and pastel art workshops, leaving behind beautiful pictures and stimulated minds.
He inspires the students natural curiosity, creativity and imagination
by visualizing stories in front of their eyes.
ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION THROUGH THE ARTS
HOME
ABOUT ME
IMAGES
FLYER
FAO
CONTACT
testimonials
booking/costs
sketches
Free Hit Counter
The New Mexican, Santa Fe NM;The Pueblo Chieftain, Pueblo CO; Pasetiempo, Santa Fe, NM;
The Evening News, Utica, IN; East Mountain Telegraph, Cedar Crest, NM
Ken Wolverton, super artist, specialist in a little bit of this, a little bit of that
Excitement may seem hard to come by in , the sleepy East Mountain area, but last Saturday adventure came knocking in the dynamic form of super artist, Ken Wolverton.
Wolverton performed in the East Mountain Public Library for an audience of 30 enchanted children and adults at 11 a.m.
True to his super artist flyers, which were posted throughout the area prior to the performance, Wolverton took his listeners on an incredible journey through time. He used theater, music, paper and chalk to tell the history of art.
Wolverton's performance focused on the "power of the line." He opened his presentation by talking about "Oogy," a cave boy who discovered, quite by accident, that he could make pictures using lines.
"The line was the first form of written communication," said Wolverton.
Wolverton proceeded to show his listeners basic pastel techniques like shading and blending, encouraging them to experiment with art themselves.
""you can speak to people of any language," Wolverton told his listeners "Everyone here, and all children, can speak the language of the line."
Wolverton hen asked his audience to stretch their imaginations. He drew only small parts of a picture and let the children imagine what they might be. When several children had ventured guesses, he completed the picture according to the children's ideas. For his finale, he played a tape of boisterous music and scribbled vivid pastels on black paper. His audience watched entranced as multi-colored scribbles became a breathtaking city landscape.
Wolverton's energetic performance seemed effortless, but he is no stranger to the world of art. The 55 year old Cerrillos resident has been drawing for over 50 years. He has traveled 37 states as well as [Europe], taking his love o art to children "between the ages of 8 to 80."
At the beginning of his career, Wolverton's performances were well-planned, but now he is more free with his art, allowing his imagination to take him where it will. He does not know when he begins drawing a picture what it will be when he finishes.
"When I was your age," Wolverton told his audience, "a man came to my school and used chalk. [like I do now] It changed my whole life." Wolverton is taking the gift he was given at that early age and giving it back to society.
Watching Wolverton's magical hands whisk images onto paper, one cannot help but wonder how man young artists his presentations might have inspired. His talent is readily apparent. but still, he doubts his own artistry. "In my off time, I pretend I'm a real artist," said Wolverton.
Saturday, However, the enraptured stares of his audience members told the true story. Wolverton is, without a doubt, an artist of the rarest form.
The New Mexican by Kathleen McCloud
Ken Wolverton Brings Art History To Life
Paul Klee once said that "Art is taking a line for a walk," a metaphor that muralist Ken Wolverton takes to the extreme. He is now on the road somewhere in the Midwest between Dallas City, Ill., and Memphis, Mo., delivering not geography lessons but art history performances to schools across the country.
Wolverton 's journey across the Great Plains with paper, chalk and easel stowed in the camper shell will continue until May, when schools close for the summer. Until then,as a participant of the Bureau of Lectures and Concert Artists Incorporated in Lawrence, Kan., Wolverton is a one man show, delivering a whirlwind art performance to students who often have no experience to art programs in their schools.
"The organization is nearly 100 years old. It was an early arts outreach program, intended to reach all levels of schools and clubs. The towns I visit are about 100 to 150 miles apart. I try to keep in continuous line without too many switchbacks. Two hours a day I am somebody--- the kids want to know where I am from, where I am going, and they want my autograph.
"The rest of the day I am a truck driver, or eating the worst food in the world in a cafe," Wolverton said over coffee at the Aztec cafe, a few days before he started driving east towards Pine Bluff, Ark.
When rolling into a new town, Wolverton is up at 6 a.m. looking for the school. No problem in a town with 1,500 people, but sometimes a challenge in small cities.
Once it is located, he spends a half hour setting up his collapsible easel and sound system in the largest room available, usually the gymnasium. Whether it is a group of primary or high school students attending, the challenge begins for Wolverton as they settle into their seats---how to introduce art spirit to a group in 45 minutes.
He writes W-O-L-F-Y on the first sheet of paper, thereby introducing himself by nickname and demonstrating how to do stylized lettering. He refers to part two of the presentation as "Blob and Blur," a free-form color sketch that evolves into an image within four to five minutes alloted.
"Before language there was nothing but grunting. Then a Neanderthal man threw a piece of charcoal and it left a mark and it was the beginning of the first mural. The first text books were murals. Step two is very amorphic; I try to get them to see something. It usually happens," Wolverton said, who perceives his art lessons to be more of a performance than a presentation.
With his back to the audience much of the time, he has to be an engaging performer in order to hold their attention. After the quick sketch, Wolverton plays a name game with the group, taking letters back to their pictorial roots by scrambling them into quick portraits.
" I use art as a communicator. It is like a textbook to the earth and a springboard to the imagination. I purposefully try to be impressionistic, very Zen and fluid to get away from all the inhibitions about 'I can't draw.' It's like being born and saying I can't breathe. 'Why?"
Wolverton winds up his art performance with a series of speed drawings built upon suggestive lines and audience participation, and for the finale he flips a large sheet of black paper for the last 12 minute composition.
