Rachel Allen Dillon - mom, artist, author

Monday, April 6, 2015

Take a Deep Breath - It's Art

So many adults tell me that they wish they had talent in art. My response? Art isn't about talent, it's about enjoying the process of creating something that isn't right or wrong. We spend so much time judging ourselves. Are we a good parent? Are we doing our job well enough? Do we eat healthy, or look nice? Doing art for ourselves is about stopping everything, if for just a few minutes, and create something that resonates with us. It is individual and no two pieces of art are alike. As every person is different so is every piece of art.

Here is my challenge for anyone looking for a piece of art to do. Grab a blank piece of paper, a pencil, markers or crayons. Now scribble. Let your hand move and don't think. Then randomly start filling in the small sections with color. And as my friend so eloquently put, "I can find beauty in the mess."

Monday, February 16, 2015

A Poem inspired by a Kindergartener

Don't Eat the Crayons!

By: Rachel Dillon

I love to teach art,
art class is so fun,
Except when art parts
became food for one.

“Don’t eat the crayons!”
I told Zack, on Monday.
With crayon in his teeth he told me, “OK.”

“Don’t eat your eraser,”
I told Zack on Tuesday.
He swallowed real hard and then asked to go play.

“Don’t lick the blue paint,”
I screeched on Wednesday.
Paint dripped down his chin which he then wiped away.

“Don’t taste the pastels,”
I begged Zack on Thursday.
He spat out three pieces much to my dismay.

Friday came along
and I was scared to teach art
I walked into class
slowly pushing my cart

And there at a table
sat Zack with a smile.
He gave me a paper
he pulled from a file.

It said, “To my favorite art teacher,
Art stuff tastes like gruel.
I’d rather make art,
cuz art is so cool.”

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Watercolor Resistance Art Lesson

Greetings!
It has been a while since I entered content on my blog. Crazy busy has sucked my time away. Here is a fun project that I found on Pinterest, of course, and have recreated several times with a variety of elementary school students.

I've attached a power point of the creation of this art lesson that lists Art Fundamentals covered and explained, like:

· Perspective – What we can see and what we don’t

· Resistance Watercolor Piece – How water rolls off substances like wax from a crayon.

· Rule of Three – using three to create a visual balance

· Variation of Shape and Horizon Line

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Cherry Blossom Painting

The student results from

my last art workshop.

Acrylic Paintings from 2nd-6th

Crocker Art Museum Workshop

Thirsty Faith

By: Rachel Allen Dillon

Finding light.
The horses put all of their faith in their leader
as she guides them to water in the desert.
Warm ocher.
Thirsty blue.
The shadows of the canyon wall are like looming
and
imprisoning traps.
Thirsty.
Light.

- I wrote this yesterday when I was at a writer/art workshop at the Crocker Art Museum. It was inspired by the painting I saw in one of the exhibits.