Working and Playing with Art Brentwood Enthusiast Talks About Her Creative Life July 2006

by Annette Day
Photos by Russell Byrne

I’m directing the voluntary Art Docent Program at Brentwood Elementary School. Walking onto the campus is a richly gratifying experience because the kids all rush up to me. They are so excited! They all begin yelling, “Are we doing art today? Are we doing art today?”

It’s great to be able to help children discover art! My service to the children is a part of who I am as an artist, a parent, and a Brentwood resident. I feel like my experiences and my connections with the community provide me with a place from which I can effectively nurture children and encourage them in the arts.

Living Amid the Changes
I’m not old yet – just over 30 – but the East County area is changing so fast that my memories somehow seem older than my years. I was born and raised in the Bay Area. My parents would bring us to visit my great aunt who lived out here and, if it was summer, we would drive around Brentwood, buying fruit. We would always stop by Blumen Orchards in order to pick up a bag of pistachios. My dad and I would have most of the pistachios gone before we got back home.

I bought a house in Brentwood in 1994, just when the area was poised on the verge of dramatic change. I can remember Lone Tree Way when it was a two-lane road. After we moved here I would ride my bike by Blumen Orchards and wave at the workers. I remember how beautiful the pistachio trees were as they hung down heavy with blossoms in the summer and with fruit in the fall. It seemed like a little piece of paradise. I cried last spring when the trees were pulled down. I don’t go down that way any more. It is too depressing.

Everything is changing. When my son was born in 1996, the drive down Lone Tree Way from Brentwood Boulevard to the Sutter Delta delivery room in Antioch took us seven minutes. In 2001, for the birth of my daughter, the same drive took 25 minutes. If I were to have to do that today, at some times on a weekday afternoon I would probably end up giving birth to the kid in the backseat of the car.

I’ll have to admit that I enjoy the good things about the changes. Target is really convenient, for example, although I try to patronize the local businesses as much as I can.

I feel like I’ve done almost everything. I’ve been single, married, and then single again. I’ve worked on farms and in retail places all around the area. When they are open I am at the Vallejo Farmer’s Market on Tuesday and at the Brentwood Farmer’s Market every Thursday. For a while I was doing the Danville market on the weekends. I’m a professional manicurist with my own in-home business.

Portrait of My Art
I consider myself an artist. I specialize in creating custom mosaics such as countertops, mirrors, wall hangings, and tables. I’ve been doing this for years. While still a child, for example, I would glue acorn caps to a flower pot for my mom. Or I would fasten cool looking rocks to a piece of wood and call it a picture. My mom always cherished my little creations. Of course, every mother loves whatever her child does, but I like to think that those things really did have a special quality. For sure anything I gave her was no paint-by-number project or a page out of a coloring book. I was giving her an original piece of art that was totally unlike anything the world had ever seen before or since.

I’ve been a paste and glue junkie for as long as I can remember. The fact is that I always loved sticking things together. When the other kindergartners were eating paste, I was using it to actually stick some things to other things. I love doing glue projects with kids and am always fascinated by the processes through which young children bring little creations out of all their messes.

Sitting in the midst of a pile of stuff with a glue gun in my hand is still my happy place. I always have a number of projects going on. I do commissions but I very often create pieces just for the fun of it. I donate pieces to auctions to support schools. Last May I created a mirror with a vegetable theme for the BALT (Brentwood Area Land Trust) dinner at Tamayo’s Ca’na Winery.

My newest favorite glue is WeldBond. I have two giant econo-jugs of the stuff. It says on the tube “MORE Than Great Glue,” and the slogan is true. WeldBond has become my best friend. I worship the stuff! WeldBond is almost like a kid’s white paste, but it really holds. It’s pliable so that it doesn’t set up too soon after application. Unless you take great care some substances, like Tile Mastic, oozes out around the edges, but WeldBond dries clear and leaves behind clean looking surfaces.

I called the number on the tube and actually talked to Frank T. Ross, the owner and inventor. It turned out he was in Canada. He gave me a lot of information about WeldBond and sent me a personal description of how to use it. I’m going to write him a thank-you note for inventing such a wonderful product.

