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!

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?

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.

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.