Art Class Features Star Wars the Fawn

Our foster fawn Star Wars, as seen through the eyes of 5-year-olds. Photo courtesy of Joan Applebaum.

An art teacher in Fayetteville, N.Y., brought something a little bit "Better" into the classroom this school year when she did an applied project with the students drawing on inspiration from our summer foster doe, Star Wars.

When a newborn doe's mother was hit and killed by a vehicle in Watertown back in June, we adopted the baby and raised her on special formula until she could go out on her own to forage in the wild:


(video by former intern Amanda Treco)
  
Named "Star Wars" by the little boy who found her, we had the fawn in-house until one day she took off to be free (making several visits back to let us know she was okay).

Joan Applebaum is an art teacher at the YMCA in Fayetteville (and a totally amazing artist herself), and read all about Star Wars on our blog. She shared the story and photos with her kindergarten students, who fell in love with Star Wars. So Joan came up with a "Nest for Star Wars" project...

"The students are all 5 years old and we were working with the idea of drawing and cutting out a few simple shapes to help us form the body of the deer," Joan told us. "After the students glued all the parts to the paper, they added the white spots on the baby deer's back, a white cotton puff for the tail, and then used natural items such as twigs and leaves to create the nest. The project turned out great!" 

Joan has 30 children in the program—here are just a few samples of their work.

Joan Applebaum is a professional artist who has exhibited her work throughout New York State. She is also a local teaching artist and Visual Arts Coordinator and Instructor for youth, teens and adults at the East Area Family YMCA in Fayetteville, N.Y. She earned her B.A. at SUNY Potsdam in Arts Studio and Photography. Joan has taught classes at the Thousand Island Arts Center in Clayton, several after-school programs for Partners for Arts Education, a workshop at the Everson Museum and Kids in Art at SUNY Upstate Medical. Her work will be on display at our open house May 25 and 26.  To see her work or purchase a  piece in the meantime, click here.

Looking for a great art project to share with your friends, family, or classroom? E-mail us at info@betterarts.org.