summer's heat in May -- into the pool

These are the clematis in garden #1:

















Here is a shot of the much of the garden:








I picked several irises yesterday and added buttercups. It's a nice bouquet. I've moved all but my most sensitive house plants outside.
A walk this morning followed by vacuuming the house and my car left me totally covered with dirt and sweat. I went in for a swim. The water is refreshing. We still have to get the pool level - probably by flushing out some dirt on the high side. We enjoy our 15' soft sided Intex pool; it's just big enough to paddle around in to cool off. It's not so big we have to spend lots of care.


Tragically, the Gulf continues being suffocated by the greed and poor foresight of BP and politicians. Two more postcards are coming and I work with a 4th grade class this week on the topic.



DAILY HAIKU
May 24
Since we spent much of the day digging and planning the vegetable garden, I used this quilt pattern from the New England Quilt Museum brochure. It reminded me of a well planned garden.
dig in the rich soil
plant tomatoes, cucumbers
for a fresh salad

May 23
We got together at my sister Anne's house to celebrate Bruce's birthday - actually we like getting together. I wrote the text in green on vellum.
The background is handwritten names of everyone there and the rest of the day's events. I used a portion of the stamp i'd used fro family get togethers. Since I took the puppy for a quick walk, I used some tissue with paw prints.

Both of these entries are examples of using some specific items to symbolize repeated events. I used the paw print paper for time with the puppy all year. Also every time we had a family get together, I used a stamp that has a patchwork of patterns around the edges - spirals, stars, hearts, diagonal lines.
I consciously planned to repeat components for similar or related events. This would expedite the work by having some decisions made. Also the repeition signifies patterns in life.

time's flying to the end of school, yet it seems so slow

As the school year comes to an end, teachers utilize a juggling act of keeping things moving and bringing things to an end simultaneously. It's easiest with the first graders, but the fifth graders are getting ready to leave for the middle school and, well it's a challenge even to my love of sharing art !!!
It's also strange that we're having cool spring weather, yet the irises and lupine are blossoming in the front garden (#6). The clematis at the front steps and in garden #1 are open. The pots of pansies are thriving. The pot of purple ones for my friend Barbara looks especially full of blossoms. I'll post some photos tomorrow.

DAILY HAIKU 2009 May 22
This entry ( dated the 21st) has the spiral stamp for the sun. The dog paws tissue is under two layers of vellum. The top layer has the spiral stamped on the back side and the text on the front. The thin strips are from a postcard for their colors. The pale green is the negative of the barcode stamps.





May 21
A spell of vertigo inspired this entry. I used a background stamp of stars and spirals, a larger spiral and the oriole stamp. The text for this is written in and around the stamping.

surprises

This morning,Deezel mistakenly ran into my friends' pond. I guess he didn't understand the shoreline concept. He went totally under, popped up and had a dog surprised look. He swam out and started running around in his crazed puppy way.I didn't have my camera, sadly.
Yesterday, I led a discussion about the oil spill with a 4th grade class. I was surprised to hear how few knew anything about it. But they did some postcard art; they naturally identified with the destruction and death of the animals. We'll send them to President Obama to express our concerns.I'll photograph them tomorrow and post later.
This is a quick study I did . I made the oil spil with $ in black to attest to oil companies' greed and the tremendous cost of this accident.
I have a couple ideas to share with the subsequent lessons.







This is the previous entry in Art Journal:

I wrote a short Haibun on green tissue. The upper left corner is a portion of a photo for May 12 and the leaf stencil I used on that entry. The leaf in the lower right is based on a motif from one of my favorite stamps. I enlarged it and made a stencil of cardstock. This one is of a piece of scrapbooking paper.

DAILY HAIKU 2009 May 20

This is test night at puppy school. How will we do?
May 19
I created two print blocks of foam and showed the 1st graders how to do a two color print. This entry attests to the pleausres of teaching art and how it can feed my creativity.

I did some basic pencil drawings directly on the card.







This is a watercolor in my Art Journal .

hurry through the morning

The morning was filled with a long overdue conversation with friend Mary, and a walk. I had to leave early to pick up treatment for Deezel.
I started the preparations for taking work home with both classes this afternoon. I love seeing them mount work, sort it and tidy up their portfolios. All this weeks' classes will be doing it. It's hectic, but exciting. Next week, each one will share a favorite piece form the year.

