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teaching art is a blast

Friday, August 15, 2008

School Days, acrylic on canvas, 12

Summer has flown by and I’m working on my plans for this fall as I add more teaching to my schedule. I will be offering three paper making workshops at the Ozark Folk Center and the first one is in November during their Make It a Handmade Christmas event. I am developing ideas for classes at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts this summer, and since they are week long sessions I am leaning toward polymer clay, which is a lot of fun to work with a very forgiving medium.

I am also going to be teaching some art classes at Clear Spring School and I will be meeting with the teachers next week. Some of the home schooled children in my art class at the studio will be attending the World Geography blocks and I am excited that my godson will be in the same class with them. I am also excited that in that unit I will begin to do some work I have always wanted to do, putting that old anthropology degree to work as we explore artisans and craftsmanship in far off places. You may like to know that it is one of my goals to travel to new places and meet with people who make all sorts of things with their hands and to share what I learn with others. Picture me on the Discovery Channel! Book to follow!

Back to present day concerns and the classes we have going. I was thrilled to find out that all the kids want to continue to come to my studio for art class. They have done a great job with color theory, are in the midst of working with the expressive qualities of shapes, and beginning to consider the work surface as integral to the work. I think they are getting a really solid foundation in art and I am working to make it something tangible and applicable to their daily lives. Whether they continue to create as artists or not, they are developing a level of sophistication about visual imagery that helps them process all sorts of things in their daily lives. I’d like to think they will not only know how color can be used to create a mood but also be able to discern how advertising is constructed of shapes and colors designed to manipulate them!

I’ll post more info about my upcoming classes at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, AR and at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts as the time draws near.

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negative space

Thursday, August 14, 2008

four black and white works about salt

This week the homeschool students continued their work on space and form. We began with a discussion about the picture plane and house its shape influences the overall compositon. Last week’s stamped works served as excellent examples that the students already exercise choices in relation to the shape and dimension of their canvas. These kids have good eyes and are quick minds. We then discussed negative space and its importance to composition and they did the face/vase exercise. Everyone had fun with this exercise and eagerly went on the create a second and third one.

This week the students did another exercise from my favorite graphic design book.  I assigned them each a word to depict in black and white only with no shading. They worked with pencil at first to depict their word four different ways. Above is the set of drawings Shannon did about salt. Everyone really like her salt container and recognized the girl with the umbrella immediately. I loved the salt being thrown over the left shoulder after the picture of the spilled salt. So clever! We had drawings of ice cream from Rachel, who works very quickly, to demonstrate how having more than one version required for the assignment forced invention. It was not until her third design that she lost the cone and her fourth was completely abstracted and geometric-magic! In this picture you can see which version she chose to draw larger and to ink. You can also see one of Shannon’s polar bear drawings.

ice cream and polar bear

Joan and Scoot worked at the long table together. Joah worked with the challenging word sugar and chose to include a drawing of his dog, named Sugar, in his set. That stumped the group! Joah then worked on the word ghost and and came up with a haunting design of the flowing and floating robed ghost with the word boo. His other depictions included orbs which seemed to glow right off the page. I took this picture as Scott was working on his smoke drawing. He began this work large and in ink and while it definitely did have the qualities of smoke, could also be interpreted as steam or clouds. Scott wanted to make a clearer, more obvious representation of smoke and he went back to work on his smaller pencil drawings adding elements such as fire to help the viewer along. Scott’s later depictions of a shark were quite clear and easily interpreted as the class made decisions about which images worked to convey their meanings most quickly.

Scott hiding behind the smoke and Joah

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look at my boat NOW!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

my boat is looking good

Wow! What a little epoxy, a quart of varnish, and a lot of loving care can accomplish! Once the inside of the boat was sanded and cleaned out, I ran off and left the boat in Martin’s garage. He says that if I leave it there he will continue to find things to do to it! He is having some fun with it, I guess. After varnishing the interior twice, he has done some amazing reworking of the rigging, including building a really cool seat for it. I have some before and after photos to put up eventually, but I’ll bet the next shots of it will be in the water as we are planning to take it out for the first rowing lesson Thursday. I am excited! For now, I’m tidying up the studio and setting up for the art class. Today’s big news is that I am getting more teaching work. In addition to classes at the Ozark Folk Center and Clear Spring School this year, I will be teaching at Eureka Springs School of the Arts next summer and my home school students would like to continue doing art class with me as an after school activity this fall. I’m lucky to get to work in a variety of media and with students of all ages.

