Julia Cheon (11) and Sunny Park (11) watched as the five kids in their art class sprinted to their parents at the end of the lesson, proudly showing off their watercolor landscape masterpieces at the San Diego Public Library, Dec. 2. Cheon and Park’s nonprofit, Art for All, offers free art classes for kids K-8 hosted at local libraries. They started over the summer, where they taught five weekly classes at Park’s church. After taking a break at the start of school, this was their second week leading classes.
Cheon and Park focus on different mediums every week, and for this class, they used watercolors to paint a pink sunset behind power lines and trees. They used a technique called wet on wet, where they covered the whole paper with a thin wash of water before adding watercolors. After introducing the medium and describing the steps, they give each kid a reference picture that they can use while painting.
“It makes me really happy to see kids so proud of their piece,” Cheon said. “We want them to take it home, hang it up on the wall, and show each other what they made with their creativity.”
As young, wide-eyed elementary school kids, Cheon and Park fell in love with art. Cheon said that her students’ excitement for art reminds her of her younger self.
“When I see these kids come into these art classes, I see myself in them,” she said. “They have that same determination and motivation to go to these classes. All these kids are super creative and they’re all so determined to get their work done, and it makes me really happy to see that.”
After noticing a lack of art education in elementary and middle school, Cheon and Park created Art for All to give kids with a passion for the subject a chance to explore art through new mediums. In previous classes, they taught lessons with acrylic paint, colored pencils, pencils, and ceramics.
“We both really like art and we grew up liking it,” Cheon said. “We realized that art was not really a major focus in any of the classes, or if there was art, you have to pay for it. We wanted to start something that was free and provided creative outlets for kids.”
Park said that she encourages the students to take artistic liberties in their work to foster an independent environment that breeds creativity.
“We usually paint alongside them so that they have a guide, but we give them most of the time to do it themselves,” she said. “If they ask for advice, then we’ll give it to them, but in general, we let them figure out what they want to do. We try our best to help on the technical sides of these pieces like shading and color choices, but when it comes to the creative aspects of these drawings, we try not to influence them, so they grow their creativity.”
As they paint, Cheon and Park said they try to make the kids as comfortable as possible by talking with them and encouraging them.
“There was a girl who really excelled at our class using oil pastels,” Park said. “We made sure to come by often and encourage and praise her work. By doing so, she got the attention of other kids and began to interact and talk to them, whether it be about the art class or other interests.”
By making the classes free, Cheon said that she wanted to also offer underprivileged kids an opportunity to attend art classes, an option that wasn’t available to her when she was younger.
“When I was a kid, I wanted to learn more about art, but [my family] wasn’t too financially stable so I didn’t have the opportunity to go to art classes every week like other kids,” Cheon said.
Cheon and Park started a fundraiser last year called Cupcakes for Children, where they sold baked goods at school and at their church, raising $500. They used all of the money to provide art supplies for the classes so the students didn’t need to purchase their own. Cheon said that because the classes are free, the kids don’t feel pressure to paint perfect artwork so they tend to show more imagination in their art.
“I’ve noticed that most kids during art classes that are paid for are forced to be creative,” she said. “For these classes, since they’re free, it’s not as pressuring for them. It’s a time for them to let loose and do whatever they want and show their creativity through their art.”
Park said that by allowing the students to have freedom in their art, they develop their own art styles, which also makes the classes more fun.
Cheon said that as she’s led the class and worked one-on-one next to the students, she has built her own self-confidence.
“I was always shy, but through these classes, I gained my own voice because we have to guide the kids,” she said. “By having these classes, I found confidence in myself. I think these kids also find confidence in themselves when they draw and complete their pieces, so we’re all gaining confidence.”
