Summer Vacation in a Word

Ready for our first hike!

Last Tuesday, to the backdrop of a summer storm slapping sheets of water against the windows in rhythmic gusts, the faculty and staff joined together one last time for a year-end breakfast meeting.   Being somewhat of a tornado survivor, I kept a watchful eye on the color of the sky.  If it turned green, I planned on literally chilling out with my colleagues in the kitchen's walk-in refrigerators. If it just stayed grey, I could sit and enjoy the surprising culinary talents of Mr. Beun who was busy serving up tender pancakes swimming in his homemade syrup.

Fortunately,  overcast grey remained the predominant color, so I stayed seated to learn about my colleagues' summers.  Mrs. Roberts challenged each of us to condense our vacation intentions into a single word to share with everyone.  Around the room I heard words like: "family," "relax," "read," "Europe," "Israel," "mission trip,"  "clean," "garden," and "wedding."  Mr. Rittenour's word, "chaos," made me laugh out loud.

 I have many summer plans;  however,  the one that tops everything was also voiced by numbers of other teachers: "Grandchildren."  Oh, the list of things I want to do like paint, garden, read, organize stuff and bake my brains out will fill my days.  But, the overarching joy of this vacation will be spending blue sky summertime with sweetness in a nappy named "Wesley."

Happy trails to you.  Signing off until summer's end.  Mrs. B.

Hellos and Goodbyes

To: Mrs. Jensen   From:  Mrs. Brott

At two o’clock tomorrow, the last locker will slam, and goodbyes will echo down the hallway.  I paint a picture in my head of summer pressing it’s face against my window screen, and can almost catch the smell of fresh cut grass.  The breeze whispers hello warm weather, unstructured days, Colorado vacations, and painting.  It breathes goodbye to grading projects, writing lesson plans and to-do lists that never end.   Yet,  between all the hellos and goodbyes, I’ll still be grateful for the nine months of students, colleagues and classes that enrich my life in so many ways.  So while hellos are the easiest to do, goodbyes rustle in a sense of closure and change that challenges.  

This week I said goodbye to my friend and colleague, Jacquie Jensen, who leaves for the mission field of Africa in the fall. Mrs. Jensen superbly handled 1st through 5th grade art for eleven years at Lake Center Christian School. Sharing an art room with three different art teachers is a dance for space, and Mrs. Jensen is one of the most organized and gracious people I know.  Since our class times would abut each other’s, I was often setting up for class while she was finishing hers. I couldn’t help but observe the respect and love her students showed her, as well as the pride they had in the quality of work they made.   Her bulletin board by the desk often sported scribbled notes and pictures in crayon from students expressing their appreciation for art as well as herself.  If I could add this note to the stacks of theirs, it would say: 

Dear Jacquie,  I couldn’t have asked for a more thoughtful and kind colleague. You have a way of looking at the right side of things and for the best in people that inspires me.  Godspeed on your journey to Africa, my friend.  While I’ll miss you, I know He has great things in store for you as you walk by faith! 

Now there will be two art teachers holding down the fort at LCCS.  Miss Reichenberger, currently our 6 - 8th grade art teacher, will take over Mrs. Jensen’s responsibilities.  I look forward to the promise of another year and a new dance.  

Snorkels and the Fine Art of Inventory

Ready for anything!

I can’t recollect one art education class ever mentioning that at the end of every school year, you had to count all your supplies down to the last crayon, pencil and paintbrush.   They probably didn’t want to scare us out of art education entirely.   It was bad enough that our department resided in the basement of a building prone to flash flooding.  In heavy rains, we were instructed to run up the stairs, or carry snorkel gear.  Learning to avoid disaster instilled in me a keen sense of survival which has served me well during inventory season.   The following are some interesting, albeit, random observations about life and art as a result of the annual inventory ritual.   
  

1.        On Color:  If all the colors dressed as contestants in a beauty pageant, blue would win “Miss Popularity.” Anything in blue – paper, markers, paints, etc.  gets depleted first.   Always order extra blue.

2.       On Unusual Skills:  It takes years of practice, and bravado to refill glue bottles from a gallon jug of Elmer’s without spilling.  – I’m actually still working on this one;  I’ve got the bravado, but still working on accuracy.

3.       On things we take for granted:  Art as we know it will end if newspaper companies convert to publishing on line.

