Comics & Story Crafting: Stories with illustration, writing and embodiment

Jen Hernandez

Comics & Story Crafting: Stories with illustration, writing and embodiment

Jen Hernandez works with students to tell stories through illustration, writing, discussion, and physical embodiment. With comics as a medium, students will investigate and practice story structure, character development, observation-based illustration, embodiment through theatre games, and dialog with peers.

Using comics for experience- and empathy-based exploration of fiction/nonfiction stories and characters through illustration, writing, discussion and physical embodiment, students will practice Social Emotional Learning skills in communicating needs, problem-solving, and considering environment and context for perspectives.

Through large and small group discussion, writing and collaboration, students will create and explore fiction and/or nonfiction stories through narrative structure to understand what instigates events, creates tension, and how outcomes affect the characters of the stories. Students will also tap into empathetic learning by embodying character experiences through movement and theatre; responding to class-generated prompts, students will act out their experiences of characters and observe similarities and differences between students’ individual interpretations. Students will also develop character backstories including motivations, fears, goals and relationships through writing and expressive illustration. Linework practice will inform students’ expressive illustration.

Students will use writing and illustration to reflect on their stories, document their thinking and share their stories with each other and others outside the classroom. Students will also reflect on each others’ work using group presentation and critique methods that center on the agency of the student and value their lived experience.

This residency includes physical movement, discussion and collaboration, as well as observation practice for students to explore stories they create about themselves, imagined characters, or historical social and scientific events. Engaging anti-racist and anti-colonial educational practices, this residency focuses on student embodiment and reflection to practice empathy for characters and peers.

This program offered by: Jen Hernandez

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Details

Program Model: In Class

Art Form: Visual Art

Curriculum Connections: Character Education, Community Building, Language Arts, Social Justice, Social Studies, Social-Emotional Learning

Grades: 3, 4, 5, 6

Program Requirements: Room with space to move and spread out in circle as well as transition to writing and drawing (desks or floor space); copier for drawn comics zines is a plus!

Instruction Language(s): English

Min. Residency Sessions/Classroom: 3

Jen Hernandez

About the Artist

Jen Hernandez

Jen Hernandez is an artist, educator and community organizer with over 18 years of experience in all-ages arts education. Her art and education work focuses on imaging the world through stories, represented with visual art, through embodied expression and by storytelling and writing. As an illustrator, Jen’s work explores how story and meaning are expressed through linework and gestural drawing, re-imagining folklore and visual cultures as a practice to honor lived experiences and visualize future folklore. Jen is also a bookmaker who encourages crafters to design sketchbooks and journals as personal spaces to explore and aid the work of reality-crafting. To create visual artwork and stories, Jen uses mixed media illustration with colored pencil, ink, and watercolor, as well as digital media drawing and crafting on online interactive environments. Jen also works in fiber arts with embroidery, knitting, crochet and sewing, to create objects of fascination, comfort, and play for all. Her influences are the crafted worlds of Ross Gay, Octavia E Butler, Ruth Ozeki, Ursula K le Guin, Bob Ross, Alfons Mucha, Frida Kahlo; and the revealed natural world of forests: slugs, mycology, corvidology, trees and starburst skies of the Pacific Northwest. Jen is currently, as she is at all times, in a process of learning and re-learning radical pedagogy practices through arts from authors such as Paulo Freire, Augusto Boal, bell hooks, Felicia Rose Chavez, adrienne maree brown, and Vea Vecchi among others, as well as learning from students and other educators in living communities and singular moments both. This practice includes holding spaces for story-gifting, embodiment using theatre games a’la Theatre of the Oppressed, reflection and accountability. As well as a life-long artist and storycrafter, Jen has been a fast food and retail worker, early childhood educator, museum educator, social worker and remains to this day a voracious reader with an appetite for curiosity of science, history, fantasy and speculation. As a young child in the 90’s, Jen was enamored with animation, film and fashion, all of which both clarified and complicated her worldview and sense of self. In her visual art and educational practices, Jen is keen on creating access to different ways of imagining and imaging the world, and to discover and protect space for all artists and explorers. Jen Hernandez has professional and educational background in early childhood education, a Bachelor of Arts in History of Art and Visual Culture from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and completed Master’s work at the University of Oregon on Arts Administration and Museum Studies. She often wanders the Pacific Northwest and always comes home to the screeching calls of her black cat, Dyna.

"This instructor is the impossible combination of artist, teacher, community builder! I would take ANY class she offered! Very impressed with such an amazing instructor!" -- Adult student in community class

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Program Costs

Please note that the cost of a program is determined based on a variety of different factors including number of sessions, planning hours needed and material costs. Please contact Arts for Learning NW for help determining the actual cost of your programs. Email us at [email protected] or call 503-225-5900, ext 705

Delivery Method	Type	Cost	Description
In Class	Materials Preparation Fee		$45 per class per session (i.e. if the residency is 4 sessions, it will be $180 materials prep for one class)
In Class	Mileage/Travel Costs		Current IRS mileage rate from the 97224 zip code. Maximum distance without lodging: 25 miles around Portland Metro area. Greater distances possible with additional mileage reimbursement or lodging.
In Class	Additional Planning	64.00	Additional planning time with teachers or volunteers, etc.
In Class	Planning Meeting	143.00	An in person planning meeting with partnering teachers is required for residencies.
In Class	Prep Hours	64.00	Time spent on activities in support of the program (e.g. setting up/cleaning a classroom, research, curriculum development, etc.). Plan on 1 prep hour for each hour of instruction.
In Class	Culminating Event	214.00	Artist time to oversee a student performance, gallery event, etc.
In Class	Supplies		$3.50 per student
In Class	Teacher Workshop	429.00	A 90 minute workshop for teachers.
In Class	Residency Session	71.00	Residency session prices are based on a 50 minute session. Some artists may prefer different session lengths and will pro-rate the cost.