Kelly Dillard

Kelly Dillard has been a professional ARTreach teaching artist since 2005. She develops creative Within My Reach camps and workshops for children with special needs. She also directs ARTbeat Programs, "Young at ART" and "Art and Beyond"  for seniors in independent and assisted living facilities. Her community projects engage hundreds of children in the process of creating large scale collaborative works of art.
Kelly's Programs include:

Ibby’s Camp
is professional directed by Kelly Dillard of ARTreach. Offered as a 3 day Art camp for children with Down Syndrome, the camp is designed to support home based programs and community groups to teach art while providing enrichment and social opportunities.  Camps can be scheduled on site, or in ARTreach Studio locations in Katy. Three day camps are budgeted at $1080 to cover instructors, assistants and supplies for 6-12 children maximum enrolled with parental assistance or direct care support. Individual Fees are $90-$180 per student with ARTreach subsidies available for families in need of financial support. Please apply.  Non-profit groups and schools can apply for a grant from Texas Commission on the Arts for this Katy ARTreach program and receive 30-50% of the funding. Quarterly deadlines apply.  

“Art for All Needs”
Description:
The program will enable students to experience various art mediums.  Topics will range from seasonal to learning about famous artists and styles of art.  Whenever possible, the art will tie in with monthly lesson plans.  The art projects will encourage individual work and allow students to work on skills while encouraging creativity. This program meets this 1st and 3rd week of every month for an hour.

Foundation Basis for Workshop:

Learning a variety of art styles and techniques will continually challenge the student to explore new thoughts and skills.  The skills learned will engage the student in a mental thought process that allows the special needs to express their emotions that they may not be able to verbally express.  Focusing on the process of the art often creates a peaceful feeling in the student.

Class Schedule

Week 1:   Snowman in winter scene.

            Design your own winter scene with a snowman complete with outfit. Tempera paint on paper.

Week 2:   Paint Adriondeck chair for Action

            All students will contribute to painting of chair to be auctioned off

Week 3:  Craft stick snowman. 

            Students create a snowman out of craftsticks and give it individual features.

Week 4:  Mardi Gras Mask:

            Students create masks in the spirit of Mardi Gras.  Students learn about the tradition of Mardi Gras and enjoy a king cake!

Week 5:  Mark Rothko style note cards

            Students will learn about color field painting and will design note cards in the style of Mark Rothko

Week 6:  Rembrandt style portraits.

            Students will learn about Rembrandt and will draw a portrait in the style of Rembrandt
Sample Lesson Plan:
Mark Rothko Style Note Cards

Mark Rothko was known as a color field painter.  He was born in Russia in 1903.Immigrated to United States when he was ten years old.  He attended Yale University for a while, initially intending to be an attorney or law student.  In 1923 he gave up school and moved to New York.  In New York he eventually ended up taking art classes.

1940’s – Mark Rothko became part of a group of New York artist changing the art scene.

He liked to paint flat, and use colors that evoked emotion.  Rothko stopped naming his art pieces and began numbering the works in order to avoid influencing the viewer.

Supplies:

Brushes

Table covers

Boards for supports

Plain note cards

Acrylic paint (yellow, red, orange,; blue, green, purple; aqua, yellow pink, white)

Masking tape

Water buckets

Paper towels

Procedure:

1.     Show images of Mark Rothko’s work. What colors do you see?  How do these colors make you feel?  Happy? Sad?

2.    Mark Rothko often used rectangle shapes to invoke the idea of a landscape.

Do you see a sky? Horizon line? Foreground?

3.     Ask the students, “Have you ever seen any of Rothko’s work?”  “Have you been to the Menil” Have you seen the Rothko chapel?  How did it make you feel?

4.    Have at least two palettes of paints (yellow, orange, and red) and (blue, purple, green).  Ask the students about the palettes of paint.  What do the colors remind you of?  Happy, a Party, summer or the beach?  Sad, cold, calm?

5.    Each student will chose a palette of their choice (the paint should already be put on a plate in colors of three)

6.    Tape the note cards to the support boards in order to keep paint from getting on edges of card.

7.    Tell student to chose one color from their palette and paint the entire note card.  Let this color dry.

8.    Talk about geometric shapes. Ask the student “Do you know what a rectangle looks like?”  Have them choose another color and paint a rectangle on the top half of the card.

9.    Talk about dry brushing.  Have the student use the remaining color to paint a rectangle on the bottom half of the card.  Be sure they leave a space in between the two rectangles.

10. Some students may be allowed to use an additional color to enhance the painting depending on skill level.

11.Let the card dry and remove from the boards.

Expected Outcomes:

Students should obtain self-satisfaction at completing the task.  Students will express joy and pride in their accomplishment.  Art teaches sharing , and working with others.  The art projects will help the student to focus on the task at hand, improving the students’ cognitive skills and often providing a therapeutic calming effect on the individual.

Personal Statement:
Seeing the joy on the faces of the student when they were able to complete the task at hand is incredible.  What we take for granted is often a huge accomplishment for a special needs students.  Encouragement is often just placing a loaded paint brush in the students hand and showing them how to make the first stroke or the push of an elbow to get the student to make the mark on the page.  The rewards in this program are tremendous both for the student and those working with the student.

Biography

Kelly Dillard has a BBA from Baylor University.  She has taken art courses at many places throughout her adult life including Glassell School of Art, University of New Orleans, Southeastern Louisiana University and Midland college.  She has taught art courses to underprivileged children thru the Caritos program and to other children for many years both private and through City Artworks after school programs and Katy visual and Performing Arts..   She currently is enjoying working with Special Needs thru the Arc program, teaching Elderly adults and designing community art projects.

Key Studies:

MFAH art educator workshops certification of participation:

“Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Painting” Feb. 2009

“Is that Art? Modern & Contemporary Art at the MFAH” Jan 2009

“African American voices: Houston Collects & Black List Project”  Oct. 2008

“The Great Outdoors:  Coret, Monet & others Paint the forest of Fountainblue”   October 2008

“An Evening of Exhibitions”   March 2007

“French Painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art”  Spring 2007

“Dead Fish Exotic Elephants & Celebrity Rhinoceros”   October 2007

“Pompeii”   March 2008