Blending art and entrepreneurship Blending art and entrepreneurship (April 01, 2005)

Terman eighth grader Tara Saxena has forged her creativity into 'Tara's Terrific Art Camp' for younger students

by Alexandria Rocha

Like an artistic MacGyver, 13-year-old Tara Saxena can transform regular household items into on-the-spot inventions.

But unlike the 1980s television star, Tara's impromptu creations are more about fashion and accessorizing than getting out of a jam.

"She's always taking ideas and turning them around. She just made a belt using two key rings," said Tara's mom, Karen Saxena.

The Terman Middle School eighth-grader has no plans to harbor her resourceful designs. Tara just wrapped up a spring-break "art camp" for second- through fourth-graders out of her Barron Park neighborhood home.

While most of her peers were away skiing, snowboarding or at a beach house, Tara was busy teaching youngsters how to make friendship bracelets, collages and even colorful snacks, such as multi-layered Jell-O desserts and homemade s'mores.

This was the fourth camp -- formally known as Tara's Terrific Art Camp -- that she has held in the last eight months, including one last summer and two over Thanksgiving and winter breaks.

The idea was Karen's, who noticed her daughter was always doing arts and crafts in her spare time. While recently watching television, for example, Tara made a headband out of a strip of ribbon and an elastic hair tie.

This type of artistic ingenuity, using conventional objects, is called assemblage, according to Linda Papanicolaou, Tara's art teacher at Terman. It is typically not taught in school, and if it is, she added, it's more sculptural rather than functional, wearable art.

"We tend to do wall-mounted art and that sort of thing," Papanicolaou said. "But there are kids like Tara who have an enormous amount of creative individuality."

Putting her abilities to use, Tara designs her art camps around what type of projects she likes to teach. Activities range from making regular clothes pins into festive animals -- reindeer for Christmas, bunnies for Easter -- painting ceramic shapes or making collages out of saved greeting cards and calendars.

"I just like to do projects, and I have lots of ideas," said the soft-spoken Tara, who Papanicolaou said is a quiet student who puts a great deal of thought into her work.

Like a true artist, she is always on the hunt for new ideas. And they come from everywhere -- she decided to make the key-ring belt after seeing a similar belt in a store. Tara also subscribes to the "American Girl" magazine, which has a plethora of arts and crafts ideas.

Before each camp, Karen takes Tara to JoAnn Fabric and Crafts, where Tara uses her own money to buy materials that can't be fashioned from unwanted recyclables. Tara is always thinking ahead and will buy items on sale just in case there is an unforeseen project on the horizon.

Before this spring-break camp, Papanicolaou was not aware of her student's entrepreneurship. She did say, however, that Tara has excelled at most of her classroom projects, including a wire figure of a soccer player that is currently on display in the Terman school library. A ceramic box Tara made last fall was also displayed in the school district's main office for a short time last fall. "I haven't known her a long time, but I would expect her teachers all the way along knew that she had that extra-special something," Papanicolaou said.

Since her sister Moira is in the third-grade, Tara's first camp last summer consisted mostly of girls in that age group. They caught on easily and Tara found it so enjoyable she decided to expand and include a grade below and one above.

Tara takes up to five students, though one day she accepted six, turning a seventh away, and charges $8 each. Many who attend are either her younger sister's schoolmates or children of her parents' friends who can't turn down an afternoon off for under $10, Karen quipped.

Tara, however, will admit any second- through fourth-grader with an interest in art, and Karen is always there to supervise. The next week-long camp is planned for this summer.

Tara plans to use this week's fees to buy someone else's creation: an iPod.
For more information about her upcoming art camps, e-mail Tara at marshmallowfan@aol.com.

Staff Writer Alexandria Rocha can be e-mailed at arocha@paweekly.com.

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