How can summer vacation be busier than the school year?

My kids finished school on May 28th.  We had a quiet entry into the "lazy days of summer" and allowed ourselves a week or two of quiet times.  We watched TV & movies did some reading for fun (NOTHING from the official reading lists they have to deal with before returning to school) then the summer camps started. 

The schedule seemed much more manageable on paper in the spring than it's felt as the summer steams along.  None of the camps that the kids were signed up for were for more than 3 hours a day, and the longest one was only 3 weeks.  The fact that they are scheduled so closely together that some weeks there were over laps (there was one week that 3 camps at once) was expected to be and indeed proved to be the biggest scheduling challenge.  That said that ,week of the 3 camps was a logistical issue for me more than the kids as each kid had only 2 camps.  They both had art camp in the morning, my son had rowing camp in the afternoon and my daughter marching band mini camps in the evening. 

It might have been easier if I was simply doing the "mom's taxi" and generally supportive mom in the background. But no, I am teaching art classes in the same art camp my kids are attending.  Teaching is a mixed blessing for me.  I love to watch the enthusiasm some kids approach their projects with.  I love to see them grow enthusiastic over projects they looked quite skeptical about when I was introducing them.  But I have to find a place in my heart to overcome my frustration when some kids don't try or don't understand my explanations.  I don't think I am cut out to be an elementary school art teacher.  I love to watch the kids growth but I don't have the right kind of temperament or mind set at this point in my life to deal with blank stares and idle hands all year long.  All that said, this year I've been blessed with kids who seem to want to be in my class, not just kids whose parents wanted to give them something to do. 

One of my favorite moments so far this art camp was seeing an impish grin when I asked one of my students if wet felting was her favorite project.  We made wet felted beads the first day of class, and just about every day that she's finished a bit early she's requested more wool and made one or more wool balls.  Today she had some that she made last week that were bone dry and she glued them into the bristly acorn caps from the sawtooth oak.  We are needle felting eyes onto the balls and they are adorable.

Another great moment was to see one of my returning students (from previous year's classes) literally l jump for joy when I told her were were going to bubble paint and paint with marbles.  Bubble painting is pretty much what it sounds like - we paint with bubbles.  I have shallow bowls with a solution of acrylic paint, water and dish washing soap.  The kids get a straw and some paper.  They are actually told to blow bubbles into the soapy paint water and when the bubbles are an inch or two above the lip of the bowls they touch the paper to the bubbles.  The effect is a bit different every time but you always end up with a nearly magical print of a cross section of a mound of colored bubbles.  If you get enough people blowing paint bubbles it sounds like a cartoon science lab. 

I spend more time then I probably should rethinking my projects, hoping that I can find 10 days of projects that every kid will like or get something from learning.  That's probably a bit unrealistic.  The way my class is structured we do a different technique every day, some days we do several.  Monday we did mono-prints using paint & bubbles, and marbles, stencils and sponge painting, and even with 4 techniques I still had a couple of kids try everything once and decide that was enough and do no more, even if there was 30 minutes left in class.  Well, I think one of them finished early to return to wet felting wool.  Today we started doing collages, we do collages in some form every year.  Largely in part because a couple of my regular students would be very distressed if I took them out of the line up.  When one of those regulars saw the room set up this morning she visibly glowed with excitement.  That is always a good way to start a class.

Something must be going well because I've had a couple of mothers ask if I ever taught this class for adults, and a couple tell me they could not wait until their younger kids were old enough to sign them up.

If you have been following my earlier posts you will know that I am a "band mom" with all the commitment that could possibly entail.  As of June 1st I am now the president of the high school music boosters.  It's a bit daunting and I hope I can live up to the expectations of the more experienced boosters and to my own expectations.  There will be a lot of work, actually there has already been a fair amount of work inventorying and cleaning uniforms, finding them after the school changed the uniform storage without telling anyone where they had hid/stored them.  But the parents I've worked with so far are a great group and the kids are as hard working and dedicated a group of teens as I've ever had the privilege to work with. 

Next week art camp will be over for another year (unless I do end up offering an adult mixed media class), the kids will be at the beach and we have one quiet week before band camp starts on August 2nd.  School resumes on August 18th and bam! summer will be over.

But I hope to enjoy what's left of this hot, humid & insanely busy season - I hope you enjoy what ever season you are experiencing right now!

