by Mentor Artist Gabrielle Gamboa
The young artists I have been working with at Oak Hill, a school for students with Autism and other learning differences, have been learning weaving and printmaking techniques with our last few sessions of the year.
Student work in progress.
Student weaving.
A finished student weaving.
Each student had a small personal loom. I brought a selection of richly textures yarn for students to chose from to weave bold patterns. We finished the weavings off with tassels we made, and mounted the weavings on sticks gathered on a walk. Weaving was just one option for the older group of students. Some chose to finish previous art projects.
One student weaves, another finishes a kaleidocycle, and a third sketches a personal logo.
A student draws a pattern on a kaleidocycle.
The next group of projects involved printmaking. First we rolled ink on sheets of acrylic to make monotypes. We drew on some of our paper with oil pastel before printing for a layered result. Next, we made simple block prints, drawing on foam scratch sheets to make printing plates. We printed on top of some of our monotypes for more texture. The final project for the younger students was to combine both types of printing into a monoprint. They had developed strong printmaking skills by this time, and made bold color choices! The older students branched out even more for their final project, silkscreen printing. They made abstract designs using tape stencils, and made runs of colorful prints on beautiful Japanese printmaking paper.
Student printmaking.
Student monotype prints.
Student monotypes and mono prints.
Student monotypes and monoprints.
Student pulling a screen print.
I had a great semester at Oak Hill, and I am going to miss these dynamic young artists very much!
