The 2009 Powell River Studio Tour presents:

Katherine McLean - Sticks ‘n Stones Studio

9340 Malaspina Road, RR2 C51 Powell River, BC. V8A 4Z3    MAP
ph. 604.414.0790    E-mcmac3@telus.net

Katherine McLean is a Powell River artist and educator with over 28 years experience inspiring children through her innovative teaching methods, creative, space, appreciation of natural materials, love of  nature, and her powers of observation. She has taught in classrooms  from Kindergarten to Grade  13.

Her teaching practice has been influenced by the work of teachers in Reggio Emilia, Italy.  The curriculum is taught through an artist's eye and is constructivist in nature. She worked with a committee in Calgary responsible for bringing the '100 Languages of Children'; a Reggio Emila Exhibit of children's work to Glenbow Museum in Calgary.  

She has attended three Reggio Institutes, and successfully completed a Reggio Emilia graduate course. She has presented her work at the University of Calgary, at two Calgary Teacher' Conference and the the Nickle Arts Gallery at U of C. This body of work included over 50 documented panels of children's work called "The Children of the Bow," which featured the work she and her extraordinary students did in their multi-aged classroom of K-3 over a period of three years.

Katherine's move to Gibsons, B.C. brought a new focus to her personal work as an artist. She began showing her work at a Gallery in Gibsons. In this work she mirrored the sweeping vistas and landscapes of the Pacific Cost and tis inhabitants in minutia of found objects of nature. Katherine's contemplative work reflects the beauty, richness, life and story of our landscapes and mindscapes. Katherine continues to show her work in Powell River at Artique, an artist collective and is on the Studio Tour every August during the Blackberry Festival.

In Gibsons, Katherine opened an art studio for children called Childwyse. This studio focused on art-based learning through project work in science, math, language art and social studies. In the summer she ran Summer Art Caps. Over the two year, Katherine worked with over  150 children introducing them to a different way to learn about their work - using their first literaccy - art. This remains Katherine's passion.

Katherine now resides in Powell River and teaches for Powell River School District, as a teach-librarian and classroom teacher. She continues to spend her free time working with children in After School Art classes and in her studio creating assemblages and collages from found objects.