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the sunroom is nice

Monday, August 11, 2008

the sunroom ius the music room

It is fantastic to have this room completed! It has turned into the music room and the dining room and lots of fun has been happening in there. The colors are super bright and this yellow is terrific to watch change throughout the day. The vinyl floor turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself, and it certainly hides the dirt. I had to do two things over as I finished up this room. One was a tile on the floor which I had cut poorly and is now replaced with a better fit and the other was the seam in the new wall. Once that was painted yellow, it felt really obvious to me that I had stopped one layer of mud too soon so I sanded and mudded and sanded until I felt it was smooth. Now it is a really good looking wall. I have also painted two benches for this room. One is the piano bench in this picture which I sprayed with black laquer and the other is a chest I painted red. There are still the threshold and the window coverings to tend to, but we are already enjoying the heck out of this new room.

musician friends come play in the new sunroom

Here are a couple of the friends who came to play last week. They are both incredibly talented and versatile players. Ken baked a cherry pie and came for dinner and then he and Robin set to work on a few pieces for piano and cello, viola, and violin. Ken’s new cello sounds and looks amazing. It is so beautiful and shiny, I could not help but compare it to my boat. Chris came by later in the evening. He is amazing on the violin and I loved hearing him and Ken play together. They let me play all my silly, easy songs and they played around me. It was challenging for me not to wander all over the place listening to them.

Johan, another pianist, dropped in for a bit and he played some Scott Joplin and they guys wove in and around that, too. It was lively and I had fun dancing around the big open living room that remains a construction zone. It is good for me to watch and listen to these violinists. I also loved the practice and had lots of fun with it. The next day, my playing had improved! We’ll be doing this again soon and plan to have one more friend join in with his saxophone. The new room is being well used. We have had a game of Boggle with our word freak friends and we have shared many meals at the little table. I bought some orange lilies for the room and with the red tablecloth and green vase, I am composing paintings each time I enter or look into the room.

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three on six

Friday, August 8, 2008

three students portray six words

Tuesday’s art class was different and exciting for me. The students worked very quickly at coming up with ideas and it is always a pleasure to see how well they all work together. Moving on to the study of form, I decided to introduce some concepts within the application of graphic arts. I chose an exercise from a book which I have used in my own studies and altered it to suit their needs and abilities and to introduce rubber stamping techniques. After a super brief discussion about form and meaning, the students were glad to dive right in. They used 6″ squares of canvas paper and were limited to the use of one shape or rubber stamp per page, combining and overlapping as desired. One student very creatively interpreted this to indicate that as long as he was working with the same stamp, he could use it in many ways to create additional shapes and textures. In the picture above you can see how he did just this to express playfulness. You gotta love that! Once everyone had completed their six designs, they each rotated to the seat to the right and went through one another’s designs to match them to the words and label them. Then we placed all the designs in front of us on the big table and, after some discussion about rows and columns and a little reminder in the form of a joke from the student across the table of the importance of point of view, we formed a committee.  The students chose one image per word for a make believe client. It took little prodding for them to fall into their role and everyone was quickly able to name reasons for their choices and to point out elements of design that helped them make their choices. Nice, fun learning by doing. I was happy to be a part of it. Here are some of the designs that were created.

boldcongestion

I was very hands on throughout this class and unfortunately did not get any photos of the kids this time. That may also be due to the fact that I have fallen so behind in sharing them on my blog that I have slowed down in the picture taking department. Since my last post, I did get some pictures of the completed sunroom, the boat before and some after, the beam in the house after moving the center wall back, the salsa contest, and celebratory friends. Must post more. Must paint more. Must sleep. Tomorrow I get to go look at some stone pieces for the front of the house.

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sweet 16

Monday, July 28, 2008

sydney's birthday cake

About a week ago, Sydney turned 16. Robin and I were among the first to wish her a very happy birthday. Robin made her a cake and placed a call to to wish her a happy birthday at the stroke of 12, just to throw her off. Then we drove over and surprised her with some berry covered cake. Yes, we are all night owls.

Sydney, her mom, Nancy, and Robin

This is our friend, Nancy, aka Syd’s mom, Robin, and Syd with her new clickable Sharpies. Nancy and Ken own EurekanArt Studio and Shop, a lovely gallery which has been written up in American Style Magazine, and which offers my paintings and origami mobiles. Sydney is a wonderful girl to know. It’s been a real pleasure to be in her life and watch her grow into the young woman she is today. She is bright and insightful, funny and kind, and she has a lot of talent that she is just beginning to share with our community. Her recent paintings are quite pretty and she gave a good performance last week in MacBeth. Actually, she had several roles. Her performances were wonderful. She is a rare child actress-she does not over-emote.

MainStage presentation of MacBeth

These fabulous young people produced this show in an amazingly short period of time. They not only learned lines and blocking, but also built sets and made costume pieces and props. The castle was really cool but I especially liked the trees around the witches’ cauldron.

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the body in the wall

Sunday, July 27, 2008

the new sledgehammer is swung first by martin

Robin takes a few whacks at it

Ryan says the hammer is too heavy and he wants to use the pickaxe next time

Shortly after buying and moving into this house which has had many tenants over the years, we heard that the big block of concrete hidden in the midst of a row of built in cabinets was the place where the original owner had buried his wife. Seemed as good an explanation as any, and for some reason that makes people laugh. Since it takes up almost two square feet and would obstruct the new half bath, we decided to remove it. Robin finally bought the sledgehammer that Ryan has been begging us to get and then Martin gave it some good blows. I took a turn at it and then Robin had her turn and Ryan came out to try his hand at it. We joked that I would have everyone who comes to the house take swings at it and post photos of the process. The crumbled bits would be carried to the area of the yard we are building up on the hillside, as the first batch was. Bad idea. There is simply not enough time to do it that way. I want a bathroom.

martin using the chisels

Martin then brought his hammer drill and chisels and was able to crack off a large portion at the top. He then threaded a rope through a hole and tied each end to a 2×4 which we used to move the chunk off.

the first chunk being removed.

We carried this outside and laid it in the yard. What a palace of trash that is getting to be! Only things missing from this Arkansas yard are a refrigerator and a toilet. As you can see, we now have the lawn butt decoration.

too bad we didn't get the kind with the giant polka dotted bloomers

No sign of a body in the concrete yet.

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silly pictures, silly friends, great party

Saturday, July 26, 2008

monkey boy and his girl

robin and tony sporting naughty tees

Last Tuesday we celebrated at Jerri and Kevin’s place. It was the week of birthdays. Three of the four people pictured here were about to or had just had a birthday and several other friends that week did too. It was a really nice way to celebrate-lots of nice folks, wonderful live music, good food, and swimming. I picked up some masks from some movie promo to give to Robert, aka Monkey Boy, and Wendi and they looked fabulous in them. Tony and Robin decided to wear their nasty tee shirts to the party and they made quite the couple. I have more photos of the boat, the house project, and Sydney’s birthday and performance in MacBeth last week to get up, but these had to be posted right now since I’m on my way to Tony and his hot tub.

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getting my boat

Friday, July 25, 2008

the merry wherry and the man who built it

Yesterday, after a little work on the house, Martin and I began talking about boats-again. I had mentioned my continued desire to learn to row and how I was considering giving up the boat idea, which seemed too far-fetched due to cost and transportation, and purchasing a rowing machine. Martin told me again about a boat he had had his eye on for several years hanging out at Starkey Marina, where his in-laws keep their boat. He called up Jim at the Marina and inquired about the boat, expecting to be directed to a person who was renting the slip for the little boat. Well, Jim said he owned the boat and that it would be possible for us to come and see it, and yes we could rent it for a test row. Martin asked if he was interested in selling the boat and when Jim gave him the price, he figured they were speaking of two different boats. A quick trip to the marina was definitely in order and the plans to continue the sunroom project were quickly dropped in favor of adventure and opportunity. I drove out in the little Prizm and Martin watched the road the whole way while I recited my excellent driving history for him. I had never been out to the marina before and it is a wonderful drive to another leg of the lake that inspires my godson and I to utter the word “paradise” every time we are out for a swim. We saw many deer and spotted fawns and the views of the lake are spectacular. Not that I would know, I had my eyes on the road the whole way.

Martin led the way down to the dock and in a moment Jim was lowering the boat into the water. The boat was indeed the one Martin had seen and admired and had thought would be just what I was looking for. It is even better than I had hoped for. I think we were both feeling like the cat that swallowed the canary at that point. I know my anticipation was at an all time high when I first saw the sleek and clean lines of this boat. When it was lowered and I saw that it was already outfitted with a sliding seat, I was again astounded by my good fortune.

We talked about the price again and since it was absurdly low I agreed to buy it. Jim said he had built it from a kit and he fetched the instruction manual. It is the Merry Wherry, from Wayland Marine, Inc. I had never heard of a wherry. A little research on the wherry told me that wherries evolved into gentleman’s rowboats from cargo vessels on canals and rivers in England. They were also used to transport people from ship to shore and in Shakespeare’s time, over two thousand wherries transported patrons across the River Thames to the theatre district.

Jim and Martin floated it over to the open dock and steadied it for me to get in. It was not too bad getting in, although I required some direction and found the boat to be less stable than those I have been in before. I had to think too much about keeping my balance at first to do much rowing and then I had the challenge of getting the oars oriented correctly and figuring out how to get both sides of my body to pull with equal force. I placed my feet on either side of the seat rails as that felt the most stable. The sliding seat action will take some time in coming. The storm moved closer and as I left the dock the thunder began. As if I was not excited beyond belief already! Jim and Martin called me back after what seemed like just a few minutes to me but was likely much longer. Then Martin took a ride. He was super fast and had a wonderful long and strong stroke. I need to watch him row some more so that I can learn quickly. I want to be very secure before the cold weather comes along. I think of the rowing as my winter swimming.

how I first saw my new boat in the water

Jim and Martin sent the wherry back to its place and I scurried after a pen to write the check. Martin and I left to trade my car for his truck to fetch the boat. It turns out that this boat is even better for my purposes than is obvious to the eye. It weighs only 35 pounds and I can lift it myself. I had fun talking with Jim about how he built the boat. He told me there were some modifications which he had thought he would make to the sliding seat to get it to sit lower in the boat and also to weigh less. As it is, the seat sits even with the gunwales and the whole rig weighs as much as the boat. He explained that he had purchased the plans for the sliding seat, used the seat of an old chair, and that there are some parts available that he had not purchased. He and Martin talked about stitch and glue construction and I fretted and teased them about taking care not to mar my boat. Once the red flag was hanging from the boat, Martin cautiously drove it to my house and we began to clean off the dust and reveal the beauty of the wood. Robin and the kids came out to view it. Martin and I arranged a safe set up for it and began to remove the waxy build up where the boat had been in the water. It took a little elbow grease but we were able to get a small area clean enough to reassure Martin that this boat would clean up and have a finish as stunning as its lines. It will. Tomorrow I will finish sanding it and Martin will take it to his garage for me so that I can have a protected place in which to varnish it. I”m also looking into a different rowing rig or modifying this one, looking for some wooden sculling oars which are affordable, reading about rowing, and considering names for the boat. I’m sure there will be many more pictures to share. I love my boat.

Of course, although I thought of my boat all day and did work some to clean it up, I had to persist with the tasks at hand. I completed the sunroom wall and it is an amazing color. I had my godson and his two friends all day and I played sous chef to Ryan as he cooked dinner for himself and his friends. He did a great job. I did some cleaning in the house, moved some construction debris around, and I uploaded a bunch of photos from the past two weeks so that I will be able to continue to blog about the house, this life in Eureka, my creative friends, the violin practice, and believe it or not, some new paintings. I’m going to have to slow down on the house once the sunroom is finished so that I can focus on painting. I have some shows coming up and when I’m not painting I need to keep up my practice with the violin. It seems I have been playing a C# when I should have been playing a C and that I need to do quite a bit more work on Minuet 1. And now, there is the boat.

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string art day

Thursday, July 24, 2008

pounding nails into ceiling tiles to make string art

Tuesday’s painting class with the homeschooled students took an interesting turn this week, and like most fun projects, the idea for the structure of this class came together from pieces of items which had previous uses and from the inspiration of friends. I had torn the ceiling tiles off the living room and split the ones in good condition into 12 x 12 pieces to use in painting classes. A friend dropped by for a chat on the patio and returned a couple of art books she had borrowed a while back. I had forgotten them and was happy to see them and so looked through them and came to the conclusion that this week the students would move into the study of lines in painting. As the days passed I realized I also wanted to break up the class with a different activity to keep things lively for all the students.

The day before the class, while working on the house (more on that wild ride is coming soon-I have pictures), I was talking about the ceiling tiles to Martin and, naturally, rambled on about the class. It was then that the idea to do string art on the tiles popped into my mind. Martin mentioned his familiartity with it, and though he and I have discussed and looked at images of fractals in the past,and much string art reminds me of fractals, that did not occur to me at the time. Probably because Martin mentioned sail boat string art and I was laughing so hard because when talking with Martin it seems all things are connected somehow to boats. (In my next post I will show you how this was a great benefit to me today and why this point seems so relevant.) I did some online searching and came up with a pattern for a sailboat. It was the simplest introduction to string art I could find as well as the best way to tie the project into our discussion of implied lines. Also, I thought I was cute to do string art with a violinist coming to be in the class that day!

The kids arrived being fed spoonfuls of peanut butter off a rubber spatula. They were still hungry so Robin and I fed them some chocolate muffins while I began the class discussion. When I announced there would be no painting that class one student cheered! I do think everyone was excited to try their hand at something new. We moved into a brief discussion about the importance of line to the composition stages of the painting process. The kids were able to give examples of implied lines quite freely and it was easy to see they had an excellent grasp of the day’s concept. We moved into the studio, the kids learned a little about copyright and inscribed the pattern authors copyright and website onto the back of their tiles with Sharpies, everyone’s favorite. Then they began working to pound finishing nails into ceiling tiles. All sorts of hammers were discovered and used, including rocks. Everyone chose their colors of embroidery threads and began the process of tying and wrapping the string. Rachel was freezing and we shut down the AC for as long as the rest of us could stand it. I noticed Wilson was taking a different approach from the others who had begun wrapping the strings. His strings were wrapped at the top of the nail and they cast a really fun shadow.

wilson and his sails

It is too bad that the flash wiped out the shadows in the photo. By now, we had to get the AC back on, freezing Rachel or no freezing Rachel. Fortunately, Robin came into the studio to view the string art and rescued Rachel by making a shawl out of some old palm tree pj pants. Rachel, donning her lovely new shawl, was finishing up her pastel boat as Robin was chatting with Mary, our guest student. Mary’s come to class once before. She is the girl who plays the violin and viola with her sisters. After Scott and I finished up the final few difficult knots on his sailboat, I pulled out my violins and Shannon and I played a little. Shannon is wanting to study the violin and she seemed quite comfortable handling it. Mary continued to craft the boat until the very end, but managed to squeeze in a helpful comment or two as she worked. Then Rachel, took the violin and had a go at it. She said it was her first time to play with it and she seemed to enjoy the newness of the experience.

rachel plays the violin

It was another wonderful Tuesday in the studio with the homeschoolers. Tuesday is becoming my favorite day, not just because of these students, but also because it seems to be the day most of my friends have some time off work and want to play in the evening. This week after class I quickly finished the mudding of the new wall in the sunroom and painted a test patch on the exterior of the house. (OMG, I never thought I would want to paint a house purple, but I do, and I’ll get a photo up here soon so you can try to stop me if you think I’ve lost my mind.) Then I put on my swimsuit and sarong, Robin gathered food and drinks, and we headed off to Jerri’s for a pool party in honor of several our friends birthdays. I’ve got some silly pictures to share from that, too! I’ve fallen a bit behind on the blogging, but tonight it seems I’m attempting to at least catch up on the word count!

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night

Monday, July 21, 2008

luna moth looking like a fairy

Could it be a fairy? It is certainly something magical.

luna moth

It is a luna moth.

luna moth is wounded

It lost a part of itself and that is why it looked so much like a fairy, I think.

I recently met someone who told me about a couple of astronauts who live nearby. They had viewed earth from space and wondered about this area of deep blackness by night and great greenness by day. They decided it must be the place to live and found out that they were viewing the Ozark Mountains. It is good to live here, among the fairies and stars.

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Heilbron’s Starry Night Quilt

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Heilbron's starry night quilt

Last weekend my best friend from high school was in town for a visit. She brought everything she needs with her- her family and her artwork. So, while her husband and son are lovely people, it turns out that I only photographed Heilbron and her artwork. Heilbron has been making wonderful creations for as long as I can remember and it seems to me that working with fabric, she has found her media. Her quilts are stunning.

Heilbron and her quilt

In this photo you can see the work that went into creating this design, which she calls her starry night pattern. Heilbron explained that she cut triangles and then stitched them together into hexagons which use the motif to create a new pattern. It is evident that she enjoys math and playing around with geometry, but she seems to greatly enjoy discovering how some of the more subtle parts of the original design can become more dominant in the process. I think she is a human kaleidoscope which creates and then freezes the best combinations and stitches them into place to share with others.

close up of heilbron's quilt

If we are lucky, Heilbron will begin to sell some of her quilts on etsy. She is in the early stages of getting her business started. I know she will soon have some incredible handbags and super squishy and safe bookbags for little kids with lovely applique designs in her etsy shop, called ArtisanalLife.

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