Squirrels in my head

Have you ever had trouble falling asleep or woke too early because your head was full of ideas that you could not shut away?  It happens to me fairly regularly; usually it's when I'm really tired and desperately want to fall asleep, or if I have to get up early for something important so I go to be earlier than usual (before midnight).  The less common breed of squirrels invade my sleep and wake me earlier than I need to wake up.  This morning I was woken by a scurry of squirrels (a group of squirrels is called a scurry - now you can say learned something new today!) all with different inspirations to communicate.

I've been pondering how to make my fae art dolls wearable.  Many things have me thinking in that direction - having majored in Jewelry/Metals in college I seem to be naturally drawn to making wearable art, and observing sales at Faerie Con last year - if you could wear it it was more likely to sell - especially before & during the balls.

So, this morning, I had a scurry of eager squirrels that would not let me sleep.  Now I have 6 pages of thumbnail sketches with notes, 3 on wearable fae (jewelry, hair accessories, hats, clothing) 2 pages of things like fae ring bearer pillows, fae treasure boxes mobiles, frames ...) and one page of display ideas for future shows. 

This afternoon I started playing with hat ideas ... what do you think???

Proud and busy Mamma

I could not be prouder of my kids.  They never cease to amaze me.  Last week my daughter was confessing to me that she thought she had been lazy this school year and that she could have done more.  Well, who could not say as much about themselves?  Yet later in the week she was called forward during the awards ceremony at her school because of her status as one of the top 20 GPAs in her grade.  I did a bit of math and her top 20 GPA relative to the number of kids in her class puts her in the top 3%. - Yeah uh huh, that's my definition of Lazy.  I wonder what she could have done if she had tried harder?

My son, no slouch, despite rarely having homework (he insists he gets it done in school before he leaves) seems to be getting his share of work done too.  He walked away from his awards ceremony with a perfect attendance certificate, a certificate for Excellence in Math and one for Outstanding in Science!

Last week was the last Music Booster meeting that I will attend from a seat - next month I step into the role of Booster President.  My sister likes to tease me and remind me I could have turned it down, while my husband reassures me I'll do a great job.  My sister - teasing me because she knows that there is no way that I will see my term as booster president through without putting a lot of work into it.  Maybe I should have reminded her of the hundreds of hours she has dedicated to Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure as a volunteer? 

While chaperoning my daughter's band(s) to Weekend in Wildwood some of the instructors thanked me (and the other boosters) for all the time and work we do to help keep the music programs running.  I pointed out to one of them as we walked down the boardwalk right after one of the competitions, that it's my job as a parent to help my children, to support them in all they hope to achieve.  I can't give them a trust fund, but I can let them know that I believe in them and will be there for them (even if it means riding home from very long days soaked on less than comfortable school buses at goodness knows what hour). 

Many of us achieve success by overcoming obstacles, but few of us dare to take on those obstacles without someone to encourage us or challenge us to do our best or just to try.

So, I will continue to support and challenge my kids and along the way I reap incalculable rewards, just watching my kids (the ones I gave birth to and all the others who make up an ever growing extended family) take on challenges, learn from mistakes and sometimes glory in successes.

Myth and Nature - Transformed

I had the very great pleasure of attending the artists reception of my friend Jenny Davies-Reazor's solo exhibition.  The show is at the Newark Arts Alliance http://www.newarkartsalliance.org/ and is running from May 4th until the 29th.  The show was a delight on many levels, my children have been taking ceramics classes with Jenny for years, and most people think of her as working primarily with clay.  While she still makes shrines and figures from clay this show was dominated by a variety of mixed media collages.  Every where you turn there was beauty to soak in and meanings to ponder. 

The last shot is Jenny's selkie collage and my own selkie.

Band Mom

I'm now recovered from spending a 4 day weekend with my daughter's high school drumline/jazz band/color guard programs in Wildwood, NJ.  It was a very busy, exhausting and rewarding weekend.  Many of the kids on this trip were in more that one of those groups.  My daughter plays in both the drumline and jazz bands.  For those kids the weekend was filled with rehearsals and competitions.  Except for meal breaks those who shared that schedule spent 4 days at the beach and only got near it when walking in a group to and from competitions, until the last day when they were give 3 hours off.  In general I am very proud of how most of those kids handled their very busy schedules and still had a great time.  My daughter, like most, would have liked more "down time" to get to the boardwalk/amusement piers but still felt the weekend was completely worth it.

I also admire the hard work and dedication of the instructors and band parents who took off of work, paid for their weekend and spent it on duty around the clock.

