Art Studio Hones Creativity

Watercolor was the medium of the day—its softness fit with the overcast morning, said Cindy Walker, who on Saturday led four young students in art classes at the MAD (Make a Difference) art studio on Brookside Avenue in downtown Redlands. The medium was one of many the students had learned over the summer; others included Jackson Pollock-inspired abstract paintings and still life, as two examples. The students worked quietly and attentively as Walker led the group in concise discussion about the art supplies they would be using that day—working on resistance painting, the class worked with wax crayons, frisket (protecting areas of their work from the paint) and watercolor. They were encouraged to be “innovative artists,” using their imagination and “trusting themselves,” Walker told them as she demonstrated to the children how to use wax on paper. The course encourages the students to be creative and let their imaginations flow, while incorporating other aspects of art, Walker noted. “It’s kind of like art therapy, and I think it’s very beneficial. We’re not focusing so much on the end product as we are the process that got us there,” said Walker. She discusses with the students various techniques and even throws in a bit of art history from time to time—the group has done work in the styles of artists like Jackson Pollock and Monet—but she keeps it short and sweet. “I keep it concise, and then I let them go and teach them as we’re going,” said Walker. This allows the kids more time to focus on creating artwork, which the students agreed they enjoy the most in the class. For 10-year-old student Samantha Averhart, who has been taking art lessons with Walker since December last year, the class is one thing she looks forward to every day, her mother, Stacy, said. “She has been here every week. No matter what, she always wants to come. She’ll ask me on a Wednesday, ‘How much longer until art class?’ She looks forward to it,” Stacy said. The same is true for 9-year-old Genevieve, her mother Mary Ann Mcallister Ayber shared. “She loves this class, and if you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, she will say, ‘an artist.’ And [Cindy Walker] is a role model, because she’s a woman, she’s a mother, and she’s an artist, and the kids look up to that.” Genevieve is a well rounded student—she is in the GATE program at her elementary school and also has participated in horsemanship camps and takes piano lessons—but there’s nothing she loves more than art, Mary Ann shared. “She likes piano and she likes Mandarin class, but those are work to her,” she said. “She really loves art and horsemanship. [Art] is the opportunity for her to express herself.” The art class runs in partnership with the Red Shoe Project, working toward the mission of creating a safe environment that encourages and paves the way for personal success. Walker, who has taught art since 1991, began teaching this art class about two years ago, when it was comprised of one or two families who gathered for art courses in the park. After she met Red Shoe Project founder Dawn McCoy, the two worked together to find a brick and mortar studio, and they established their art studio in Redlands. “I met Dawn and the vision she had very much matched with what I want to do,” said Walker. “She has a love for arts and for children, for those with disabilities and also functioning children, and it just all fit together.” One thing Walker said she dreams of doing is having an art showcase of her students’ art. “Having their art featured and making them the professional artists will let them show how they’re expressing themselves,” said Walker. “The arts bolster your creativity and they bolster you.”