Last Sunday morning I drove to
Silver Falls State Park near Silverton, Oregon to teach a little journaling session with the high school kids I taught encaustic to last March. The park is a magnificent setting for groups and art gatherings. The kids had made tie dyed tee shirts and hand bound books among other fun activities.
The day was slightly damp and cool, as the elevation and time of year typifies. Everything was green and lush with autumn golds just beginning to show in places.
Everyone was ready for my arrival as I got the time wrong and arrived late. We scrambled to make it right and I jumped right into the drill.
I was really tired from my marathon teaching at Art and Soul. From the parties after hours which I cannot resist. All that laughing and catching up. I'm sternly telling myself to slow down.
Coming to the forest though was a meditation to me too and a drinking in of beauty and calm after so much socializing. I took photographs of the trees and colors. Maybe to use in work later.
There are cabins and a dining room that serves meals. Good place for an art retreat for big people, don't you think? The only drawback is that it is at least 2 hours from the nearest airport. Poot!
Here we are at the end of the day. We took pictures for about 15 minutes; some of the guys got tired of smiling. But I assure you we all had fun.
Gentle young spirits, learning, gaining confidence in their strengths, so impressionable and new. They really move me. If I had them in a classroom all year I don't know if I'd be able to let them go without tears. You cannot help but like them a lot.
I urged them to make grunge; to let the emotions and paint fly.
My voice is finally coming back after barking out instructions over the loud music that I loved. The vintage teacher was singing to the tunes she recognized, especially "When I'm 64".
My job was to keep them all moving and not thinking - just letting the moment carry them away.
And look what they did. The little geniuses. Fantastic invention, daring feats, beautiful pages!!
My demo. Yes, I got to paint too.
Don't you love the big enamel trays they use for palettes?
Look closely at some of these pages and see if you can guess how they were done.
Thank you, Shannon, for being such a great art teacher and for having me back again.
Shannon is a one-woman movement who has even gotten Jesse Reno to agree to come in and teach her high school art students.
Wouldn't you love to watch that?
Aren't these kids going to love Jesse?
They deserve the best teachers and all the encouragement we can give them to prepare them for what comes next.
Maybe you know I have a degree in Secondary Education but beyond student teaching have never really held a regular teaching job.
So maybe I'm prejudiced when I say teachers are the greatest. Because educating children is the most important job there is besides growing food.
My priorities are getting simpler all the time.
So thank you, Shannon, for giving me another day with these guys.
I loved every moment of it.
Okay, one funny tatoo story. The picture says it all. The world's oddest tatoo. I suggested continuing the line all over the body and then connecting it at the source on the other end. I guess the tatoo artist couldn't make up her mind. Plus I like the skeletons who seem to be reaching for it.
And before we move on from Art and Soul completely, here is a picture of the two Judy W.'s . I think it's funny that we have similar glasses. (love you, sister)
So I've decided to share a couple of comments from two of the students that tremendously moved me. Matt says, "Judy is sick". That is high praise in case you didn't know. Thank you, Matt!
And this one. This one puts me completely over the top. Bless these precious children, help protect their future, keep them strong and tender-hearted.
Sweet potato fries and chipotle catsup. Margaritas. Those are good things. Watching the doctor put a big needle in John's knee and draw off 3 vials of fluid. That is hard to watch. So the treat above was a small reward. Now he is resting. Somewhat.
My favorite winter squash, drying in the sun. He had to get those harvested since the temperatures turned frosty last night.
My mood is decidedly autumnal today. Saying good-bye to so many beautiful things growing in the garden that will leave us soon with the first killing frost.
There is so much that is beautiful in the world.
Good-bye little tree frog. I won't be seeing you guys again for many months.
Good-bye Fairy Roses. I'll miss your sweet, uplifting vision of summer. Your clusters on my table top.
Good-bye, yellow hollyhocks. I'll miss your sunny faces outlined against a cold, blue sky.
I'll miss the blue salvia, offering her sustenance to honeybees and other winged things.
And the echinacae. That elegant form, that medicinal gift of nature.
Farewell, rag tag sunflowers. You have fed the birds and given us much beauty to enjoy.
And this boy. I sat outside in the sunshine with him for an hour today. On Monday we will say good-bye to our dear Hermanito when an angel of mercy comes to our house with an injection that will deliver him to his final rest. It is a heavy day here. And filled with so much love for our friend who has given us so much comfort and companionship for so many years. This good-bye is the hardest of all.
