The crucible of painting for The Crucible

Yesterday was my first day back to school after two days of cancellations for Hurricane Sandy and I ended up having to ditch out on almost all of my classes because of set painting for The Crucible.

(-__-)

Well... I didn't really ditch out on all of them, some of them I were drafted to join me in the endless pursuit of dry brushing every surface to make it look like distressed wood grain. Also, my department head covered some of my classes (like study hall) and I took some of her students in addition to some of the ones I had and drafted them into painting as well.

TOGETHER, WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!

The official shirts for this production are so choice. Praise the Lord for a marketing and design team that shares the same vision as I do by doing things stylistically in a minimalist fashion and VERY WELL at that. 

As it turns out, we have sort have been doing what we've been doing wrong and after much contemplation, I am going to try and turn this set building ship on a dime and lighten up the wall panels so they look more like the three separate vertical planes (on each side) that we wanted them to be to begin with. It just makes more sense that way!

I was sitting back in the sound booth and it just occurred to me that it should be done but rather than being the killjoy and telling the students, "OK... we are going to have to do at least two more... MAYBE three... more rounds of dry brushing to light the value on some specific sections."

Before I made them all do it, I took a picture with my phone and then burned and dodged it in photoshop to have an actual example of what we were going to be doing when we changed it all up. I say: Work SMARTER not HARDER!! 

This might be the most frustrating and rewarding set design and painting I've done so far. It was conceptualized to be as original as possible - though the two faculty directors/producers did cull and give me inspiration images to (literally) draw the set designs from. The craziness that was Hurricane Sandy has definitely set us all back a little but Lord-willing we will make this all happen and it WILL be AWESOME.

I will be cre8ting come January 2013

Have you seen this yet...

I found it by way of my blogroll on the legendary Kathy Barbro's site Art Projects for Kids.

I have no clue who/what is behind it but I think it's 1) BRILLIANT and 2) something I will totally do now that I have a much more workable home art studio for my family and I to use. 

(BTW, I will be giving you all a virtual tour of it as soon as I get the old studio space cleaned and organized - it will serve as the supplies room - and the new art supplies arrive via Fedex for my family to be surprised by.)(I cannot tell you just how excited I am about surprising my husband and daughter with brand new supplies!!! They are going to be BLOWN. AWAY.)

Whatever the case, that video up there totally rings true for me and in an effort to move out of God's way and more fully commit myself to living for Him and serving Him and CREATING as He created me to create, I am absolutely going to be jumping on the creative bandwagon movement. I hope you are too!! 

Just for fun: The College Board | Interactive Community Art

Do you have any favorite traditions within your school community? I recently shared the tradition that is Field day as my school does it (in the beginning of the year vs. the end). I in the past I have also shared about other traditions like Spirit week (that happens mid year to kick off second semester) in postings HERE, HERE, and HERE (This last one was really good because it has a video of one of my past students. He had made himself a transformer costume that actually transformed!!! BRILLIANT!!!) And there was that one posting I shared right around prom when I helped one of my senior students take a decidedly visual and creative approach when asking his date to accompany him to the big event in this posting.  (the guys asking the girls in fun and original ways is also traditional at my school.

For as much as I consider myself to be a very non-traditional type who prefers to not celebrate or acknowledge the usual traditions in my own personal/family life - like the fact that I/we don't do trick-or-treating or Elf on the shelf or Santa Claus or the Easter bunny, etc. - I really REALLY love all of the traditions that are kept at my school year after year. In my experiences the traditions draw people together every year that they happen and they also really make people (like alumni and family members) want to come and join in the community and remember what makes the school and its community so amazingly special and unique.

One tradition that I have not shared yet is the infamous College Board that hangs in the academic building (we have three buildings and if you came on our campus you might think we were a small college because that's what facilities suggest). Here is this year's college board hanging in the hallway...


