Where Stories Become Art

Tables covered with paint, clay, glitter and craft supplies become the starting point for imagination in Margie Martin’s classroom. After listening to a children’s book, students eagerly set to work, transforming the story they just heard into artwork that’s entirely their own.

For Martin, a retired Broken Arrow elementary art teacher, that’s exactly the goal. Through Books to Art with Ms. Margie classes at Arts@302, she blends literacy and creativity, inviting children ages 5 to 10 to discover the joy of reading while expressing themselves through art.

“I want to introduce kids to an art form; I also want them to enjoy reading,” says Martin, who reads children’s books aloud before encouraging her students to create artwork inspired by the stories.

The course gives early readers a chance “to be self-expressive,” says Martin, “by taking what they just heard in the story in any direction they need to, whatever speaks to the kids.”

Students use everything from paint and clay to recycled materials and glitter to create artwork inspired by each story. The results are as varied as the students themselves, from dinosaurs and sea creatures to hamburgers, landscapes and imaginative creatures.

“I like to build stuff with clay,” says Owen Blotzer, 9, who molded a monster and a hamburger in Martin’s spring session. “I like the projects because they’re cool.”

His classmate, 9-year-old Aria Watson, especially remembers creating a glowing octopus from cardstock and ribbons.

“I liked how you could just shake it, it was like a lantern, and the tentacles would just flow around,” she says.

With just six to eight students in each class, Martin has time to encourage each child’s ideas and creativity while exploring the stories’ messages together.

“A lot of these books have personal meaning: being confident in yourself, making friends, enjoying a holiday, family—things that are important to children growing up,” says Martin. “The tangibility, to me, is the fact that they can see something and put their hands on it … they can relate to something around them.”

After more than two decades as an elementary art teacher in Broken Arrow Public Schools, Martin retired in 2020 and joined the Arts@302 teaching staff two years later. She also teaches adults with developmental disabilities at the Gatesway Foundation in Tulsa, adding, “They’re blissful; they just give me joy.”

“I just love being around kids; I love seeing their faces,” says Martin. “They completely amaze me, things that they show me that they’ve done. I just let them run with it, and they inspire the heck out of me.”

Books to Art

Ms. Margie’s classes are offered in four three-week sessions in the fall and spring for both public school and homeschool students.

For more information about Books to Art with Ms. Margie, visit the class’s Facebook page or arts302.com/books-to-art.