4.        On supplies:  An art room can’t have too many Styrofoam egg cartons.  They make convenient disposable palettes.

5.       On great unsolved mysteries:  The amount of paint shirts hanging on our storage room hooks nearly doubles every year.  I ruthlessly weed out intruders in May or they’d take over an entire wall.

6.       On dinner during inventory season:  If you have speed dial on your phone, the number one position should read “Pizza Hut” because that’s what your family will eat until inventory is completed.

Due to some unusual state funding deadlines, my inventory and order had to be completed early.  For the first time in 14 years, I’m really enjoying a more leisurely pace as the last week of school unwinds and eating home-cooked food.  

Tape Casting and "Ghost Senior"

"Ghost Senior"

"Escape"

"Headache"

The school days remaining to our seniors can be counted on one hand.  So, last Tuesday I set before my senior advanced art students their final high school problem: As a team, tape casting a human figure and installing him on school grounds in such a way as to reinforce context and meaning.  The project, inspired by modern  installation artist, Mark Jenkins, involved:


1. Deciding the pose and installation location best suited for a sculpture that would elicit a response from the school community
2. Wrapping a willing student in packing tape over the course of a couple of class periods.  

3. Reassembling the pieces/parts so that the figure had structural integrity.



All wrapped up

4. Securely installing the finished work in the desired location.

With one figure down, and one and a half to go, the pressure remains to finish the other sculptures over the next few days.   We installed the first completed figure Ghost Senior last Thursday using a very tall ladder.    Unfortunately, I couldn’t maintain my balance and exert the force necessary to jam the torso into the duct.  I think the air was a bit thin up there.  At any rate, one of my students took over after I extracted his promise that he wouldn’t fall; and if he did, his parents wouldn’t sue me.  Gravity kept defying us until one of the kids had the brilliant idea of skewering him through the torso with a pole for support.  Poor Ghost Senior, he now looks like he’s not only haunting the hallways, but getting ready for a barbecue.  But for now he’s secure and won’t be going anywhere, let alone a barbecue, until someone else kindly retrieves him at the end of the school year.  

Installation Crew for "Ghost Senior

The Final Chapter: Mural 2010 - 2011

Finished!

Ribbon cutting

Signing

Red Velvet and Chocolate Cake to celebrate - delicious!

Kindergartner stops in the hallway as I'm passing and asks, "Why do you paint on the walls?"
Me:  "Well, ...because it's fun."
Kindergartner,  with a worried tone responds,  "Are you allowed to?"
Me:  "Yes, I got permission."
Kindergartner, adding doubtfully, "OK."

If I'm totally honest in answering the first question,  "fun" plays only a small role in why I muralize wall real estate.  Besides growing my students' artistic skills, the  main reason I keep painting our walls is because art has the power to make us think and question.  It has the power to affect the way we perceive  public and private spaces.

Since I'm a quiet person, visual art is the voice I use to encourage and lift the spirits of my school community.  It's gratifying that the rather dull hike down the hallway formerly dubbed "the tunnel,"  is now an inviting walk towards the newly christened "crossroads".

 Heartfelt thanks go to my art club kids who helped transform our space with their time and talents, and to a supportive administration who really does allow us to color on the walls.

Mural Chapter 14: Text and Image

Lettering with a liner brush makes a difference

Text and image, we unfold the meaning of the written word with marriage to a strong visual.  This year’s mural, paired with Jeremiah 6:16 yields a rich and refreshing look at Auguste Macke’s painting “Vegetable Fields”.  The verse reads: 

“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it...”

This past Friday and Saturday, I painted a portion of the verse across the top and took care of a few minor mural details.  Frankly, lettering isn’t something I do well - I used to watch my Grandpa letter signs for a living,  fascinated by the rhythmic flow of his brush across the surface.  My lettering skills fall short in comparison to my Grandfather’s; I’m just happy it’s legible. We unveil the mural tomorrow!

Minterm Mosaic

Miniterm students take a turn making the  mosaic table

Grouted and ready to go!

Miniterm has come and gone – the last bits of glass long since tucked away until next time.  The final memento of good times, in the form of our group mosaic table, goes up for sale along with a host of other offerings this coming Saturday, May 7 in our annual school auction.  Thanks to the groups' combined efforts, and particularly to one very determined student who spent a morning fine tuning  shapes, the table looks great.  We hope it finds a good home.