Becky's CE Class Gets Into Visual Arts

The Laguna Beach Art Walk is kind of supposed to be an appetizer before the Pageant of the Masters main course...but really, it's a main course on its own! Beyond the awesome conversations incited by the art pieces they see as we walk around, our campers get to participate in three very different visual arts workshops (such as Scratch Art - you know, that Crayola paper that you scratch to reveal bright colors?). Campers created items they'll be bringing home using their imaginations and some basic tools, such as little pencils, ink, and even water.

Relief Prints are created by making indents in a piece of foam in their desired design, applying ink, placing a piece of paper atop the foam, and then rolling through a press. Anywhere you made an indent stays white while the rest is the vibrant color our campers chose. This year, there was a large press the campers were able to operate...and laugh a lot while they did it.

Our CE class members really let our personalities shine today - not only through the art that was created, but through the relationships that were built with each other as well! So many smiles were seen, laughter heard, and opinions for their aesthetic set free. Absolutely wonderful.

We got to participate in marbling pots (that they picked out themselves) this afternoon, too, which was a new experience for all of us. One at a time, class members would step up to the counter and give the workshop staff their choice of three ink colors which were dropped into a special solution. They then got to swirl their colors around as they saw fit, some making large designs and others making tight and sharp swirls.

Upon their okay, the workshop staff would dip their pot into the mixture, leaving them with a one-of-a-kind work of art. Every single color combination chosen by our class produced amazing and stunning results.

I'm so proud of their willingness to try these new things today; some of them certainly stepped out of their comfort zones. I didn't hear one negative comment about their own work or not being "good enough;" they simply were true to themselves in the moment and accepted themselves right where they were in ability and talent and it was a beautiful thing to experience. I so hope they will continue to give themselves that kind of grace in other areas of their lives and throughout all their new experiences to come.

Well done, friends!