DAILY HAIKU 2009
May 18
This is one of those serendipitous pieces - whatever was handy. I arranged it arbitrarily. The text captures the feelings.

miscellaneous sights and thoughts

I woke up about 2:00 and couldn't get back to sleep because I was thinking about how to keep the kids moving forward and ending the year at the same time. I'm initiating a postcard project with the 5th and 4th grades to express issues around the oil disaster. I'll encourage them to mail the postcards to an appropriate person. I decided on postcards because of their size and completability in the short time we have left of school. Several media work with that size also.

I did finish reading the latest "Surface Design Journal". Katey Schultz's article about Lisa Klukak's work has some well worded thoughts about the artistic process and the artist. I was caught especially by her saying, "after releasing any personal agenda, an artist's truest self can emerge through the work created in this spirit - work that at once taps into universal themes but still carries the seed of its maker." I have had moments of working when the personal agenda got in the way. Those are moments when the solutions to completion are unclear. When I let go, I get to creating and I wonder why the solutions were seemingly impossible.
The more I stay with the work as a discipline, the more I am able to work from my truest self and not be directed by a personal agenda.

Today, I was busy with walk ( I saw a lady's slipper beside the road), vacuuming, going to the vet's and lunch with a friend. I did not photograph the new pages ... tomorrow.

DAILY HAIKU 2009 May 17

This entry consists of torn pieces of a scrapbooking paper. It is a varied grey green color with a painted effect. It has thin lavendar lines. I quickly drew the general shapes of the jack-in-yhe pulpit with a green gel pen. The verse is on a piece of vellum written with a green Sharpie pen.
jack-in-the-pulpit
a unique, mesmorizing
plant in the shadows

I find this plant marvelous and am honored they thrive in my various gardens. I feel sorry for anyone who has not seen them, but they are rare. Only on the largest of plants, the seed pods consist of red berries grouped together - the seed of the maker.

having a pedicure & manicure

WOW ! Treating yourself to a manicure or a pedicure is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful treat. My nails looked so bad, every time I'd start to work, I'd be distracted by their irregular lengths and the stains. Today I got French tips - with the white and they look great... I don't have messy work scheduled for school and did some weeding today, so I'll be able to keep them looking good for a while. Hopefully for a nephew's wedding.

I met with Dawn, Paula, and Katie (Paula's daughter, who is an art student). We shared our work that we've been doing since we last met. I had several spreads in my Art Journal. (I'll post them tomorrow.)Since it's getting too bulky to close, I'll soon be needing a new journal. Dawn had her "photo a day" collection. Paula shared some graphic designs she's done for a wedding. Kate had projects from school - a book, some photos and poster designs. Then, we went to the salon.

I'm working on some ideas to capture the ugliness of the oil spill. I had hoped to challenge some students to do that, but I think it's time to sort art work, mount anything, finish work and prepare portfolios to go home. The Tuesday and Wednesday classes have time. It may be a good lesson in art that isn't pretty, but expresses a catastrophe. Has anyone got some to share?
The entry for a year ago offers some possibilities for techniques.

DAILY HAIKU May 16, 2009

I wrapped the card in white tissue paper. Then I rubbed some paper with pencil and attached it to the front. I edged the tissue with yellow and green and did more crosshatching. This Haiku works as a sentiment and an image.
Solid grey clouds mute
the colors of spring, slow the
sunless passing time.

Sharing art

DAILY HAIKU 2009
May 15




This entry was inspired by a lovely afternoon in the field.
The verse says it all



Spring sun low in the sky
warms with full effects across
bluets and green grass


I stamped around the edge with the barcode stamp leaving the bars empty - the negative space - the sun is another stamp and the verse is written with gel pen on vellum.

May 14 Marks the day Paula, Dawn and I started out "artshare" group. The entry was made using Paula's post-it note to me I used blue scraps to go with the blue marker she used.

I covered the collage with vellum. Having an even surface makes writing easier. The edges are trimmed with the stamp I made for Paula with a "P" and a heart that she uses.