Last Sunday morning I drove to Silver Falls State Park near Silverton, Oregon to teach a little journaling session with the high school kids I taught encaustic to last March. The park is a magnificent setting for groups and art gatherings. The kids had made tie dyed tee shirts and hand bound books among other fun activities.
The day was slightly damp and cool, as the elevation and time of year typifies. Everything was green and lush with autumn golds just beginning to show in places.
Everyone was ready for my arrival as I got the time wrong and arrived late. We scrambled to make it right and I jumped right into the drill.
I was really tired from my marathon teaching at Art and Soul. From the parties after hours which I cannot resist. All that laughing and catching up. I'm sternly telling myself to slow down.
Coming to the forest though was a meditation to me too and a drinking in of beauty and calm after so much socializing. I took photographs of the trees and colors. Maybe to use in work later.
There are cabins and a dining room that serves meals. Good place for an art retreat for big people, don't you think? The only drawback is that it is at least 2 hours from the nearest airport. Poot!
Here we are at the end of the day. We took pictures for about 15 minutes; some of the guys got tired of smiling. But I assure you we all had fun.
Gentle young spirits, learning, gaining confidence in their strengths, so impressionable and new. They really move me. If I had them in a classroom all year I don't know if I'd be able to let them go without tears. You cannot help but like them a lot.
I urged them to make grunge; to let the emotions and paint fly.
My voice is finally coming back after barking out instructions over the loud music that I loved. The vintage teacher was singing to the tunes she recognized, especially "When I'm 64".
My job was to keep them all moving and not thinking - just letting the moment carry them away.
And look what they did. The little geniuses. Fantastic invention, daring feats, beautiful pages!!
My demo. Yes, I got to paint too.
Don't you love the big enamel trays they use for palettes?
Look closely at some of these pages and see if you can guess how they were done.
Thank you, Shannon, for being such a great art teacher and for having me back again.
Shannon is a one-woman movement who has even gotten Jesse Reno to agree to come in and teach her high school art students.
Wouldn't you love to watch that?
Aren't these kids going to love Jesse?
They deserve the best teachers and all the encouragement we can give them to prepare them for what comes next.
Maybe you know I have a degree in Secondary Education but beyond student teaching have never really held a regular teaching job.
So maybe I'm prejudiced when I say teachers are the greatest. Because educating children is the most important job there is besides growing food.
My priorities are getting simpler all the time.
So thank you, Shannon, for giving me another day with these guys.
I loved every moment of it.
Okay, one funny tatoo story. The picture says it all. The world's oddest tatoo. I suggested continuing the line all over the body and then connecting it at the source on the other end. I guess the tatoo artist couldn't make up her mind. Plus I like the skeletons who seem to be reaching for it.
And before we move on from Art and Soul completely, here is a picture of the two Judy W.'s . I think it's funny that we have similar glasses. (love you, sister)
So I've decided to share a couple of comments from two of the students that tremendously moved me. Matt says, "Judy is sick". That is high praise in case you didn't know. Thank you, Matt!
And this one. This one puts me completely over the top. Bless these precious children, help protect their future, keep them strong and tender-hearted.
First off, let me say I woke up at 4 am before this class thinking of all the things that could go wrong with a room full of #11 exacto knives and cans of spray paint.
I imagined trips to the emergency room and overspray on the hotel walls.
Rain and wind and bad alignment of the stars. Because this was a class that took a lot of work on the part of the students.
I tried to cram so much into it.
We cut stencils and collage papers and had to compose them. We sprayed our stencils on plain decorated paper first.
And then cut wee little paperdoll clothes for our images.
It was demanding and we had to keep busy every moment.
For that reason I didn't get photos of all the student work and many of the photos I did get were poor.
But I'm including as many as I can because I think the work is wonderful.
The students looked rather horrified when they heard all that was expected of them.
But look; didn't they do wonderful?
And everyone agreed that if we had an extra day the next group would be even better as we learned so much about how the cuts work and composition and all of that.
After all that work we encapsulated our stencilled collages under a layer of encaustic medium.
So we even got to play with beeswax.
Some of us stippled and all of us got to spray and see which we liked best.
It was an amazing experience.
And next time I teach this class I promise to make it a tad easier.
Would the lady with the vintage wallpapers please contact me? I forgot to pick up my paper pack at the vendor sale. Love the vintage wallpaper.
A big hug to everyone willing to play with me and try my zany ideas. I love each of you. xo
