The Adventurous Art Teacher

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Early morning run

What a beautiful start to our morning run.

My running partner

Someone actually left these pumpkins on the trail. I hope they stay there.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Add Freshman Adviser to Job Title

This year as a High School Art Teacher I decided to get more involved in the school community. It is so important to have a good relationship with the students and their parents. I volunteered to become one of the Freshman class Advisers along with my friend and fellow teacher, Judy R.
Our first job was to organize Spirit week and the Homecoming weekend events. Our theme, "A Blast from the Past, the 70's."

By the time students elected their class officers and got organized; they only had 4 evenings to put together their float. Thank goodness for very supportive parents who knew what they were doing! I had no idea what to do. Thank goodness one of the parents decided to show me the ropes, thank you Bob.

Our freshman crew!

Two of my favorite junior ladies offered advice as to what makes a great adviser. Thank you girls!!

The Junior class float won first Place in the parade. Isn't that amazing!!!

Talk about being organized.

Judy and I organized our first fund raiser. Hot cider and fried dough.

Thank goodness one of the Mom's helped-us-out!

Look at the crowd

Me with three of our girls.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Dispatchartwork: a creative new building block

Wow! Discovered artist Jan Vormann over at grrl+dog's blog this morning. What a creative use for Lego's. Jan uses Lego's to repair damaged buildings and walls all over the globe. Absolutely beautiful ! Can't wait to share this with my art students tomorrow. Hope you enjoy.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Enjoying my Summer Garden

This has been such a wonderful summer for my garden. Gee it actual looks as though I'm a real gardener.

For those of you that have been following my blog, just thought I would let you know that I did make it last evening for the Show/Critique with my new quilter girlfriends. What a wonderful group of women! So glad they invited me to join their group, and even though I really had nothing to critique there was so much inspiration! Hope you are all enjoying this lovely summer. Karen

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Trying to Motivate Myself

First I have to tell you that I've been invited to attend my first work /critique session with the ladies from SAQA on the 12th. I'm nervous just thinking about it because I don't have anything started to critique. If you remember in an earlier post I was invited to join the group even though I'm a beginner compared to these women. So trying to calm my jitters I went to the library for inspiration, just love the Nancy Crow book. Also picked up a few books with techniques I learned about six years ago with quilter, Carol Taylor. Luckily I kept everything from her classes to reference from.

Went though my fabrics and discovered this left over acorn that I made years ago during a class with Carol Taylor. Maybe I can incorporate it into a new piece. Also looked at my stash of painted newsprint. Just love some of the designs and though I might try recreating them on fabric.

Here's the acorn with some of my paper choices. Next step is get the fabric dye and fabric out to recreate these patterns onto. If you remember I also have the new deColourant paints to try out. I also think it may be fun to paint over the acorn a bit or maybe stamp on it. Lots of possibilities.

Another acorn found in my fabric drawer. In fact I found all the patterns I made in many different sizes. Everything is looking good but I have one problem. I can't seem to get started. All I want to do is relax and read. I don't even want to draw. I started to stress out, but then remembering my three month bout with pneumonia this past year. Not wanted to go though that again I've decided to just go with the flow, which is easier said than done for me. So for now maybe I should skip this weeks meeting even though I hate missing out on such a wonderful experience but I must listen to my body. Everything is ready to go and eventually I'll find myself in the studio again. Does anybody else put themselves though this stress?

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

What to do, What to do...

My summer break has begun and just like every summer, my head is spinning with ideas for all the things I could do. So what's the first thing I do? Make a list of course. If I don't make a list I might forget, especially during those lazy days when I just can't seem to get myself motivated.
Number one on the list, sketch daily. Next on the list would be to exercise daily, use my 5 free yoga passes, then check out books at the library on making Improvisational quilts, work in my gardens, call my girlfriends and make plans to get together, and most importantly, relax and remember to enjoy the moment.

Over the weekend I made a test stripe of all the colors in a new box of "Derwent-Graphitint" water solvable pencils. I got an idea over at Design Matters TV on using watercolor pencils on fabric. Can't wait to try it!

Sketch using the the Derwent-Graphitint pencils. Let the summer fun begin!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

See Anyone You Know?

It's official, I am a new member of SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates.) I'm in the back about nine over from the left.

What a great group of women! I'm so glad I joined. We met today at The Gate House Cafe. Jeanne Simpson and Pat Pauly, our representatives welcomed us. They Updated everyone with the latest news and exhibitions. Next was a brief introductory show and tell by all the members. Our limit was 2 minutes. Yours truly was the first to go over and the 2 minute timer went off. My excuse was that I was a teacher, everyone knows teachers talk to much. At least that's what my students tell me. Haha.

A quick questionnaire to fill out and than we enjoyed a delicious lunch.

After lunch it was off to view the "Paralla" exhibit at the Booksmart Studio. This time I had my camera. As you can see we were all busy taking pictures of the quilts and each other.