Mike Jenneman is eager to share his artistic expertise with children.
Jenneman, a graphic designer and photographer, illustrated his first book, “Scooter The Mischievous Elf,” in 2019.
Jenneman will be the Artist for the Day for the Carmel Arts Council’s Art in the Garden from 3 to 7 p.m. July 18 at the garden setting, which is adjacent to the CAC’s Children’s Art Gallery, 40 West Main St.
The first Art in the Garden will feature Carmel artist Scott Osborne from 3 to 7 p.m. July 11.
Osborne recently completed a Carmel Clay Historical Society sculpture for its garden.
Jenneman is providing coloring pages of his illustrations from the book. He began doing it when he and author James B. Dworkin visited classrooms.
“I took four pages from the book and made them into coloring pages and would hand them out,” he said. “The kids loved it. They could take it home and color them, so I thought this would be a good social-distancing thing.”
Jenneman is going to supply pages of eyes, ears, noses, mouths and hair.
“It helps the kids if you look at a character, you don’t have to draw that person exactly,” he said.
“You can make your own character by saying, ‘I’m going to pick out this pair of eyes and you draw those eyes.’ The same thing with ears, nose and mouth. You can place them on there. It’s almost like a Mr. Potato Head. That way it’s easier for kids and anyone to draw a character.”
Gavin Goode will be the featured artist for the Aug. 8 session. The artists for Aug. 15, Sept. 12 and 19 are yet to be determined.
“This program has been in the planning stages since late winter,” CAC Gallery Coordinator Donna Tutwiler said. “The original plan was developed to enable artists to showcase and demonstrate their art, help children learn and create art as well as bring awareness to the Carmel Arts Council, the Children’s Art Gallery and CAC programs. Unfortunately, out of concern for the health and welfare of our visitors and volunteers, the Carmel Arts Council made the decision to scale back the original plan due to Covid-19 restrictions.
“The original plan also called for a “Children’s Table” which would be positioned near the artist. Children would be invited to work alongside the artist using the same mediums that our artists were using. Sadly, the worries about Covid-19 have prevented us from allowing this activity.
However, we have been very lucky that our artists and CAC members have found ways to enable children to create art at home based on what they have been able to see the artists create while watching Art in the Garden.”
