What has been going on?

Our apologizes for not updating the blog recently. It has been a busy time here at Ventero. The last two weekends we have been putting together pieces for our show up at Edge Gallery in Denver, CO. The show opens on April 24th and runs until mid May.

On April 13th we had PALS in again for another printing session. We worked with them on doing some relief prints. They brought down 7 students and we were able to get some good results with their prints.

Don't forget that April 18th is our 2 year anniversary. Activities will be going on all day starting around noon and will finish with our Open Mic Night. We will be having several musicians playing through out the day and night. Hope to see you there!

-Jeremy

OMN

Everyone who helped Ventero make open mic night a successful fundraiser deserves a big round of applause. Same goes for all of our kick butt performers too.
Maddie (in photo) graced us with an entertaining passage from the back of her lunch package (trust me, it was hilarious). Rhonda played a beautiful new song called "If I were a Bird". Bill graced us with his exceptional talent on the banjo. And Nate, our beloved MC, read some really thoughtful poetry he had recently written. A big thank you to Melissa for manning the coffee shop and being such a trouper. We are very happy with how open mic night seems to be taking on a life of its own. For those of you who enjoyed having the Haunted Windchimes, we'd like to have them back next month so maybe if we could all facebook them we could collectively hound them into coming. The next open mic night will be April 18th.
~Vicky

R.A.I.N. Art Student

Karolyn Walker














Here is Karolyn Walker's first art assignments under Randy's supervision. She is one of our RAIN art students and will continue to receive free art lessons with the possibility of an art scholarship in her future.

More and more it is becoming apparent that the arts are truly beneficial, not only as valid areas of study in their own right, but also because they tend to improve academic performance in general. Those who teach the visual arts see how the children respond, how their motivation stimulates productivity, and how their involvement in the creative process causes them to blossom and become even more productive. But what's so encouraging for arts advocates is that the arts are finally being acknowledged by authorities as beneficial. A report in Soundpost (vol. 17, 1990, p. 21) states that "students who take arts courses tend to have higher scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) than those who do not." It continues by saying, "the more arts courses a student takes, generally speaking, the higher his or her SAT scores." That the arts actually tend to improve students' verbal and numerical skills can be seen only as a bonus by those who already value the arts for more aesthetic reasons. Furthermore, problem-solving skills, which are essential in today's world, are readily available through stimulating and art assignments - assignments that require the children to produce numbers of novel ideas and then to make a series of choices to complete them. Such exercises require a number of important cognitive skills. Contained in the list below are some of the most commonly accepted benefits that visual arts education provides for children: Heightens self-esteem Develops problem-solving skills Allows for expression and creativity Improves visual discrimination skills Develops self-discipline and responsibility Increases motivation to learn Provides fulfillment through productivity Creates cultural and historical awareness Develops ability to make aesthetic judgments Tends to improve academic performance

PALS Part Deux

We enjoyed our time with the kids from PALS today during their monthly monoprint workshop. They learned how to mix the color orange and did their first still life paintings. We are finding out who the true artists are. Each child had their chance to create an original monoprint from start to finish. After all the press work was done Randy thought the group how to draw cartoons with a line by line -follow along technique. We look forward to their next visit! Check out the pics on Picasa.

Thank you to Michelle LeBlanc and Tim Dillett and team for all their hard work and dedication.

Art Supply Donation

Karolyn Walker, a member of the Mariachi San Luis and a student of Helen Vessels, has been selected to be a R.A.I.N. art supply recipient. She is a very gifted student who has had a rough go in recent times. After a long discussion with Helen and some interviews and art coaching on Randy's part we all agreed that Karolyn was well deserving of this boost. We are hopeful that this inspiration will lead to qualification for a complete art scholarship at Adams State College the future.

Jesus Sanchez "Master Printermaker Extradinaire"

Jesus is one of our favorite students here at Ventero. He is a student at Centennial School and participates in our R.A.I.N. program. We've been teaching him reductive block prints.

How a Reduction Block Works

Reduction block prints get their name because you reduce or cut away your block for each new color. What you do is carve a little and print all your prints in the lightest/darkest color (depending on your paper color), then carve some more and print all your prints in the next lightest/darkest color, carve some more and print in a darker/lighter color yet, and so on. One thing to realize right at the beginning is that you can't go back and print more of the first color after you start carving for the second color! You will always be making a limited edition. If the second stage of your carving is the most beautiful stamp you've ever carved, and you go on to a third stage, tough luck! Print lots of copies right at the beginning -- more than you think you want, because you'll probably ruin a few in later stages.


Before I start my reduction print I need to already have a design in mind.
I chose to do a flower...the nice thing about choosing a flower is that its natural so there's nothing right or wrong about it. It'll still look nice even if I take a little creative freedom. At least that's my theory...
I'm going to print on black paper so I need to cut out everything that I want to remain black. Once I've done that I need to print my darkest color first (since I'm printing on black paper).

I've chosen to do these prints in three colors (red, orange and yellow). At this point I need to print my reds...here is an example of what that looks like.

This is my orange layer, after cutting away all the surface area that I wanted to remain red...

Next, the final yellow layer, after cutting away the surface area that I wanted to remain orange.

Happy printing,

Vicky

Mark Your Calendar's

Just wanted to remind everyone of a couple of important dates coming up. First one is March 21st, which is Open Mic Night. The second is March 28th, The Alamosa Art Walk. Ventero will have work displayed at Hospice del Valle. Hope to see you all at the different events.


Jeremy

New and Old Faces

It was great to see new and old faces at our last Open Mic Night. Rhonda played some new songs for the crowd. One of the new faces was Bill who is the husband of our Friday volunteer Jean. Bill was nice enough to bring a great sound system for us to use. Hope to see you all on March 21st for our next OMN.

Jeremy