First Annual Art Camp

 By: Annette Grable

God, the ultimate artist: He creates in us a desire to be like Him and inspires us to create and be creative. What a blessing it was to work with the children in Baja through an Art Camp when our team of California State University Students visited the mission.

We were surprised by the turn out of more than forty kids, we had to spilt it into two sessions. CSUN students taught art history and appreciation of Mexican and Spanish artists, followed by instruction on drawing techniques and using different media. The children learned about styles of Kahlo, River, Posada, Dali, Goya, and Picasso. Then they did projects to correspond including self-portraits, modern art, murals, and more. Many children surprised us  with their abilities. Even the squirmiest completed beautiful projects and were excited to know their work would be in a show at the end of the week.

We also shared lessons with the disabled children in the Day Home. They were a wonderful group to work with.

The camp ended with an exhibition for the whole mission. We displayed the work the children did along the school fence, played a PowerPoint presentation of the activities accompanied by classical music, and served Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider with cheese and crackers. We cannot wait to do art camp again next year.

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which god prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10