Intermediate School in Blue Ash. My audience was a pile of 10, 11 and 12 year olds, which seems to be the demographic I tend to paint for most of the time. Unfortunately, I have yet to sell a painting to anyone of that age group. Turns out kids are pretty cheap.


I brought in a few of my more playful paintings to display. I made sure to set up a still life to paint that would appeal to kids and be simple enough that I could make something out of in the short amount of time I was allotted.


I thought this photo was funny- notice the two boys on the right standing behind me reading a magazine about video games. I am sure they were just taking a break from my exciting demonstration.

The "Arts Alive" event was during the lunch / recess period, so kids were coming and going.  They could watch me paint then go eat some tator tots, check back to see how I  was doing, go climb on the monkey bars, and stroll in to see me finishing up. In addition to having me there painting, there were musicians and craft artist with a table full of puppets. It was nice painting with live music near by- I wonder what it would cost to hire classical musicians to play in the studio?

There was a  crowd around me much of the time. Mostly they just stood there quietly and watched. A few of the kids asked questions like, "How do you do that?", "What kind of paint do you use?" and "How much would you sell that for?"
I really enjoyed the  "Wow, you're good!" comments. I wonder what it would cost to hire some kids to hang out in the studio shout out those kind of things while I paint?

I decided early on that I was going to bring a Yoda doll that I found in the garbage to paint. I have painted it once before a few years ago. Yesterday, while I was gathering stuff to bring with me, a story developed which involved me arranging Yoda with a baseball  and a can of soup. I put the baseball on a clear beaker so it would appear as if the ball was floating in the air.



It is called The Force And A Can Of Soup. Here is the set up and the painting after about an hour and a half. (I had nothing to do with the painted pig in the background, it was there when I arrived.)
It was very cool that a few of the kids totally got the story in the painting, though they were a bit confused by the can of soup. I told them that Yoda needs a hearty can of soup to use the force successfully. In reality I just needed something red in the picture and the can of soup did the job. One girl did ask me if I was a Pop Artist. Funny that keeps coming up.
I will probably set this still life up at the studio and try to finish. It will of course be in different light, so I will have to adjust it, but I think it could be a fun little painting. Some of the kids took business cards, so I am thinking someone might break open the piggy bank and buy this one.

I could possibly be talked into trading for some baseball cards.