A traffic cone!
Jane LaFazio is a mixed media artist in San Diego. She left the world of graphic design and marketing in the late '90's to commit herself full time to her art. I love her philosophy: "What I do today is important because I am paying a day of my life for it. What I accomplish must be worthwhile because the price is high." Her art is a colorful and rich, inspired by folk traditions in Mexico, Asia and Italy. Not suprising, she also loves to work with kids. Each month she teaches art to the elementary school student at Los Penasquitos Elementary School. For her latest class of 3rd graders, she put together a class called “Leonardo daVinci and Danny Gregory.”

She drew her salad and labeled the contents
Here's Jane's description: "First I had them do a couple of blind contour drawings, then a blind contour of the kid next to them. Then I showed them a slide of ‘Mona Lisa.’ They all recognized it, and then I told them how daVinci didn’t just do paintings, he sketches in a journal too. I showed slides of daVinci’s drawings and writings. THEN, I told the kids there is a contemporary artist who also sketches in his journal: Danny Gregory. I showed the kids images from your drawings, website and books. Then I showed them your actual books. Lastly I explained that, as they know, I’m an artist too, and I showed them my sketchbook.
Their assignment was to draw something and then write about it. I reminded them that these drawings were only for them…and didn’t need to be turned in."

And he drew the teacher’s desk, and wrote about his desk at home being much neater!
I am so glad that Jane shared this lovely stories and these great art pieces with me. Her class reminded me of a project I wrote about two years ago, the journals of Class 5H in Hazelwood Junior School, London. They sent me copies of their fantastic drawings and journals. Its so great when kids start to journal; I pray that they manage to keep it up. Imagine how amazing to have a complete record of one's life and of all the things that one observed over the years. Da Vinci would be jealous.

His box of crayons on the left and his graham cracker on the right. After he drew it, I showed him your drawing of your apple, on the back of ‘everyday matters’ explaining that now he could draw his graham cracker again, after he took a bite.