Covenant House of CA, 04/26/2017

Tonight was a hilarious parade of Wolverine-headed chicken horse dinosaurs, and coffee-stirring Sideshow Bob yetis sinking into quick sand as we made “collaborative drawings” at the Covenant House of California! That’s where one person starts a character from its head down to the neck, folds the paper so no one can see what he’s drawn, passes it to the next person, who draws the neck down to the hips, passes it along on and on until the character is complete.

Our artists, who hail from shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Scooby Doo, Penn Zero, 101 Dalmations and Phineas and Ferb, combined with the bursting talent of the young artists at the Covenant House created the most stupifyingly hilarious characters and we can’t wait to come back here and do it all again!

Thank you to everyone at the Covenant House, to our West Coast Director, Joseph Scott  and our trusty band of volunteers: Jeremy Arambulo, Joseph Garcia, Christian Lignan, and Ashley Simpson.

Mount Sinai Hospital 04/19/17

Tonight was all about Earth Day! We celebrated the importance and beauty of our ocean by first learning basic fish anatomy then applying that to the forms of whales, dolphins, clown fish, angel fish, and more.  We also drew realistic turtles, snails, starfish, octopus, stingrays and coral and then transformed our creatures into cartoons!

I was very happy to interact with the kids, who called in with questions about my experience with seeing fish and finding references. I also got  2 text-requests to draw unicorn and helicopter fish, which resulted in some whacky drawings on my part. It was a real interaction with the kids and the 30 minutes flew by like a flying fish! ~Elana Amity, Event Director.

Bellevue Hospital 04/05/2017

Creative kid energy zapped all over the room tonight as we made movable self-portraits in dynamic backgrounds!

Our Event Director, Jane Archer, began with a calming meditation and visualization of where the kids imagined their “happy places” to be. Is it near water, crunching through leaves on a wilderness hike, or flying on the back of a beautiful bird over the rooftops of New York City?

One child, with the help of Ed Steckley, created a goofy Superman who sticks his tongue out; another child collaborated with Ray Alma on a fierce Iron Man with removable mask; Maria Scrivan created a woodland scene with an enthusiastic little girl who was busy making her powerful, colorful self-portrait. One boy created a background right out of SpongeBob, while another drew the Chicago skyline for Superman to fly against. The kids loved coloring in and designing each character’s parts, and the volunteers loved helping to conjure expressions and outfits and worlds. A wonderful time was had by all!

Afterward, we were very touched when the kids presented us with a beautiful thank you card they made in gratitude for the theater scene we painted on the wall where they project movies.
We even got a homemade trophy madefrom paper cups! We were very happy to help brighten their rec room with the painting and to be able to give out art kits to every child. Thanks to Blick Art’s support for making that possible. Thanks to our volunteers: Ed Steckley, Stefano Imbert, Maria Scrivan, Todd Broder, Ray Alma, Elana Amity and Scott Brundage, to our Event Director, Jane Archer, Tifara and the Bellevue staff and most of all to these wonderful, creative kids!