The Art & Poetry of Noticing - Civic Center Park
Class-Micro | Available
Improve your observation skills of local flora and fauna while practicing visual and written art. This joint class, combining haiku poetry and journal drawing, invites participants to explore the beauty of seasonal changes.
Poet Lynne Hartke invites you to discover beauty in the changing micro-seasons of the Sonoran Desert. Through guided poetry exercises in haiku, participants will learn to craft vivid imagery that evokes emotion by observing their surroundings.
Artist Devon Meyer will guide you in the art of curiosity and noticing the world around you through nature sketching and watercolor techniques.
The unique partnership will guide participants in the art and poetry of noticing the subtle rhythms of nature amidst the city’s energy. The class will include indoor classroom instruction, along with an outdoor writing/drawing session at the nearby Civic Center Park.
Students should be prepared for working outdoors. Please bring water, sunhat, carry pack, and optional folding chair. Bring your own sketchbook (also available for purchase at the school). Basic art supplies will be provided.
Devon Meyer
As an artist, Devon is constantly inspired by nature. The elaborate patterns and gorgeous colors seen in plants, birds or flowers are reflected in the work she does. Watercolor is her initial medium but she also works in oil, charcoal, pen and ink and colored pencil. Her expertise expands to a variety of genres, celebrating favorite themes and styles of our youth artists. She infuses youthful genres, such as Cartooning, Anime, and Manga with the practical tools of artistic technique, proportion, skill-building, symbolism and color theory. Her work has been shown at the Audubon Phoenix and in art shows around the valley. She has taught art to both children and adults in Arizona, Idaho and Wyoming.
Lynne Hartke
Lynne Hartke is a writer, storyteller, and poet who loves to help others connect to their own places of hope and belonging. An avid hiker, Lynne celebrates the beauty found on desert trails and in savoring ordinary moments. She believes poetry is the art of painting vivid images and emotions with our words.
She is the author of Under a Desert Sky: Redefining Hope, Beauty, and Faith in the Hardest Places. Lynne’s desert poetry was recently chosen for the 2025 Sister Cities International Innovations in Arts and Culture award as part of the Ceangal/Connections exhibit in both Tullamore, Ireland and Chandler, Arizona.