Day one was observation day- to get an idea of the flow of the activities and understand the interaction between the staff and the children. One staff member introduced me to the children and I briefly told them that I would come on Tuesdays to do structured art classes with the ones who are interested. Shortly after, as most children would, hit the doors to play outside on a beautiful spring day. Busy little bodies rushed to the outside field to play. A boy about 11 years of age maybe less walked up to me. His face had a scar and his tooth was chipped "I love to draw" he said and reached forward with a ruled lined composition notebook. " Look" his hands had ink marks as he had been drawing, his nails should have been trimmed months ago. The front cover was cut open to a little window so I could see through to his first page. A window to his secret world, I thought to myself. We spend about 15 minutes looking carefully at each page. Most of the sketches depicted dark subject matters such as killer clowns and violence. He had several where he had created his own characters and others where attempts to copy known characters. " I been try'n to figure how to shade." he said. It was a wonderful 15 minute encounter and I told him that I look forward to work with him and teach him some techniques and tricks. His face brightened and I thought to myself, this is exactly who I want to build the art program for... From now and on he will be called "The Boy with the Sketch book".

Day one was observation day- to get an idea of the flow of the activities and understand the interaction between the staff and the children. One staff member introduced me to the children and I briefly told them that I would come on Tuesdays to do structured art classes with the ones who are interested. Shortly after, as most children would, hit the doors to play outside on a beautiful spring day. Busy little bodies rushed to the outside field to play. A boy about 11 years of age maybe less walked up to me. His face had a scar and his tooth was chipped "I love to draw" he said and reached forward with a ruled lined composition notebook. " Look" his hands had ink marks as he had been drawing, his nails should have been trimmed months ago. The front cover was cut open to a little window so I could see through to his first page. A window to his secret world, I thought to myself. We spend about 15 minutes looking carefully at each page. Most of the sketches depicted dark subject matters such as killer clowns and violence. He had several where he had created his own characters and others where attempts to copy known characters. " I been try'n to figure how to shade." he said. It was a wonderful 15 minute encounter and I told him that I look forward to work with him and teach him some techniques and tricks. His face brightened and I thought to myself, this is exactly who I want to build the art program for... From now and on he will be called "The Boy with the Sketch book".