Art with Marissa

07/24/2025

So…first, I had this idea to introduce the kids to geometric prisms (well, sort of. These shapes are not quite those, but I don’t know what the name for these forms is. Anybody know?) by creating these forms out of cardboard, taping the heck out of the gaps, then pouring plaster and stuffing any cup or paint bottle into the middle before the plaster set and the next day (today), peeling back the cardboard and magically pulling out the cups and paint bottles from the center to create these super rad planters or pencil holders or just sculptures but funny thing—most the cups, paint bottles and ESPECIALLY the one spray paint bottle we inserted into the center did NOT want to give up the ghost, so today was a hilarious exercise in creative thinking and problem solving skills and how many power tools can we use before we solve the problem and how quickly can we clear the garage when I accidentally punctured the spray paint bottle while chiseling it out with a hammer and the pointy end of a flat file ?

And it was still such a blast.

The kids were smart, curious, funny, creative, good-natured, and fun. A great way to end the summer of art camps.

07/22/2025

Just a bunch of boys and their yarn on a summer morning.

Art camp. 😊

07/21/2025

03/19/2025

This is the last batch of color wheels from my students, and she sure was a pretty one.

03/12/2025

This summer marks TEN years of summer art camps through my little art business, Art With Marissa. I’m sitting on the couch with my now 14 year old, but 10 summers ago, he was just a little guy finishing up his Transitional Kindergarten year. We were living in California at the time and I had been volunteer teaching art and science to his class once a week, it was a blast, the kids were hilarious, parents asked me to keep going, so I set up some paint in my backyard, and the rest was history.

What I created from this experience feels like something very much alive. It has kept me curious, it kept food on the table at times, and then—it kept evolving. As my own sons grew and their way of playing changed, so did the type of art camps I offered. I watched them, watched the way they needed to move all day long, watched the way the woods became a playground, and adapted, learning how to toss some art experiences into the mix.

Becoming successful in this gave me an incredible understanding of myself-I began to see the power that true creative thought has over all things in life, and the beauty that children have in harnessing it and unleashing it when given the opportunity. When kids are encouraged to not copy but rather, to curiously explore and create, the most astounding things happen, and I’ve been fortunate enough to be there for so many of those moments.

Some summers have seen every week filled with art camps, but this year, to celebrate, I’m taking it easy, just offering two weeks.

Well, that’s what I’m telling myself. Sometimes I get restless & add more as time passes. For now, it’s two. The perennial front-runner: Nature Art Camp (June 16-19) and Old School Art Camp (July 21-24).

Wanna join? See events section for details.

I am humbly grateful to each and every single one of you over the years who have joined a class, camp, or workshop, from the smallest of toddlers to the oldest adults. This truly has been the best adventure. The foam machine, the dollhouses, the lost glasses in the river, the tiny kids in my backyard in California, the Zoom classes during Covid, the massive paper mache heads and paint wars on the trampoline. What a life.

What a great ten summers. 💛

03/02/2025

Dear followers:
The 2025 Summer Art Camp schedule IS coming! Art camps are a go for year TEN!

I am working on my own family’s schedule first, and have a few big dates I am trying to sort out first.

07/10/2024

Leave it to a kid to find a rock on the ground, turn it into a king on a throne, with a bed, then a house, then enlist several other kids to serve as apprentices to make rickshaws, a jester (also a rock), a boom box so the king is entertained, turrets and towers and eventually the skeleton for a castle, weaponry and knights…on and on.

And leave it to an art teacher to use that opportunity to teach them about Renaissance patron/artist/apprentice structures.

All in a day’s work at art camp. One day left to camps this summer!

07/09/2024

It was a good day for some great art at camp today

07/08/2024

Art camp today: draw, plan, glue, plan again, shaving cream, water, go home. ☀️⛱️🍉

07/02/2024

Clay Camp artwork is back from the kiln and available for pick up! (If you attended this camp, you should have received a text with details.)