Unfortunately, art is one of those classes that we don’t often offer at Eek School.

We wish we could offer art more often, but reading, Writing and Math take priority and art teachers willing to come to the bush Alaska are hard to find.  That doesn’t mean that our students are any less artistic.  Art is very much a part of the Yup’ik culture.  I wish the students would do more with traditional themes, but for some reason they often like to draw me.

This first drawing was done just today by James.  We are doing state testing this week and I was helping out in his class.  When James was done with testing for the day he decided that drawing me was a great idea.  Picasso had his blue and red periods so, I’m guessing, James is in a red period.

I can barely write a legible word using dry erase markers however, earlier this year Elena had just a couple of minutes at the end of class and created this image using them.  She is a very talented student; she won a school emblem design contest and has created a number of detailed drawings.

Over the last few years I have collected a number of different drawings.  After a while I started posting them on the bulletin board beside my desk.  As you can see there are contemporary drawings, others depict me when I was young and in the military, and one student seems to be exploring cubism. 

Some of the drawings just show up on my desk, others are proudly presented to me.  I’m glad the students like to draw but I find their interest in drawing me a bit bewildering and at the same time very amusing.