Holy Cows! Popular Paint With an Artist Program at Esther Bone Library

The community outreach program sponsored by the Rio Rancho Art Association called, "Paint With An Artist" at the Esther Bone Library on April 28, 2012 is now full and so is the waiting list!

Rio Rancho Art Association will be doing another "Paint With An Artist" program at Esther Bone Library in October, so be sure to keep track of when that is posted and sign up early for it (as you can see, it fills up quickly).

This is not the first time Rio Rancho Art Association (RRAA) has done a "Paint With An Artist" event at the Esther Bone Library. There was one done back in Feb. 2009 where a live Anime model was used. In October, 2008, an plein air "Paint With An Artist" event was hosted by RRAA which also proved to be a big hit. You can view some of the images taken of this event at RRAA's Flickr Photostream.

Paint With an Artist (with Anime model)

A community program event sponsored by RRAA in partnership with the Esther Bone Library called, "Paint With an Artist (or draw)" using a live model dressed in Anime costume.


Our model Mandi (she came up with the concept of being a model in Anime costume). Her character is called, Chii and this is from the Anime series called, "Chobits".

Overview shot of the set up that we had there at the library.

Seth (camera shy) with his work in progress.

Hartell (I'm not sure if I have his name spelled correctly) with his work in progress. He too, was camera shy.

Arick with his painting in progress.

Joshua with his work in progress. This was his first time using the watercolor as a paint medium. He is an old pro with the oils.

Iyliana (I 'm not sure if I have her name spelled correctly here too) with her work. She was fearless in her approach!

Joanne McDevitt (who paired up with Arick) here with Model Mandi and Arick, along with his completed work. Good job, huh?

Here's Seth's completed drawing. Since he was camera shy, this is all we get to see folks! I love the content that he added to his work.

Joshua's painting. Pretty neat, huh?

Joshua with our model, Mandi along with his completed work. By the way, some of Joshua's work will be on exhibit at the Esther Bone Library (the "yellow wall" in the reading room) from March 5th through May 2nd. Be sure to stop by and check it out!

Thank you Mandi, for the concept and time! And to the library manager, Rob Nankin for the collaboration on this project. Last, but not least, thank you to the artists who donated their time and supplies to give these students a chance to experience something very unique and different. Thanks to Annette Kornbrekke, Joanne McDevitt, Sue Beck, Naomi Hartman and to Nan Adamson. I would say that this was a complete success!

Anime Photoshoot

This was the second part of a RRAA community program done at the Esther Bone Library. Using live models dressed in Anime costumes, the artists paired up with students and did a photo shoot. All photos posted here are courtesy of Paula Scott (Molokai Girl Studio). These images are subject to copyright law; please do not use them without obtaining permission first.

Mandi dressed as Lulu from the Anime series called "Final Fantasy X". Make sure you click on the links provided (anything that is highlighted) in this post to find out more about the story line.

Here's a 'bird's eye' glimpse of the set up we used.

Ashley dressed as Misa from the Anime segment called, "Death Note".

Amanda dressed as Revy from the Anime series called, "Black Lagoon".

I love this group shot. I think it speaks of the characters that these young ladies represent, but also conveys the close bond between the three of them and the passion they share in their interest in Anime/Manga.

That's Sarah on the floor (a student) getting into the photo shoot along with the rest of us. Did I tell you how much fun we all had?

Mandi dressed as the Anime character, Chii (in Googling this character, the costumes for it are endless). This character is from the Anime series called, "Chobits".

Amanda dressed as Tifa from the series, "Final Fantasy VII".

Ashley dressed as Yaya from the series called "Othello".

We also had a delightful young man drop in to see what was going on and he ended up joining us. His name is Jason and he was wishing he had his camera with him. Naomi (an RRAA member) lent him hers to take pictures with and he will get copies of his work via her. We all decided that he should model too. He is a natural!

To the RRAA members that didn't take advantage of this unique opportunity, all we can say is that you really missed out! All of us had a great time and we all gained from the experience (two of the RRAA photographers were landscape photographers, so this was out of the element for them and for me). Along with myself, the other RRAA photographers were: Naomi Hartman, Linda Laitner, and Elliott Framan.

A very deep thank you to Mandi for coming up with this idea and to Rob Nankin, library manager for running with it.

Esther Bone Library Youth Program

Rio Rancho Art Association helped with last weeks Youth Program (June 12th) at the Esther Bone library in Rio Rancho by curating the special exhibition of spray art on display in the library. In addition, spray artist, Nick Tramontina did a live demonstration on a ten foot canvas while everyone enjoyed the music by the DJ, Garronteed, rap music by the 2ubers and classic rock music performed the Riverside Jam.

The Rio Rancho Journal also featured an article on the event (publication date was June 12th). I hope you got a chance to see that article as it puts a positive spin on spray art. Nick has also painted the dumpster enclosure in the back of the library done in a whimsical Southwest cartoon theme (by the way, RRAA sponsored that work). The art on the enclosure was intended for young children to view during the reading programs there at the library. Nick has also done the art on the reading room wall at the Shining Stars Pre School, the exterior of the Launchpad building (downtown Albuquerque) and much of the terrain park at Angel Fire Ski Resort.

We hope that programs like this will help our youth in knowing that there are good choices that can be made.

Here's a slide show that captures the afternoon's event: