Crazy Corrie's Craft Pep Talk!

I could teach you today, about some very technical art techniques to incorporate into your programs, but I don’t think that would work for either you or your students. I could show you a myriad of nifty and easy crafts, but then again so can Pinterest. So with that said why am I here? To inspire you: to send you well on your way as a confident creator of “art.” I am by far, of all the “specialists” at the Boys and Girls Club, the least qualified educationally! I didn't go to college for art. I never had a real art class or instructor in my life. My only credentials are my experience and my genes. Then why am I here today? How came I to be in charge of the Craziest Craft program in town? How came I to be so passionate about art? Because I saw at an early age what art is: it is finding beauty in the seeming ordinary, in the worthless, in the plain. It’s looking at a white sheet of paper and imagining the unimaginable. It’s turning a pile of thrown out cardboard into something priceless. It’s using the everyday to create the unique. That’s what art is. But it’s no more than what you do every day with these kids. The world looks at most of our kids and sees the ordinary, the worthless, the plain. But us? We see the extraordinary!  Every day we look for the exceptional in the average: we seek to nurture and craft that person into something great, something beautiful. We see the possibilities were everyone else sees only a dead end. And sometimes, like most of the children’s art in my room, we are the only ones who cherish these kids and treat them like the priceless work of art that they are.

So, with that, don’t see art as the impossible see it as an opportunity. Don’t hesitate because you think you’ll mess it up. Just give yourself and your kids a chance to explore: the sky is the limit!! And don’t forget my personal, Crazy Corrie’s Crafts motto: “There’s no right or wrong when it comes to art!”

NOW go out there and paint some happy, little trees!!!

Craft Trailer at Camp Fairwood