Little Artists Take Flight

Motivated by visiting scientific illustrator Jane Kim

Awestruck preschoolers from the Melba S. Lehner Children’s School lie on the floor of the Kimball Visual Arts Center, looking up at Jane Kim’s sweeping mural illustrating the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. One little girl asks, “Can I sing our song?” and teacher Sherrie West BS ’83 says, “Yes! Sing under the painting.”

To the tune of Oh Tannenbaum, she begins: “Oh, monarch butterfly. Oh, monarch butterfly. Oh, where did you go?” Then another student asks to sing, then another, until the song echoes through the entire first floor, informing onlookers of the plight of monarch butterflies, which have been threatened by the loss of their milkweed food supply.

The children took field trips across campus every week in October and into November to see Kim paint, which inspired them to create their own sprawling mural in the first-floor hallway of the McKay Education Building.

Kim visited Weber State for a month as part of the Dean W. and Carol W. Hurst Artist-in-Residence program. Her migrating murals highlight wildlife along the migration corridors they share with people.

Hands-on projects, like exploring the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, are a staple in the children’s school. “To have a famous artist on campus to help teach and inspire our children has been incredible,” West says. “This is something they’ll remember forever.”

A Serendipitous Journey

Without knowing that Kim would be the 2018 Hurst Artist-in-Residence, West’s students began learning about butterflies when school started in the fall. They watched their classroom butterfly complete the metamorphosis process — going from an egg to a caterpillar to a chrysalis to a beautiful butterfly.

One day, one of West’s preschoolers brought in a news article about the vanishing monarch butterflies. A few days later, several children reported seeing a “big painting” of a monarch in Ogden during the Harvest Moon Festival. The artist was none other than Kim, who had painted the mural on the newly restored Monarch building downtown.

When West realized Kim would be on campus, she made it a learning opportunity for her students. They visited Kim every week for four weeks to watch her technique. In between visits, West taught them big concepts like migration, metamorphosis and symmetry. They painted. They researched. They wrote lyrics to their song. They studied what they could do to save the monarchs: Grow more milkweed. They learned how milkweed seeds get distributed in nature.

“The kids direct every project,” West said. “Through creativity, they’ve learned about math, science, informative writing, creative writing, the world around them. These types of projects develop the whole child. Years down the road, they’ll remember this.”