On February 4th, Suzanne Cerney, artist extraordinare, and I were invited to Career Day at Irvington High School in Fremont. The invitation was through an organization called Learning for Life. Christian Gargaro, the coordinator for speaker’s events asked FRO if she would be interested in talking with high school students regarding the life / career of being an artist in today’s world. Approximately 60 studends attended this extra-curricular event.
We brought an extensive and well rounded collection of art samples, as well as many “tools of the trade”. These included brushes, palette knives and paints. and encouraged the students to get up and examine everything. We also challenged the students with a number of questions, such as: In what ways do you think art has been beneficial to humanity? How many of you know someone who is in a similar field? What have you learned which now interests you? Worries or concerns you?
As representatives for the East Bay Artists Guild we explained to the students that there are many such groups in the Bay Area with which they could get involved. Web site information was handed out and questions were answered. One girl in particular was very excited. She drew sketches the whole time. It was education in action and a wonderful experience.
I want to thank Suzanne for graciously volunteering to assist me with this presentation.
FROgard Butler – Education Director
Artists Submit Work for Anonymous Critique
At the February 17 meeting EBAG members brought a variety of art works and submitted them to the membership for anonymous, written critique. This was a wonderful opportunity to obtain valuable feedback about the artistic and technical merits of our work. Each artist received multiple written critiques that they could take home and evaluate. When the evaluation period was over, representative comments for each work were read out loud. Participation in the process was very enthusiastic and the results very constructive. Thanks to our president, Walter Krane for suggesting this format and to FROgard Butler and Glynda Dixon for organizing the meeting.
