Page 22 - the NOISE May 2013

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have so much meaning!” Ms. Cordova says. “I am a firm believer that it can create change too. Photos can educate people and show
them the truth.” FireCreekCoffee.com
PAUL MIROCHA’S PRESCOTT VISIT BY ANDREA WOJCIAK
Third grader Shareesa Demaline is skip- ping out on her lunch recess to show her sketchbook to artist paul mirocha. The Tucson-based illustrator whose work has defined iconic book covers for greats such as barbara kingsolver is visiting Skyview School, a charter school in Prescott. Dust off your copy of Prodigal Summer – that’s him.
He’s spent the week working with Skyview art teacher Yvonne Holland’s K-8th grade stu- dents teaching them what he knows best, botanical and nature art, and hopefully something more. As Ms. Holland sets up for the next class, Shareesa is soaking up a little encouragement from Mr. Mirocha. She beams as he leafs through her book and chats her up about what she likes to draw.
Later on he tells me about his experience as a budding artist. He recalls being humili- ated by a math teacher who caught him doo- dling on a worksheet probably littered with images of Charlie Brown and airplanes, his fascinations as a boy.
“Drawing is a way of thinking they don’t teach in most schools,” says Mr. Mirocha. His philosophy — “the best way to learn about something is to draw it.” He shows me some of the sketches he’s worked on with students including a coyote.
“I’m teaching students to look below the surface,” he says. “If you understand what’s inside, what the skeletal structure is, like you can more accurately draw the animal.”
Examples of Mr. Mirocha’s work, including multiple children’s book such as Cactus Café and The Bee Tree, are on display in the art room. His work is vividly realistic. The colors brilliant, his signature desert landscapes and botanicals fantastically portrayed.
Comparing his school years, Mr. Mirocha is impressed with Skyview’s marriage of art and music in the classroom with subjects such as math and science.
Later in the day 3rd and 4th grade students will learn a geometry lesson studying Fibro- nacci numbers while learning to draw the spirals in pinecones.
“Students receive focused arts instruc- tion that is integrated academically within
their thematic studies, says Skyview princi- pal, Scott McCreery. “This allows students to draw upon the arts to both access learning and express it.”
“When students are given this platform over several years where they use the arts to explore and connect to their academics in- vestigations, they come to understand how to harness all parts of themselves to reach their dreams and goals.”
According to Mr. McCreery, Skyview was founded 17 years ago by a group of parents who wanted to create a kind of school that simply didn’t exist at the time. Their inno- vation produced a school that embraces Dr. Howard Gardner’s theory that children pos- sess 8 multiple intelligences.
Skyview teachers nurture students by in- corporating several of the 8 learning path- ways into lessons. These include; linguistic, musical, mathematical, spatial, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist.
Case in point: my interview with Mr. Miro- cha is cut short when he picks up his man- dolin as the art teacher grabs her violin to usher kindergarteners into the art room with a song. It’s a welcoming gesture and a signal to the buzzing 5 and 6 year olds that art class has begun.
Mr. Mirocha and Ms. Holland begin a les- son on symmetry while teaching the chil- dren to draw butterflies. He encourages the students to locate shapes in the butterfly’s anatomy to aid in their drawings.
“I learned the wings were kinda like an oval or a stretched out circle,” says 6-year-old Kira Harvey.
Kira, like all Skyview students, have been dubbed artists this week, says Mr. Miro- cha “What makes a person an artist is that they spend the time and practice. Everyone should learn to draw.”
RECYCLED RENDERINGS
The opening night of the 11th annual recycled art exhibition at the coconino center for the arts is jam-packed with people, so much that I can’t see the art on the walls and have to come back later in the week! It was a great night for seeing familiar faces, and especially for seeing the first fash- ion show in over a year by the talented Jen Jones of madame 2 sew.
For this fashion show however, Ms. Jones
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Table & Chairs by Judy feldman is among the artist’s new work at mountain oasis; paul mirocha at skyview school (photo: andrea WoJciak).
22 • MAY 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us