The College Board is something that is used only by the seniors but admired by all of the rest of us. It is interactive and participatory and gives a place for senior students to "graffiti" their name as well as all of the colleges where they are accepted and/or decide to go.

Every year the board has a new design and theme and that is determined by the Visual Art prefect (a senior student who is elected by peers to be a leader of specifically defined areas). The senior prefect works with me and other faculty advisors to conceptualize their visual design (that should illuminate a little about what makes their senior class so unique and special) and then they paint their design on the board. The board is a giant piece of plywood that is primed and painted year after year after year which means it's the same board since when it was first started. (Maybe seven years ago?) It is pretty huge physically - approximately 4' by 6' in size. Here is a closer look at this year's design...

 

The Visual Arts prefect did a phenomenal job this year on the College Board and she just presented it the other day to the whole school during our weekly assembly time. She worked so hard and I am ridiculously proud of the job she did. An incredible amount was spent both thinking about what apps would be included as well as the inspiration behind just using the iPhone itself as subject matter. Some of the apps included don't actually exist but the student did a beautiful job thinking critically about what they would look like if they did exist and then making them happen.

The student worked all summer on it and I stopped in to see her (at her house/home studio! She is VERY serious about her art and her parents are so supportive - such a blessing!) and I know that in addition to her also learning how to go about creating such a major piece of artwork she also learned a lot about technique as well. She learned the importance of preserving the integrity of her marks as well as thinking about creating and depicting the essence of something and how that can be way more powerful and accurate instead of trying to paint it exactly - which, sometimes, results in a painting looking so far from what it actually is a painting of!

If you don't do something like The College Board at your school, I absolutely suggest it as a very awesome thing to try at your school! It truly does take visual art out of the classroom and then it also serves as a catalyst to draw the school community together in order to celebrate and acknowledge the hard work and achievements of the students.

When work isn't really work

Do you have any traditional school events that you participate in and look forward to every year? I do. It's my school's Field day!!!

Normally, events like Field day occur toward the end of the year versus at the beginning of the year but I teach at a private Christian school and we do a lot of things different than how other schools do it. Field day is one of those things. For us? Field day happens within the first month or so of the school year and it is a REALLY BIG DEAL. But before I explain how and why it is a big deal, here is a little bit of background in order to fully explain field day.

I, along with every other faculty/staff member, serve as a mentor to a group of 10-12 students (usually same sex until senior year when there are mixed groups). The group is comprised of the same 9th-11th grade students year after year and I meet with them once a week (the time is within the class schedule) in order to connect personally with them and just generally form a solid (closer) bond/friendship within the school community. Basically, it's like the idea of a homeroom or advisory class/group but on a whole lot more personal level. I am permitted and encouraged to share my testimony of faith with them, guide them through devotionals and scripture study, lead them in prayer as informed by their requests or notations of gratitudes, in addition to just serve as an older (and wiser?) individual in case they are having challenges of any sort - whether personal or academic.

(OK. Now I can explain Field day a little bit better!)

My school does Field day at the beginning of the year instead of the end because it is intended to serve as a bonding experience for each mentor group from the get-go. Each mentor group competes against other mentor groups and team-building/oriented type activities (rather than just competing grade against grade) AND each mentor group also dresses by a group-decided-upon theme! My group has always been Team Elle Woods (like from Legally Blonde) because of my last name and also because it's meant to be kind of silly and fun and funny since I am far from girly and frilly the way the Legally Blonde Elle Woods is known to be. The point of dressing up though is to be a little crazy so my group of girls (who were deliberately matched to me and my personality) and I have great fun dressing up head-to-toe in pink, purple, and all things super girly.

So. That's basically Field day. And we just had ours recently and it was SO much fun. This year was even more fun though because they changed things up and added a community service component to the front half of the day where each mentor group worked together for a few hours in the local surrounding communities to be good stewards of our time and talents and help out in ways that others might have really needed it! My group was able to have the great blessing to work at a local playschool center finishing a mural that was in desperate need of more hands and feet to finish it! Here is my group hard at work...

