Art workshops & a day in the park

After staying up all night in a heated debate with friends about marriage on Saturday, I got to chill out with a bunch of kids by the water side and make paper flowers on Sunday.
The Waldorf community in Long Beach hosted the event for May Day. There were all sorts of other earthy things happening, crafts, music, tea-tasting. My favorite moment came when a little boy started lingering behind the group of girls making flowers. It was obvious he wanted to get into the mix. I kept asking if he wanted to join, but he was shaking his head, balking at the idea of making pretty flowers. I said, "Okay, then. I have a challenge for you then. I've never seen it done, but I think you might know how to make it happen. 3d cactus out of paper. WITH thorns." His enthusiasm was so cute; he got right to business, engineering this little cactus with tiny little flowers. He worked on diligently despite all of his friends pestering him to play tag.

A sample of the paper flowers, pretty simple, but very nice, especially when there are a ton all piled together.

Dreamer workshop

We finished our first Dreamer Workshop!

Many Thanks to Paul Bernstein for not only being such a perfect host but rocking his job to the nth degree. I wish he had been my teacher.

Back to our workshop. Paul introduced his class to Elizaveta's music a while back. Children seem to respond well to the inspirational quality of her songs. It was nice to see so many adoring faces when we arrived. E's new single Hero uses the idea of transformation from the single off of her last album, Dreamer. Together we worked out a curriculum for the workshop around the concept of dreaming about change to making it actually happen. I brought in supplies from my good friends ReDiscover, and together we made wild and wacky gadgets to help us achieve our goals and become doers! and maybe, (if we work hard - that was the idea), we can become a hero that inspires someone else to make their dreams a reality. 

Check out these cool contraption, one was a good deed dispenser, another changed trash and pollutants into ice cream. I like the way these kids think!