Pre-K Mural: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, will there be enough room! I fit it all in! Alphabet in the front, numbers in the back! So fun and so bright for the little ones starting school this fall!

Back to School Mural: Day 6 - Ready for Pre-School!

Seventeen hours later...all done! So excited to have finished painting "The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Friends" mural in Mrs. Devitt's Special Ed. Pre-School Classroom in Port Reading School #9. 

Hope the bright colorful images bring a smile to their faces!

Back to School Mural: Day 5

Butterfly starting to take flight!

Back to School Mural: Day 4 - Wall 2

Butterfly Bits

Back to School Mural: Day 3

Why so grouchy, Ladybug? The sun is out!

Lonely Firefly is not so lonely anymore. Thanks, Gorilla.

One wall done!

Back to School Mural: Day 2

A fresh coat of paint and start of a new friendship for gorilla!

Still staring...

Back to School Mural: Day 1

Scraped 25 years worth of Fun Tack off the wall...and that gorilla just won't stop staring at me.

Inspirational Graffiti

There is something about inspirational graffiti. Brightly colored paint on gritty surfaces - sometimes under bridges, on train cars, backs of buildings. Artwork with a message that starts off strong and slowly fades in the sun and worn by weather. All art changes and fades, especially art left out in the elements. Yet, the more it is worn, the more we respect it. It has held it's own for as long as it could. It then becomes the experience of the piece that begins to shine through as it fades. That becomes more important. That is true inspiration.  

All I hold is a single candle.

Peace Exchange

For the last five-plus years Ross Holzman has devoted himself to living a life in service of peace. In 2008, he started Create Peace Project because he could no longer sit back and watch as the powers that be continue to push war, infiltrate the media with violence, and promote fear! So he put his vision of "creating peace" into action. Over the past four years, he has personally worked with 12,000 youth and included more than 25,000 youth and adults in Create Peace Projects....with amazingly positive responses! A project that I am proud to have participated in with the Alluem Kids. 

In their efforts to spread the projects and practices that they at Create Peace Project are using, he and a couple colleagues wrote an arts-for-peace educational resource entitled Let's Create Peace. This is a 70 page booklet contains more than 30 activities and projects aimed at fostering self-awareness, strengthening connections, promoting peace, and creating uplifting meaningful art, as well as learning about the history of peace and violence locally and globally.  It will be used to train educators, promote simple peace practices in the classroom, share simple peace education to our youth and to complement the integration of Create Peace Project's arts-for-peace projects into schools around the globe.

This resource is ready for a second printing and once printed will be shared with teachers and educators far and wide, but in order to do so, they NEED YOUR SUPPORT! They currently have about a week remaining in an all-or-nothing fundraising campaign:   www.tinyurl.com/letscreatepeace (thus "pledges" are not debited unless the entire $3775 goal is reached). It will take you less than 10 minutes to create an account and make a pledge.  Think about the youth around the globe who will be positively affected by your generosity! Give if you can!!