The only real down side from my perspective was observing some of the oldest students try to assert their independence and show their maturity by ignoring the rules and deciding that what they wanted to do was more important that the rules set down for the group.  Some lessons are hard to learn, and hard to teach, yet what would life be without them?  Why is it when we have seniority, we so often feel that we merit special treatment? 

I think back to being in high school and even college and thinking that my friends and I had achieved maturity only to be thwarted by adults who did not agree.  Maturity is relative.  Every stage of life brings new levels of maturity, and as we achieve more we often demand more respect for it.  Yet those who are "ahead of us" often look down and fail to recognize the new level of maturity is deserving of the respect being demanded.  I have often observed that those who demand respect are the least likely to have earned it or to be given it. 

We are all a product of the choices we make in life.  We end up with a life largely based on a foundation laid when we were much younger, by the choices, good and bad, that we made long ago. Yet it is not just the choices we make that control our destinies, but how we react to the circumstances those choices bring about.  A bad choice can cause pain and frustration, but in the end it is how we deal with that pain and frustration that sets us up for what comes later.

I would like to think that I try to make good choices, but hope that when my choices are bad that I can at least learn from them and move forward in a new and positive direction.

“Starving Artist” cliché or truism?

Is there inevitability for individuals choosing to be artists to end up starving or at least having to earn a living from something more mundane? Why? I have often pondered why so few artists can earn a living from their creativity.

Most of the time my theory is based on the idea that if you are really gifted in one area of life you are rarely given mad skills in others. Therefore if you are a gifted artist you are not likely to be a skilled sales person or bookkeeper. Annie Leibovitz undoubtedly is a gifted photographer, and has had more “success” than most artists could hope for. Yet, that success did not bring her long term financial stability. Why? Most of us never reach that level of notoriety, and cannot hope to earn a fortune from our craft. Why is it that so few of us can even earn a living from our craft?

I heard a story (on NPR, I think) about successful entrepreneurs. One of the things that sets them apart from the less successful is that they find a niche that needs filling, or keep looking until they find one. When they find that their product is a dud they dump it and move on until they find something that the market really wants. That’s great, if your goal is to sell someone else’s widgets. But what if it is your art that you are compelled to make that no one seems to want to buy? Do you give up creating things in your own style and mimic items that have a proven audience? Clearly that model works for some folks, look at the preponderance of people making and selling items with Disney, Hello Kitty or Twilight characters on them. But that is neither legal or honorable, nor is it truly creative. Do you listen to the myriad voices that suggest ways to improve your art, or new directions to explore? If their suggestions are coming from a marketing perspective is that more or less valid to an artist than if it were encouraging you to explore new artistic inspirations?

Do artists create because they are driven by something internal to make things, because they have something to say and art is their mode of communication, or because they see it as a viable career path? It may be some combination or none of those.

There are no Renaissance patrons out there offering to pay you room and board and provide all the supplies you could ever wish for. If you are compelled to create, no matter what your medium or your skill level to survive from the sale of your work you must also master sales and business skills as well. Yet, once an artist has a mastery of business skills what do they do if there is no market for their art?

So many questions, so few satisfactory answers.

What do you think?

Random thoughts

I bought a copy of Brian & Wendy Froud's The Heart of the Faerie Oracle when I was at Ren Con. I have never been much for Tarot or any form of "fortune telling/predicting" so it was mostly for the art that I made the purchase. Out of curiosity I have been pulling one card per day since then. They are undoubtedly beautiful so even if it were only for the chance to spend a little time each morning with the Froud's work I would still pull a card, but I have to confess that each card I have pulled has either pinpointed my current situation to a tee or given me something really important to think about for the day.

I started a Facebook Fan page recently. Facebook and I don't seem to get along well. I am not exaggerating when I say it took me over 6 hours to get my first picture to load successfully. I have had marginally better luck since then. But it is still making me nuts that I can have in excess of 4 dozen "upload failed" messages before I give up and try a different image. It does not seem to matter what size the image is, or if it's been edited or what I used to open the photo on my computer - facebook just does not want to work or play well with me or my computer. But I keep trying... if anyone would like to check out my fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ToadstoolsNTreestump/113120242050436?ref=ts

My kids are both in school bands, my daughter is in several. After years of limited success trying to volunteer at my kids schools high school music programs usually have a variety of jobs they need volunteers for. Over this past school year I have tried a lot of those "music booster" jobs, chaperoning, flag sewing, making things to sell at the booster table, equipment moving (a little), and what ever else I can do when it needs to be done. What is my reward for being helpful and involved? I've just been elected president of the music boosters. This should be interesting.