This was the first year that we did a morning of service before an afternoon of pure fun and silliness but the service morning was such a hit that we are absolutely going to be doing it again next year. The other day I did some debriefing with my mentor girls and they said that even though the service morning as a lot of work and really tired them out by the time the afternoon rolled around, they really REALLY loved putting their hands, feet, and hearts to work at helping to lift up our surrounding communities.

RoyGBiv day still on my mind

Technically this is day-old news here on the blog but this is a great shot (not taken by me) that is currently parked front and center on my school's homepage...

*sigh*

What a wonderful day and opportunity for fellowship it was!!!

I have been able to speak with a number of folks (administration, faculty, and students alike) about what they took away from it and I have gotten nothing but super positive feedback. Administration has even said that they would fully support (meaning funding and all) for this to be a recurring event at the end of every single year!!!! *SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRE!!!!!!!*

You must realize something: This idea originate from my own "crazy" imagination in the midst of winter when I was also working on getting the ombre experience lesson idea together while also juggling everything needed to do the sound of music set design and fabrication. I casually mentioned it to the one senior student who spearheaded this with me with (sort of) the expectation that he was absolutely "crazy" enough to want to do it. (He's just that kind of awesome and so I kind of wasn't surprised that he wanted to do it.)

Here are some more shots and things to note of how we got from start to finish on the whole thing.

We did a number of trial runs with inflated balloons to see how long they would maintain their ability to self-levitate. We determined that we had a max of 8-10 hours before they would lose their ability so in order to fully utilize that ability, we determined we would have to inflate the balloons the morning/day of the release. Our preferred time frame would have been mid-morning but we ended up being given the tail-end of the school day in the way of the last two periods - so about 1:30-2pm was when we would do the release.

In order to accommodate both the inflating of the balloons, storage until the release, etc. etc. etc., we used our school's performance arts center/venue and gathered over 20 students to help inflate, tie off, and attach balloon clips (with strings pre-attached) to the balloons. We estimated it might take us as long as five hours with two tanks of helium based on some balloon inflating that had been done weeks before for another event for around 300 balloons. We ordered 600 (100 of each color from Oriental Trading) but ended up with less than 550 because of shoddy balloon quality, balloons that burst from being overinflated ("pilot" error, if you will), and ones that just got away from us and floated up to the ceiling while we were trying to inflate them. We had the students come in at 5:15am to do the inflating and we were done and cleaned up by 8am when school started. (Note: EVERY student that came in said it was "totally worth it" and other students that missed out were disappointed that they didn't take the opportunity to join in!!!)

We stored the balloons in this venue until they students would all gather together for the presentation and instructions about how this whole event would go down...

We did provide lots of coffee and other yummy breakfast food as extra incentive for those who got themselves up and into school so early. 

 At the last period of the day, all of the students were gathered in the venue for the presentation about color theory (done by my senior student partner-in-crime) and he capped off the presentation with specific instructions about how each student was to get their balloon off the balloon clips/strings and out to the school quad in formation in order to release them. There were diagrams/maps that showed the path they were to walk and volunteers on-hand to facilitate traffic control and flow. Volunteers were wearing rainbow tie-dyed shirts so though would be easy to pick out from the crowd.

 Once the students got out to the quad, there were more volunteers (donning the requisite tie-dyed shirts) who were holding large poster board signs corresponding with all six colors of the balloons we had.

Students stood in their color group (away from other groups) until they were given the "OK" that every single student had exited the building with a balloon and was ready for the release.

 

 The center of the color "wheel" formation was marked with a duo of balloons (in black and white) where my senior student stood with an electronic megaphone and I was with my camera to document the action.

 When all was clear and everyone was confirmed to be outside with a balloon in hand, the volunteers were given the "yes" to bring their groups toward the center and we all bunch together as closed as we could. A countdown was given from 20 and then the balloons were finally released.

