Tuesday, March 27, 2012

artfest here I come...

artfest - 
that word causes the heart to pound
and eyes to start twitching.
too exciting for words 
or sleeping for that matter...
these jumbles of string and paper and buttons
were attached to plaster 
and magically morphed into my trades
which are packed and waiting to be given away.
not sure what they are but that is the fun of it.

now onto packing my supplies...
so many items needed
and you all know by now that I have an obsession
with supplies and art desks and brushes and...
well guess I better pack some clothes too...
if there's room.
so tomorrow I am off across the water to Port Townsend 
to the very last artfest.
I promise to bring back lots of wonderful inspirations
from my 3 classes by
Mary Beth Shaw,
Mindy Lacefield
and Orly Avineri.

must sit down to catch my breath!

Friday, March 23, 2012

just me & she

 the sun is out and i am happy...
she is not...
the cone of shame is hard to explain to a dog
so i will try to find a kong neck collar today 
to make life easier for the next 10 days...
sigh.
in the sun - did i mention?



Sunday, March 18, 2012

a Sunday blessing - 1000 thank yous

How does one say thank you
to an amazing group of parents
who blessed us abundantly last week?
I am graced and honored and blessed to work at a school
among amazing teachers and a community of faith.
Last week was teacher appreciation week
and I can say we were all blown away
by the thoughtfulness we received.
I wanted to thank each of you from the bottom of my heart
so I created these 'brushes' paintings from your gorgeous displays.
Please feel free to download each of the 3 pieces above and
print them out for your personal use.
Our week was organized around the book
one thousand gifts
by Ann Voskamp
which I blogged about here.
 Our amazing parents changed the theme to
1000 thank yous
and made the invites and all decorations to match the book.
And look at the treasures that awaited us
in the teacher's lounge 
and at a very special luncheon.
And our classroom doors were each wrapped like a present.
 Even plants surrounded our luncheon brought in from the local nursery.
 And if all the week's blessings were not enough,
we were each given a basket filled to the brim
with beautiful wrappings - almost too pretty to open.
 My favorite was this canning jar filled with Bible blessings...
 and you can print out these gems at Ann's website here.
WOW
what can I say but again,
a very heartfelt thank you from the very bottom of my heart.
I get a little teary just remembering the beautiful tribute.


Saturday, March 17, 2012

go Gauguin

 
Visited Gauguin in Polynesia yesterday.
A beautiful exhibit by an amazing artist.
Do you know how sometimes you see art by a famous artist that you adore
and it does not grab you and you actually feel like the said artist was not that good.
Well not Gauguin -
his work is gorgeous.
His skin tones were layered and stunning,
his colors which start out as pastels
change to brilliant compositions 
as he is influenced by the sun.
But no photos were allowed so here are some off the internet...
But life is not perfect at the SAM; 
 you must stand behind the line drawn on the floor in 
front of some pieces
which means you get yelled at if you lean over
to try to see up close
and at my age
the eyes need to be close - dang.
 
And we even got yelled at when we got close to the pieces protected by glass
where I may state there is no line to stay behind.
Don't you think guards should take a class
on how to engage with the public in a humorous way
to make everyone's mood a little cheerier?
It would certainly help.
and then...
outside of the exhibit we encountered 
this piece by David Hammons - pretty funny really.
It was a huge vase thing (about 8' tall)
and we walked past it and then my friend noticed
what was on top - 
a taxidermic cat.
Amazing what makes it into the SAM.
There are some museums I just adore - 
The Princeton one is amazing and never disappoints
and The Getty is stellar too,
but I just don't adore the SAM unfortunately.
This painting of St. Sebastian is one of my favorites,
but then I turned around and found this.
 "Did I fall down the rabbit hole?"
Sometimes I just don't get the placement of art at this museum.
The signage is weak
and some of the collections are too.
Whoops sorry but I just wish I loved my museum and I don't.
 Now I loved this this African quilt of metal scraps
turned into this beautiful work -
just goes to show if you are an artist 
you will find a way right?
and then we walked outside into the sun
(the most beautiful work of all)
and visited one of the smallest shops I know
 but a true exquisite gem...
 and then a couple of blocks south on First
to Watson Kennedy, another gem of a shop.
Truly see Gauguin if you are nearby.
It won't disappoint unless you get yelled at by a guard.