Arts in Education

The classes have begun!

I am one of the artists participating in an Arts Council grant program coordinated through Associated Artists in Winston-Salem which brings workshops into area middle and high schools. So far I have visited Jefferson Middle and Atkins High with "Fabric Is Your Paintbrush - Using Fuseable Fabric to Create Visual Images." It has been so much fun! The students designed their own expanded squares and then transferred them to fabric. Here are some of the results, and I think you will agree, they did a terrific job!

Cool, huh? I was impressed with how well everyone listened and participated, and I also got to see some of the things they have been working on in class. There are some talented kids out there!

This program is such a good thing...I remember how important my art classes were when I was in grade school. In large measure I can thank my high school art teacher Mrs. Wonderly for directing me along a creative path and my math teacher Mrs. Tillman for teaching me the aesthetic beauty of geometry...these two subjects were the foundation for my college studies and my career development. Arts and sciences combined...I'm glad to see arts are alive and well in our schools! And thanks to the Arts Council and Associated Artists, I'm able to contribute in some small measure...who knows, there may be a future art quilter in there somewhere!

Change of Scenery

This is where I spent last weekend And the views aren't even the best part of it....
The best part is that I was on a quilting retreat! Twice a year about 20 of us head to the beautiful NC mountains to Montreat and sew until we can't see straight. It is the MOST fun, and one of the times I put aside art quilting and go back to my roots of traditional piecing. I caught up on my Block of the Month blocks and worked on my Christmas quilt blocks...now there are 36 of them...each with 29 pieces. I also enjoyed catching up with everyone and seeing what they were working on, and of course as usual there were great things going on. Didn't sleep much...but that's not the point!

Monday I got to continue my traditional quilting at the 3rd grade Old Tyme Day at my children's elementary school. Complete with prairie dress and bonnet (what we do for our kids!) and several of my quilts - including one that is about 100 years old - I told the students about quilts in Colonial America and let them stitch on a whole cloth in a hoop stand. The cool thing is that the boys were as into it as the girls were and it was hard to get them to stop when it was time to move on to the next station! There were lots of fun hands on things for them to experience, like candle making, tin smithing, weaving, and there was even a horse so they could learn first hand about transportation back then.

Tuesday I jumped back to interior design and did a space plan for one of my corporate clients who is reallocating space on their second floor.

Wednesday I was up and out at the crack of dawn to teach fabric fusing to two art classes at one of our middle schools as part of an arts grant program. It was fun and I will be headed back there tomorrow to finish things up. I'm hoping to be able to take some pictures or their work to post. I will be working with 2-3 other middle and high schools as part of this grant.

Tomorrow evening is the opening reception for the invitational exhibit Reflections: Politics and Religion in Art where my piece "Temptation" is showing. This is at the Salem Fine Arts Center on the campus of Salem College...if you are local and want something fun to do come on by! It's free and open to the public.

Saturday is our turn to host our dinner group..."Grub Club" as it is called, which is made up of 6 families (12 adults and 14 children). We have been gathering monthly since all of our children were small...it's lots of fun and lots of good eating! This weekend it will be a traditional Thanksgiving feast. And by Sunday, well, by then I plan to rest! Right after I get up and teach Sunday School... :-)

Change

I watched last night's events unfold with a sense of hope that perhaps we have finally reached the point in history where we can look past the color of a person's skin and come together as what we ALL are in essence - humans, sharing this one planet we have to inhabit. Change has come. It's a new day!

Regardless of where your vote was cast, it's time for each of us to move forward and make a better future...for the sake of us all.