Member in Good Standing in the World of Volunteering
I’m a volunteer in many local organizations. Along with pursuing my activities with the Art Docent Program at Brentwood Elementary, I’m on the Brentwood Visual Arts Committee, an Arts Commissioner, and I’m a member of the BALT organization. I spend a lot of my time, it seems helping out people and the community.

When my son, Quinn, was at Pioneer I was the Art Docent bringing art lessons to the class every two weeks. When he transferred to Brentwood Elementary I asked about the Art Docent program and they didn’t know what I was talking about. I kept pushing the idea with enthusiasm. Finally, I said I would, myself, teach art in my son’s class if the school didn’t get the program started.

A while later a lady came rushing up to me, “Are you the one who wants to do the art program? Don’t move!” She grabbed a paper and pen so she could take down my name and phone number. It turned out that the principal, Margo Olson, had sent out an email to all the teachers. “A woman with short blond hair wants to run this program. If you see her, grab her.” The next thing I knew I was at the District Office in a training meeting and being handed a large folder. I had become the lead Art Docent for Brentwood Elementary School.

The kids in my art classes are having a good time. In one lesson, for example, I gave a mini lecture on Van Gogh, and brought in the Starry Night. We told the kids who Van Gogh was, where he lived, and how if he didn’t have food he would eat a potato and spend his last shilling on a tube of paint.

I never give boring yucky information but try to lead the class on an exciting voyage of discovery. With Van Gogh, for example, I lectured on texture and showed how a painting can bring to a picture more than the one-dimensional art the kids were used to. I showed them Van Gogh prints and just loved watching how they began to dig on them. The kids are as fascinated as I am about how Van Gogh’s paintings are the thickest ever made. They might be half an inch thick due to the amount of paint he used while building up to the incredible textures he would create.

At the end of the lesson we had our own hands-on texture project, creating art with scraps of paper or anything the kids could incorporate. We used oils, pastels, and glue while trying to achieve various textures. For my own project I did a seascape with fish that I drew and then glued green paper to represent kelp. We made stained glass windows out of tissue paper. We took the project “outside the box” and made stained glass valentines, as well.

I present art to any grade, but mostly to my son’s class. Quinn is proud to see me. He’s nine and in fourth grade. I’m enjoying his displays of public affection while I still have the opportunity to do so.

Five docents are active in the program at Brentwood Elementary School. We need more. Some parents are awkward about this because they think they have no artistic abilities. But the fact is that the curriculum is canned and anyone can do it. Besides that, I’ll help anyone get started and do anything to make them successful at this. My daughter, Kaya, starts kindergarten at Brentwood Elementary this month, which means that I’ll probably be teaching art appreciation at that place until 2013.

California public schools have the lowest per-capita funding for art in the USA. The people who make the choices think that art isn’t important, but the fact is that art can play a significant role in the life of a child. It is relaxing for kids to spend some time creating beautiful things. It helps them focus later on academics. At Pioneer I did my art class just before math. The teacher discovered that when the children had taken my art class they were better prepared for math learning.

I’m really into volunteering because of the influence of my mom, Roberta. All my life she was involved in something. She ran my Scout troop, and followed my progression from Brownie to Senior Scout. Every weekend we would be at some park or other outdoor place. My mom is still a County Arts Commissioner, as well as a member of the Historical Society. My dad was a Cub Scout leader and volunteer fireman.

My parents also ran the Danville Junior Horsemen’s Association and did all the horse shows, auctions, and educational activities. They had something going on every day. We kids got pulled along in the process. It gave us a sense of community and an idea of belonging not just to a group or to a family, but to the whole community.

One great outcome of volunteering is that it seems I know everybody. I might go to a movie and end up sharing popcorn with the people next to me because I met them through my daughter’s school, or something. That actually happened.

My mom says to me, “I’m glad you’re volunteering. Do you think you’ll ever get a paycheck?” There’s more to life than money, but the lack of it is often annoying. Except for that, life is (mostly) great.