"If it is Moroccan music, there may be camels and a mosque. It is a way of journeying to a distant land. I have to work bold and often work out sketches in my notebook beforehand so I have ideas that are fresh. It is mind-blowing to kids that in 12 minutes I can pull a landscape with figures out of nothing, like watching a Polaroid photograph develop before your eyes," he said thumbing through the sketchbook with detailed ink drawings of ideas that apply to his mural work here in New Mexico as well the school performances. [since this interview the finale piece is only 7 minutes]
When not on the road, Wolverton...is painting murals in schools, businesses and municipal buildings, which have included Kearney and Alvord Elementary Schools in Santa Fe; Freedom High School , Vanguard Printing and the El Madrid Club in Albuquerque. [also a mural at Santa Fe High]
The Pueblo Chieftain, by Mary Jean Porter [story written near Christmas]
Artist uses chalk, humor to tell stories to students
With a final flourish of white chalk, Ken Wolverton drew a huge star in the east and signed his drawing.
Students at Beulah Heights Elementary had watched the nativity scene magically emerge in the colored chalk on black paper Friday morning. First there was just a hint of three wise men, then a suggestion of Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus. Then a cow, a goat and a donkey too shape in the gloom of the stable.
By the time the New Mexico artist was finished, there was no mistaking the theme of his work.
Wolverton visited Beulah Heights through the Bureau of Performing Artist and Lecturers. Though he gives demonstrations for students of all ages, he quickly tailored his "chalk talk" for the youngsters of Beulah Heights and included plenty of humor.
Working at a large easel, Wolverton told the children that his art form was "an ancient, ancient, ancient form of communication---it was around a long time before newspapers and radio.
"I'm convinced it's the oldest form of communication in the whole world. Do you think people 25000 years ago were speaking English, Spanish or German? No, I think they were speaking 'Grumblese.'
"Grumble, grumble, grumble." And they were eating "anything black and shiny they found in he road," he added. "If it tasted good, they swallowed it; if not they spit it out.
"One such fellow tried a piece of burned wood, spit it out, then threw it over a shoulder where it hit a rock and made a mark.
"An amazing thing had occurred," Wolverton said. "Man had discovered he could make marks on a rock wall. And later discovered that the marks could mean something.
"This guy might have been the first person ever to put down a picture like this," he said as he sketched in charcoal. "This isn't a photograph---it's just a suggestion of a lion.
"Over time, people discovered you could get more than just lines out of charcoal. They might have noticed the light and shadows around them---they discovered shading."
Wolverton then picked "Four Famous Squealing Guinea Pigs" from the audience and wrote their names on the paper, except he wrote the letters at random. One by one, he turned the boys names into drawings of them.
He later gave these drawings to the boys --- and probably made friends for life.
"Do some art," he told them as they left the gym.
Wolverton is a native Puebloan who grew up on the North Side and got into some trouble with a gang of kids at Freed Junior High in the 50's. He and his mother the moved to Oregon where he finished school.
Te artist later lived for 14 years in Europe---he still has a trace of a Scottish accent---and moved to Mexico in 1986. He has painted many murals in Albuquerque.
The Evening News by Tim Goebel
Utica where?
Ken Wolverton has been at the wrong school and in the wrong city before but never in the wrong state...until yesterday.
A professional artist for 30 years, Wolverton was scheduled to perform Thursday in Utica, Mich., which is located just north of Detoit.
Wolverton's been touring schools in Indiana and the Midwest, entertaining students with his colorful and unique chalk drawings, for several weeks. He is part of The Bureau for Lectures and Concert Artists, Inc.'s ensemble of performers. Schools can hire performers like Wolverton o entertain at festivals or assemblies.
After performing in Muncie, Wolverton misplaced his itinerary but remembered he had a show in Utica. Instead of aiming his van north toward Michigan, Wolverton headed south.
The mistake was discovered after he arrived in Utica, Ind., and at Utica Elementary. No one at the school knew about the show.
Nonetheless, Wolverton offered to do his show for Utica students for free. His show normally costs about $500.
"It's so funny," he said after the show, "I can't believe it."
Utica Elementary Principal Judy Patton called Wolverton's appearance "a surprise" but also "exciting."
This was the second unexpected event that worked for Utica's benefit this year. Earlier the school's yearbooks were shipped to Utica, Ky. In that instance, students from the two schools became pen pals.
Wolverton does six different chalk drawings during his show. Five of the sketches last about five minutes and involve student participation. Abstract recognition is used at the end, he said. By using this technique, it helps the students attention.
Twelve minutes and accompanying music are needed for the sixth drawing. Wolverton said he prefers to use ethnic music instead of pop during the final piece. "It's nice to give the students music they're not familiar with," he said.
The students enjoyed the unexpected performance , Patton said. "Maybe it will inspire some of the student artists to try chalk drawings," she said.
Art teacher Ed Fiedler changed his schedule and had students try chalk drawings in his class, Patton said.
Kentucky and Tennessee are next on Wolverton's school tour, concluding at the end of May in Tennessee. The summer will be spent at his New Mexico home. In the fall, the touring again begins starting on the East Coast and ending on the West Coast.
Pasetiempo by Lynn Cline
Artist Ken Wolverton at last year's 'Chalk One Up' photo by Lynn Lown
Chalk one up for the Children's Museum
Parking lot transformed into 'canvas'
This weekend, The parking lot of the Santa Fe Children's Museum will be transformed into a color-splashed canvas, filled with dozens of young Santa Fe artists using one of the simplest mediums known to artists---chalk.
"This is a community-oriented event that the museum hosts, which includes professional artists, families and kids," said Nancy Sutor, who helped organize the event along with Ellyn Feldman, co-director of the museum.
"It is a way for all of those people to interact with each other. I( tried to get a real diverse group of artists to work with the kids, with different points of view and different ways of working."
HOME ABOUT ME IMAGES FLYER FAO CONTACT
articles booking/costs sketches