About
Hello, I'm Meghan... art teacher, graphic designer, homeschool teacher, wife, and mother to three. I graduated from Biola University in 2002, as an Art major with an emphasis in Graphic Design. After graduating, I taught for two years with a local non-profit called "All the Arts for All the Kids". The next four years were spent teaching Art to K-8th grade students at a nearby private school. In 2007, I said goodbye to the classroom and hello to motherhood. We've spent our years homeschooling, public schooling, private schooling, garden growing, chicken raising, trailer traveling, food blogging, coffee tasting and beach going. In my spare time, you can find me teaching summer art camps, holiday art lessons and therapeutic art workshops around my backyard table in Orange, California.
Backyard Art Camp began in the summer of 2014, in the city of Orange. We fill a long table with kids eager to experiment with art supplies and learn new ways of drawing and painting. Our time includes loads of encouragement, laughter, free-drawing and guided-drawing, seeing the world through our senses, reading beautiful picture books with stories that support our projects and of course lots of breaks to hop around the yard. This space is for kids ages 6-12 who want to learn about master artists and their lives, study color theory, and experiment with new art techniques and skills. Backyard Art Camp was created for kids to fall in love with art and to walk away with completed masterpieces, feeling built-up, loved and inspired to create more!
The Art Year is our online art curriculum with video lessons ready to spread throughout your entire school year. It covers all the essential elements of a comprehensive art education, ideal for ages seven through middle school. The Art Year was created out of my search for the dream art curriculum for my own three kids. I knew the importance of bringing art into a weekly routine, using it as a tool for teaching other core subjects and to experience deeper communication and connection as a family. This curriculum also equips parents with strategies for bringing art into your home, no matter how creative, talented or experienced you might be.
Lessons for parents include:
Therapeutic Art Workshops utilize the Art4Healing® method, which allows participants to get in touch with inner feelings that many times words cannot express. These workshops are very therapeutic by nature but are not therapy. Instead, it is a space for participants to foster their own self-expression and self-exploration. Groups of 6-12 individuals are lead through a series of prompts as they respond by painting abstractly with acrylic colors on canvas. All levels of artistic ability are welcome as this is more about expressing emotions and less about creating a masterpiece. Final pieces are great tools for deeper communication between family members, for support in talk therapy sessions with a psychologist, or simply just to enjoy.
These therapeutic art workshops can be tailored to specific groups and needs. They are gentle and refreshing, each individual taking it to a depth most comfortable for them. For some it’s simply a time to slow down and learn new ways of expressing through art. For others it is a deeper process of healing... working through grief, trauma, stress or anxiety.
Lessons for parents include:
- Art supplies to start with and how to take care of them
- Ways to store supplies
- Ways to keep & display artwork
- Art prep and creating the environment
- How to create a custom art lesson
- Important master artists and how to study them
- Color theory
- Elements of art & principles of design
- Integration of other core subjects
- Corresponding picture books (read aloud by Miss Meg)
- A historical timeline study of master artists
- Landscapes, portraits, still-life
- Mental health art projects
- Also: Neighborhood Photography Challenge, 7-Day Art Journaling Workbook, Family Art Nights
Therapeutic Art Workshops utilize the Art4Healing® method, which allows participants to get in touch with inner feelings that many times words cannot express. These workshops are very therapeutic by nature but are not therapy. Instead, it is a space for participants to foster their own self-expression and self-exploration. Groups of 6-12 individuals are lead through a series of prompts as they respond by painting abstractly with acrylic colors on canvas. All levels of artistic ability are welcome as this is more about expressing emotions and less about creating a masterpiece. Final pieces are great tools for deeper communication between family members, for support in talk therapy sessions with a psychologist, or simply just to enjoy.
These therapeutic art workshops can be tailored to specific groups and needs. They are gentle and refreshing, each individual taking it to a depth most comfortable for them. For some it’s simply a time to slow down and learn new ways of expressing through art. For others it is a deeper process of healing... working through grief, trauma, stress or anxiety.
Why bother with art?
Doing art with your kids:
🤯 Builds confidence
🤯 Creates cultural awareness
🤯 Exercises imagination
🤯 Improves critical thinking skills
🤯 Develops concentration, coordination and fine motor skills
🤯 Integrates core subjects and art for mental health check-ins
🤯 Your kids will discover the joy of learning and better understand themselves and the world around them
🤯 Art is a beautiful tool for connecting with family, making time to look each other in the eyes, explore, experiment, and encouraging one another
Did you know?
⚡️Art education programs are mandatory in countries that rank consistently among the highest for math and science test scores, like Japan, Hungary, and the Netherlands. (National Endowment for the Arts)
⚡️Exposure to the arts for just two hours every week can improve mental health and overall well-being. (Research from University of Western Australia)
⚡️Students with access to an arts education are 5x less likely to drop out of school, 4x more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, 3x more likely to pursue a bachelor’s degree, 3x more likely to be elected to class office and are 30% more likely to pursue a professional career. They score higher on literacy, writing and english proficiency skills, score higher on the SAT and are less likely to run into disciplinary infractions. Additionally, 72% of business leaders say that creativity is the #1 skill that they seek when hiring.