Residency 1: Unmesh Inamdar Art Academy, India

Residency 2: Residential Treatment Center (teens)

Shadowing: Shakun Maheshwari teaching artist, COMPAS

Unmesh Inamdar Art Academy - Grade 1 - 12 ( 9.30 Hours )

This week was my last week with Unmesh sir’s Academy. On Wednesday morning, we made three-dimensional portraits by cutting painted portraits halfway through the face and by overlapping the cut paper. It was a bit difficult for 1 to 4 graders to cut the portrait and to glue it back together by overlapping the cut portion. So, I helped them with almost every step. It was good that not all students who did the portraits were present in the morning and so, I got to give individual attention to each student.

We made all the portraits 3-dimensional by the end of Wednesday. In the evening, students were more willing to cut their portraits because they could see the end result of portraits which we had done in the morning. Everyone was surprised to see all the portraits together. We decided to put all the portraits together on one panel to display them.

On Thursday evening, students put all the portraits together on board and stapled them to the board. We took some photos with portraits. Sir allowed us to display portraits outside of the class. While displaying it, one person walked up to us and asked us what is this? He said he came to see the portraits because it looked different from what we generally expect from kids. I felt that as a compliment. And I am so glad that Unmesh sir helped me throughout the process and supported me. The rest of the evening, students were working on the lettering of ‘Happy new year’ and drawing scenes with the theme of a grandmother telling a story.

Sunday was the last day to be in class and working with students. It was definitely an emotional day for me and for them too. Students were working on the safari theme painting in the morning. Unmesh sir is participating in the students' exhibition on Jan 19th, 2020 and the theme is the environment. So, currently, students are working on that theme.