Welcome to ColorWheels!I'm Betsy Etchart, the founder of ColorWheels Mobile Art Room.
2022 marks the sixth year of art-making with kids (of all ages!) at Colorwheels. ColorWheels originated as a panic response to my four-year-old's first show-and-tell. As a starter mom, I didn't know I could reach under the sofa and pull out pretty much anything that would fascinate the preschool crowd. So instead, I raided the recycle bin. I hadn't done a lot of arting since earning a degree in art & art history back in the late 20th century. But coaxing 50-month-old Malcolm to help stick cracker boxes and toilet paper tubes together led me to two epiphanies. 1: these activities were well beyond his skill set. And 2: they exactly fit mine. As I welded the glue gun, duct tape, and a variety of knives, the robot became more and more elaborate. It grew a twirly antenna and giant feet. It developed articulated arms and then a secret stomach compartment for secret stuff. 
A Collectorbot for St. Peter's Montessori fall festival. Kiddos brought household recyclables to school for a few weeks prior to their Recycle Robot event, and delighted in helping empty it's tummy every afternoon after it had swallowed the morning's donations.
Show and Tell came and went, and Malcolm played with his new toy. He made it walk and talk and he put the stuff that had been under the sofa in its secret compartment.
And then it broke. And then I fixed it. A toy I could FIX! I was used to made-in-China plastic that I couldn't throw out without feeling 1.ineffective and 2. irresponsible. So this fixing-a-toy thing was very empowering. I made more. Since then (2012), I've brought the Recycle Robot League to schools and festivals in the West Valley of Phoenix, where I help kids (and their grown ups) build their own (often kinetic) sculptures out of the recycle bin. Kiddos nine and up can largely build their own (although I'm still the only one allowed to use the serrated knife and Dremel), while those in the 5-and-under set act as Artistic Director while I do their bidding with the dangerous tools. Reminded that I loved making art, I said yes when, in 2015, West Valley Arts Council and Estrella Mountain Community College offered me a position as a Master Artist for Gallery 37, a national program that unites teenage artists with established artists to create public works of art. I worked with another Master Artist and mosaic expert Leslie Scott, helping her lead 20 high school students design and build "Chelonia," a large-scale mosaic for the new splashpad in Avondale's Friendship Park. |
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I led Gallery 37 again in 2018, this time teaming with another local artist and teacher, Lichen Shepherd, to renovate a pre-existing installation that had fallen into disrepair at the Elsie McCarthy Sensory Garden for the City of Glendale. The result is a multi-sensory installation with a shade structure, wind chimes, painted pillars, a sandblasted bench, and lavender plants that attract hummingbirds.
After several semesters teaching elementary art at a charter school, I decided that West Side schools needed 3D art programs, where students are provided materials and instruction so they can make stuff. I love to introduce students to tools and techniques, and then basically ride shotgun while they take the wheel of the artmobile.
In my classroom, students are taught to turn the phrase "I can't" into, "how can I?" It's the opposite of Yoda's philosophy, "Do or do not. There is no try."  Has anyone ever noticed that Yoda looks a lot like a house elf? This adorable little Dobby, made by a 5th grader, is a good reminder that great things are possible when you choose to make art.
At ColorWheels, our philosophy is "If you try not, there is no do." If you want your cereal box body to balance on your toilet paper roll legs? You learn to make a flange. Which is just a fancy-schmancy word for foot. All you need is scissors. Not even grown-up scissors. Little kid scissors. And use them in an effective way. And for those of you whose tongue tip isn't big enough to balance the word "flange," here's a visual: 
Those little fringy things at the top of the toilet paper tubes? Flanges.
Simple stuff like a flange is magic.
And when students do it themselves, and their robot stands up, what follows? PRIDE. CONFIDENCE. Faith in new processes. A desire to do more. It's a self-perpetuating cycle of goodness. Recycle robots are still a favorite ColorWheels activity each spring. In the words of a third-grader: "I feel so creative when I'm sitting in front of a pile of trash!" But as you see from the Student Gallery, we work with everything from plaster cloth and papier-mache to fibers to polymer clay and kiln-fired ceramics. In addition to the ColorWheels after-school art program, I lead professional development classes for art teachers through the West Valley Arts Council, host the occasional art party for kiddos or adults,
and provide private tutoring.
I love sharing the power of art making in all these different ways. Here's the emergency velociraptor mask I whipped up for a friend's five-year-old son just in time for Halloween. Repurposed toy fire helmet, cardboard, tin foil, tape, Activa RidgedWrap plaster cloth, foam sheet, paint, and love. 
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