Friday, April 26, 2024
ROBOTS AND FLOWERS: Kindergarten and first graders at Lakeside Baptist Academy learned how to make flowers out of cupcake liners and how to make robots using different lines and shapes.
WARM AND COOL COLORS: Students in second and third grade learned how to cast shadows using different art mediums and how to utilize warm and cool colors.
OPTICAL ILLUSIONS: Fourth through sixth graders learned about optical illusions and created sand dollars using oil pastels.
PERSPECTIVE: Students in seventh through 10th grade learned about perspective, gradation and how to draw a landscape using only lines.
Lakeside Baptist Academy students got the chance to display their artwork during the kindergarten graduation ceremony and fine arts presentation on May 5.
The art show consisted of pieces created by 44 students in kindergarten through 10th grade in art classes taught by Linda Christiansen “Mrs. C,” who has been teaching at Lakeside for nine years now.
As someone who had a real passion for art, Christiansen created an art class specifically for the younger grades when she lived in Duncanville, as art wasn’t an option until seventh grade.
“I became friends with the principal, and I asked her, what is the possibility if I can come in and teach a class once a week?’ She said, ‘That’d be great.’ But then the state stepped in and passed this ruling. You’re not able to take a student out of a classroom unless it’s something pertaining to that subject so for example, the art had to be associated with social studies, so I had to stop teaching the classes,” she said.
Her passion for art continued and she decided to break the stigma of art being normally associated with girls, so she began teaching art classes out of her home. During the summer, she held art camps — as many as 16 in one summer — explaining that the popularity of her camps “showed such a need for art.”
In 1970, Christiansen moved to Hood County and started teaching in 1973.
“It’s so exciting to see a child when they connect or see something, or they feel confident about what they’re doing, they get that gleam in their eye — it’s just a reward 1,000 times over,” she said. “You see kids when they first start to do art, but they hide it because they don’t know how people are going to react, but I see kids going from shy and hiding their art and then by the end of the week just beaming and being so excited about their work and having confidence.”
The art show on May 5 showed pieces created by all of Christiansen’s students.
Students in kindergarten through first grade learned how to cut with scissors, make cupcake liner flowers and learned about shapes and lines in order to make robots.
Second and third graders used tissue paper to make an evening scene. They learned how to make birch trees, how to cast shadows using various art mediums, as well as how to use warm and cool colors like Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky.
Students in fourth through sixth grade learned about optical illusion, sand dollars with oil pastels, clay and zentangliing — a miniature abstract work of art created by a collection of patterns.
Students in seventh through 10th grade created masks and learned about perspective, gradation and drew a landscape using only lines.
Christiansen always gets asked how long she’ll continue to teach art, but her answer is always, “As long as I possibly can.”
“I just really love teaching the kids art. It's always been a passion of mine for a long time,” she added. “A lot of times you feel like you have a calling. I just think the Lord led me in that direction. I've gotten rewarded over and over through the years, and I look forward to many more.”
