About Ms Artastic

Hi, I’m Kathleen. I help kids make real art, and help the grown-ups who teach them.

I’m Kathleen McGiveron, the artist and educator behind Ms Artastic. My teaching experience spans secondary education, K–7 and Grade 4/5, and I create art lessons, curriculum and video tutorials for classroom teachers, art teachers and homeschool families.

Browse art lessons

Work with me

Kathleen McGiveron smiling and holding a comic-style self-portrait — artist + educator

My story

An artist who became a teacher (and never stopped making)

Art has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up drawing and painting for hours, sometimes with nothing more than a pencil and scrap paper. After high school I studied visual art at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where I focused on ceramics and sculpture, and then earned my Bachelor of Education at Simon Fraser University.

I started out as a secondary art teacher, spent several years teaching on call, and found my way into elementary classrooms through job shares. That path gave me something I’m grateful for every day: experience teaching art to kids from kindergarten all the way up to grade twelve. I know what a lesson needs to look like when you have forty-five minutes, a cart of supplies and a room full of very different young artists.

Ms Artastic grew out of that experience. Today it’s a library of seasonal art lessons, artist studies, curriculum, a YouTube channel full of step-by-step tutorials, and a community of teachers and families who want art to be part of every week, not just the leftover Friday afternoon slot.

I’m also a working artist. Under my own name, I make lowbrow ceramic sculptures that are a little creepy and a lot cute, and I’ve shown my work in commercial and public galleries in British Columbia, Canada. Being an artist first shapes everything I teach: I want kids to experience what real artists do, which is look closely, experiment, make choices and sometimes make glorious mistakes.

What I believe

Art is learning, not filler

Real thinking happens here

Students observe, imagine, plan, solve visual problems and build skills. They learn about artists and the visual culture around them, and they learn to express their own ideas.

Thirty different paintings is the goal

I don’t want every student’s work to look the same. My lessons build in choice, experimentation and process, so each child ends up with something that is clearly theirs.

It has to work on a Tuesday

Teachers and parents have limited time, budgets and supplies. I design lessons that are realistic for real classrooms and kitchen tables, with clear steps you can teach even if you don’t feel like an “art person.”

What I make