What a joy to celebrate another wonderful year, providing free arts activities to brave kids! We all got together for a hearty dinner and catch up at the great Tam O’Shanter in Los Feliz. We are so proud to call this incredible crew our family. Thank you for sharing your infinite talent, imagination, heart and soul with the children we serve.
Today we got the chance to teach the art of comic books to the Covenant House California youth! We began by showing how to pencil out your ideas, then craft a storyline, throw it all away and start over again and again until you get that arc, those villains, heroes and vision that you truly want down on your panels. The ideas and characters these talented young people came up with and the energy they brought were humbling. Thank you for letting us share this very special time with you and for always helping us learn as much as we teach. Thank you to our Event Directors, Joseph Scott and Michael Daedalus Kenny, and to our beloved volunteers who hail from #Disney, #Nickelodeon, #Marvel and much more: Jeremy Arambulo, Chad Frye, Valerie H. Nielsen, Ashley Simpson, Monica Tomova, Elizabeth Winter and Marla Frazee.
This was the loveliest Valentine’s Day in many a day! Our live closed-circuit TV drawing show is beamed into all the Mount Sinai Hospital kids’ rooms at once and the kids all get their own art kits so they can draw along with us. They can call or text us too if they feel like chatting while we draw.
On this special day I showed how to make rabbits, dogs, cats, and lions, all composed of heart shapes. One boy called in with a request for a turtle and a pigeon, another called and said, “draw me a realistic lion!” With his permission I used my cell phone for a reference because I hadn’t drawn a real lion in many a day but thankfully this big cat came out just great. I was thrilled when I got an image texted back of the beautiful lion another child had drawn while listening to and following my lion lesson!
At the end of the show, some of the kids asked me to meet them in the activities room so I could see their drawings. They were gorgeous and could have filled the most marvelous zoo! One little boy asked if he could have the bunny I had made and so that hopped right over to him. In fact I gave away all the art I made to the kids I met because that’s what we always do at our Ink Well events- we create together and the kids keep all the art.
I loved chatting with these children about all the wonderful traits that animals have- all those teeth and talons and feathers and fur. This was a day full of love and creativity and I am grateful for being a part of it. Thank you, kids, and staff of Mount Sinai Hospital! ❤️
~Elana Amity
IWF Event Director, Mount Sinai Hospital
We are deeply grateful to Nickelodeon for welcoming our Ink Well kids once again for a private tour and drawing session with Nickelodeon animators! This time we welcomed the fantastic kids of Childhelp!
We introduced this eager, artistic crew to the many people of all backgrounds that it takes to get a cartoon on-air and showed that art is not only a great tool of self-expression, it’s also a viable career opportunity!
Here are just a few of the amazing opportunities we all got to have together on this very special day: we went into the private booth of Nickelodeon’s Radio Station and got to meet the DJ! We delved into Nickelodeon’s animation archive, which was filled with rare original artwork from ages of cartoons past. We got to watch a movie in the official Nick personal theatre about everything that’s going on at Nick: future projects, community involvement, and all the current shows. We continued through the studio, meeting artists and execs along the way. Everyone was so gracious and it was so inspiring for the children to get to have all this special one-on-one time.
Nickelodeon itself is a museum and we enjoyed the thousands of original artworks hanging on all the walls. We ended our tour and adjourned to a big conference room, where animators, Darin McGowan and Miguel Puga, gave an extraordinary presentation on how to storyboard a cartoon and how to draw the characters of The Loudhouse (which is Nick’s #1 rated show!).
We then talked earnestly with the kids about how we all as artists got involved in a career in animation, and how our life-long love for drawing led us there. We also discussed the many non-artist related opportunities at Nickelodeon, trying to emphasize all the opportunities available in the animation world. Finally, we did what we do best and just drew with the kids and showed them how to be creative no matter the medium, and to never be afraid to follow your dreams- whatever they may be!
We would like to specifically acknowledge each member of the Nickelodeon team for all they did to help us with the tour… Carson Smith for being our point man and coordinating this whole day with us. He is maybe the chillest man on the planet. 🙂
His assistant, JuliaGuillen, for supporting so much of this interactive tour and handing out beautiful Nick gift bags to each of the kids afterward.
Eric Brown for his stellar tour guide skills and gentle, patient, and engaging demeanor he gave to each kid along the tour. He clearly loves his job and we loved having him as our guide!
To our good friends and collegaues, Darin McGowan and Miguel Puga, for donating their time wholly and gladly, sharing so many tips and insider’s insight that will be invaluable to the kids for all time. Your talent and kindness are legendary.
And finally to our fearless West Coast Director, Joseph Scott. You are how we keep doing these meaningful, life-changing events. We owe you everything, you shining sun. ☀️
The Ink Well Foundation 
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