T he first session of Art & Wonder Camp began on Tuesday this week as artist SammyJo Miller welcomed five young art students to Tracy Public Library. The camp is for children ages 4-6 and will take place over three twohour sessions.
Miller is a local artist who has been teaching these classes for a few years now.
“I usually have 12,” Miller said, referencing the low number of students this year. “It could be because of the time; we have had these camps in June before and had more. Sometimes it’s just hard to know what else is going on, like, if camp is at the same time as softball practice or something.”
Despite the low turnout, Miller was just as excited to teach these kids all about art by inspiring creativity and individuality in her students.
She began the camp by reading her students a book called “Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden” in which a girl decides to grow some interesting plants. While all of her neighbors have the same regular flowers, Millie Fleur decides to grow plants that have teeth or eyeballs. The other people are scared of her plants right away, but she inspires them all to grow their own special, unique flowers.
ELSIE GILBERTSON works on a painting at the Art & Wonder Camp at the Tracy Public Library on Tuesday. Photo / Gracelynn Struchen
Miller uses the story to incite individuality in her students.
“Millie’s flowers aren’t poisonous, they’re just different,” Miller said. “Now everyone’s garden has its own personality.”
She then helped the children create their own garden gallery, a collection of art projects using different mediums to create images of flowers and plants.
The kids learned to use unconventional art supplies, like cutting up straws to make perfect flower “paintbrushes” and adding watercolor paints to the typical crayon drawings.
“My goal is to teach them some art vocabulary,” Miller said, “They’re here to have fun, but also to learn the basics of art.”
She wants the children to have a strong foundation in their understanding of art and creation.
Over the three days of camp, the children will get to practice different mediums and concepts. The plan for Wednesday was for the kids to paint larger murals and create dioramas with clay.
“I always like to do a kinetic art project, something that includes movement,” Miller added. “I would like to launch paper rockets on Thursday.”
Thursday will also be the day that parents are invited to view their children’s art galleries and take projects home.
