Visual Artist

Naomi

Naomi's

Story

“What I love about Chadwick is they take really good care of us. They have good teachers. They’re nice and really helpful. I don’t feel scared to ask questions. I like the variety of classes — art, Korean, science, library, music, Spanish. 

In art, we use so many materials. We made Mother's Day bowls, and the moms really loved them so much. With art, I get into a zone. It makes me feel really calm and not be crazy. We start art by taking deep breaths. Mindfulness makes us calm down. It’s easier to focus.

On campus, we have a lot of trees. We have a big playground. The canyon is really cool. It’s like you’re in the woods or the jungle. I love science so much because we do a lot of experiments and learn a lot about nature. We also do acts of service. If we do 300, we can adopt something. In fourth grade, we adopted a red-tailed panda!”

Christy Armstrong

On Naomi

"Art speaks to Naomi in a way that it doesn’t speak to a lot of kids. She gets lost in the process of making her work. She just loves doing it. She’s appreciative of the different processes and techniques. She’s always very happy in art. She gets into that zone of making.

I look at success in art from the point of view of each child. Everyone’s different. There’s the artist student who produces something that looks really amazing. Then there’s the child who’s not really an artist, so their work might not look as sophisticated, but what I look at is what they learned and how their skills have developed.

Village art covers all the core competencies:

  1. Communication: Art is a language.
  2. Character: Students have to clean up the studio and follow directions.
  3. Courage: Part of making art is showing art. It takes courage to have people look at your artwork.
  4. Collaboration: You’re sharing your space with other people, whether doing projects with them or not.
  5. Cultural competence: Being able to go to a museum and see and understand what it is you’re looking at and why it’s good.

Art is important because it’s another way of communicating. It’s a language in itself. There are children out there who are not only academic scholars but are really creative people. The art is how they feel they belong."