Again, I'm sorry I don't have any video of the actually release but it was truly (for lack of better words) MAGICAL to experience. Even now just looking at the stills of the event above with all of those colorful balloons floating up to the sun, I can hardly put into words how it felt to be there. And that, my friends, was/is the whole point of such a thing as RoyGBiv day in the first place!!!

It's about not just telling but SHOWING the students the gift that is an experience, that gift that is visual art, the gift that is being a part of the creation of visual art, and the gift that is being a part of something so much larger than itself.

A lovely blog reader (Hi, Cynthia S!) left a wonderfully supportive comment on my original posting about this event saying that she was going to "copy" this for her school next year. Friends, folks, blog readers, WORLD - PLEASE COPY THIS IDEA!!!!! Like I said before, to my knowledge (and per Google) no single day like RoyGBiv day exists at all AND IT SHOULD.

My own personal thoughts about this are to maybe not make it one single day that is the same day every year (though the last day of school is a good one for it to be) but perhaps making it a "surprise" experience - so you never know when RoyGBiv day will be - is better since that type of thing better adheres to the whole way that rainbows happen to begin with. Rainbows are kind of surprise to come upon, right? But they are always welcome. Now, for something like a balloon release? Well, that takes some planning so you would certainly require a select group of folks that would have to be "in the know" about it but my thoughts are that it could happen in other ways too. Like, perhaps, one day at lunch rainbow cupcakes could be made and served to surprise all of the students. (BTW - this is also another significant undertaking to make happen. I know from experience!) or you could figure out a way to get a sno-cone truck to come in and serve up those pre-fab rainbow sno-cones (I know, whatever, it would definitely cut down on the labor to make RoyGBiv happen in the first place).

Whatever the case, I'm actually leaning towards making RoyGBiv day a regular occurrence at my school. My reasoning also harkens back to the fact that I teach and live by an establishment of faith and the rainbow is SO sacred as it is featured in scripture. I love being able to draw students back to scripture to remind them of how much of this present-day world still contains the makings of scripture from way back when because it helps them to see how timeless the words of the Bible truly are. For purposes not of faith though? Well, RoyGBiv day is just awesome and that's all there is to it.

So all of this is to say that if it can be done at my school? It can be done at YOURS too and I encourage you to help make this happen because you just have no idea the enormity of the gift that you will be giving your school/students/self/colleagues/administration/community when they witness it. :)

It all starts here

Yesterday (last night especially!) was big for me. Not only was it the start of my 32nd year, it was also my first fine art gallery showing EVER.

Months ago I was "networking" to drum up interest in a visual art ministry endeavor I was trying to "hatch" (see here) and I gave a contact card to a person connected with National Community Church here in DC.  Weeks passed and nothing happened with it. It was slightly frustrating but I also took it as a sign from the good Lord that the time for things to happen with it just wasn't now.

Fast forward a few weeks and I get a seemingly random email from someone at NCC asking me if I was interested in participating in gallery night showing with other DC Christian artists. There was an application to fill out and slides to prepare to be approved and it had to be done within 24 hours because that was the deadline. All of those weeks and months of not hearing anything? Well, the answer was out there but it just wasn't meant to be revealed until then. God's orchestration is truly amazigood and ng.

To make a long story just a little longer, I applied and was accepted to the show and last night it happened at Ebenezer's Coffeehouse in NE DC...

My only grievance is that the lighting was terrible on three of my pieces when they had promised to bring in more to correct the situation. *shrug* Live and learn and I'll make sure it won't happen like that again.

The opportunity to show again in this venue was presented to me at the end of the event but I might pass in favor of pursuing a venue that offers a more classically defined gallery environment showing that is a lot more permanent - what I showed yesterday was put up and taken down in only hours.

My dream since I was a little girl has always been to be a real and working fine artist. Last night was a small step in that direction but all great big changes start even with the smallest steps.  Now that I have this under my belt I'm aiming for something bigger. I'll let you know when it happens. Not IF it happens. ;)