Happy little clouds, amazing teenagers, and a dirty little secret!

Today was a pretty cool day for me.  I saw a lot of successes and very few failures, and kids that were proud of their work.  Now THAT is a good day.

I have started my advanced art students in a new project that I have personally never tackled before- making a relief sculpture out of clay.  For those of you who do not know your art terminology, a relief sculpture is one meant to be seen from just the front.  It can be a low relief (think of the portraits on a coin) or high relief (think Mount Rushmore for a Rocky mountain high relief!!) or somewhere in between.  I did a sample of a horse galloping in sort of a cloud of smoke or fog- never saw that coming, am I right???
One of my students has worked out a wonderful Loch Ness kind of dragon that is swirling in and out of water- not an easy accomplishment for a clay piece.  Good job, girl!  The rest of the students have not yet worked out the details yet, but I will keep you posted.

Cattails and field

A work in progress

We also did some good work on the big scenery back drop for the play.  I have some grainy pictures from my phone to share, I will produce better ones as time marches on towards performance weekend.  I rocked the clouds in the sky this afternoon, I am always striving towards improving my cloud work. I feel it is still a bit weak, but I'm getting there.  While surveying the scenery I decided it needed a little more life, and I figured out where I am going to put a small herd of cows.  I did my first one literally by hand.  I finger-painted it.  Don't tell my high school kids, they are always begging to finger-paint.  They will not be finger painting in MY class, they make enough of a mess as it is.  But my dirty little secret, people,  is that I finger paint during scenery creation ALL THE TIME.  Why use a brush when you can use nature's own brush- your hands?  Which is how I come to have paint slobbered all over me and my clothes and my shoes- I sort of wallow in the paint.  But I clean up after myself!

My favorite flower- the daff

So, I get outside to finally go home and surprise!  It is snowing- again.  Jeez.  I would like to present a spring garden picture that will make you feel warm and spring-like.  I was complaining to Lola about the weather, but she would have none of it.  She has to stand out there in that stuff all day long.  Jacpot was all full of snow, so he apparently doesn't mind.  Fred is stuck inside doing tax returns so he prefers that it stays nasty until April 15.  Fred is no fun at all!  Or at least not until April 16!

Until next time.... be a joy giver, not a joy stealer!
And find a way to finger-paint!