Almost ready to go (updated)

Faithful helpers

I love this time of the year.  The melting snow, the fattening buds on the trees, the painting of the stage at school.  It is the harbinger of spring, of green and of the beginning of play week.  Play week is the most exhausting, tiring, exhilarating and satisfying event of the month of March- except maybe for being able to see the grass finally instead of snow!

Pond on the stage!

It was stage painting day today, and wow, holy blue floor, batman!  This was the first time we have ever painted the floor anything other than black.  Painting the stage floor is a soothing event- it covers any unsightly spills that have happened over the course of the past 6 weeks, it makes the stage look clean and pristine, and it gets everyone in the right frame of mind to do their best.  At least it is for me!

There were lots of volunteers to paint the floor and the dreaded giant, malformed eggs and paint they did- fueled by lots of carbonated beverages and a bit of chocolate.  I am soooo relieved to have everything almost done.  Tomorrow one student- the lovely Lisa- and I are going to paint the lily pads to complete the effect.  I know you're mad to know!  The rest will be revealed tomorrow!

Egg painters

So until next time- be a joy giver-- and let me sleep in!


And by the way, yes we DO have to repaint the stage black!  Wanna help??  I'll bring chocolate!

Post Script:

Pond with lily pads

Home for the froglets

The lily pads and one lovely water lily has been added to the pond on stage.  I makes for a pretty awesome effect, Lisa helped me put the final touches on this stage!  It was great to hang out with her for a while.

water lily

Sleepin' with da Fishes

Ok, I swear- only 2 more discussions about all of this paper mache stuff that I am involved in.  After all, there is only one more week before this play finally happens, it can't go on for much longer!

I was frazzled yesterday morning thinking about how in the world I was going to get those 25 fish hats finished.  I have been thinking about little else other than how I am going to make these hats, how am I going to make THOSE GIANT EGGS, how am I EVER going to get all of this DONE?  I go to bed thinking about it, I wake up thinking about it, I think about it all the time, even in the car!  I will never get all of this done after school with my now smaller group of scenery painters (track has started- rats!)- what's a Mad Art teacher to do???

Ding, ding, ding, ding

I teach elementary school kids and they love EVERYTHING.  That is my favorite thing about elementary students, they are game for anything.  (Well, that and the hugs)  They enjoy all sorts of crazy things, and even something I didn't think turned out well, they will tell me it is their favorite project of the year.  I have an exuberant 4th grade on Wednesdays, and that was the perfect class to help out.  Especially when several of those kids are in the play and will be wearing the fish hats!!!!  I am amazed at what I think of in the wee hours of the morning, when my coffee is just kicking in!

My 4th grade buddies (the faces were changed to protect the innocent!  hehe) were thrilled to paper mache the fishes.  They dove in like the troopers that they are, and did a great job. But, in fact, the 2 classes of students were not able to totally finish the school of fish, so take it away, HS art classes.

Elementary assistance

Some of my 4th grade buddies

Fish hats in progress

Fish painting

I am not above bribery- and I shamelessly bribed my  HS art classes with Girl Scout cookies.  I was fortunate enough to get 3 boxes of Girl Scout cookies as a thank you gift from some very pleasant Brownie scouts.  I truly appreciated it, but Mad husband brought home 2 boxes just the night before.  Big problem- I love cookies, but I do not need to eat the cookies.  And 5 boxes is just out of control.  So, I got out a sleeve of delectable shortbread cookies and told my first HS class that anyone who paper mached would get cookies-  Aha!  It worked!  At least for a while. And that tack continued to work through out the afternoon, I bribed them with cookies, they paper mached and the cookie supply dwindled quickly.  With the help of my loyal scenery painter crew after school, we finished the macheing and got a good start on painting the hats.  I also built eggs, but I will save that for tomorrow!

Painting of fish

I left the art room, tonight, swimming with fish hats, and it looks like they will fit the kids and do what needs to be done.  I hope to get a couple good pictures of them dancing during dress rehearsal next week.  Such satisfaction amongst the gnashing teeth and clenched jaws....

Until next time- be a joy giver.  If you can't kill them with kindness, bribe them with cookies!

It Doesn't Take Much

Sometimes good things are BIG!

I scored a great prize today!  I have been worrying about making these giant eggs for the musical, "Honk", that we are going to be performing next weekend.  I mean worry with a capital "W".  I am worried they are going to look dorky, I am worried I won't make them round enough, I am real worried I won't finish them in time, I am worried that they will fall over, suffocate the children inside, fall apart, become unusable and I WAS worried that I wouldn't have enough cardboard to make the crazy things.  I came across 2 HUGE pieces of cardboard on a cart in the hallway.  Can you imagine- right on a cart? Yeah, baby!  This kind of thing is an art teacher's dream.  It is like finding a gift with a bow on it outside your door, or someone made you cookies and left them on your kitchen table.  You have a great treat and you didn't even have to hardly do anything to indulge.  So after finding the relative owner of the cardboard, and making it MINE, I merrily wheeled it down the hallway to my art room, where I began it's transformation into giant egg.

Hmm, it sort of looks more like a squat carrot.  Well, onward!

Some of you might not know that I teach elementary children art, too.  I have them in the morning, so I don't remember the shenanigans that they get into as well as the HS kids.  That is because I have discovered I have CRS syndrome.  CRS stands for Can't Remember Stuff. You can substitute the word in the "S" slot for any colorful noun you would like, but for this purpose- stuff.  Tonight, for the 3rd night in a row, I have forgotten a cup of tea in the microwave for an hour or MORE!!  Last night I forgot the tea twice, as the first time I ended up giving it over to the Mad Husband so I selfishly could have a fresh cup.  Yes, in the space of 1 minute and 30 seconds I can completely forget about the existence of the tea that I so lovingly put into the microwave, after reading the sage quotation on the Good Earth tea bag. I have the spun honey on the counter with a spoon, I walk out of the room and then wham.  CRS has struck again.  Good thing I don't have to take care of anything important like children or pets or something... oh wait!  Did I feed the horse?

Still waiting

So, until next time, be a joy giver- don't forget!

A Great Way to End the Day

I have a HUGE class 8th hour.  8th hour is a difficult time as it is, being the last period of the day, people are tired and cranky and hyper.  Instead of getting things done, they watch the clock, pace around, look out the window.  And you should see what the kids are trying to do!

Anyway, like I was saying, I have a class of 28 students.  Technically, I have 2 classes, one that has 24 students in it and one that has 4 students.  Yes, all at the same time.  And of these students, 24 of them are freshmen and sophomores, 2/3 of them boys.   Now if you are not a high school teacher, you really don't understand the ramifications of the statement I just made.  Stay with me here- sophomores and freshmen (young and immature), vast majority- boys (yikes), 8th hour (did I mention how difficult... oh, yes I did),  art supplies, and 9 (count them) window to stare out of.  Not an ideal situation, let me tell you.  They are a pretty jovial group of kids, overall a bunch of lively, agreeable students who are crammed into one room, with uneven results. The few upperclassmen I have are barricaded off in the 2nd art room- the clay room- and the young 'uns are not allowed in.  This is good,  because they need constant monitoring!  Ok, I'll stop begging for sympathy here.

So it was the end of the day, and the natives were getting restless, and one student said some little irritating thing to one of the other boys in the room- I, like I always do, tried to diffuse the situation by making a comment that sort of made the statement seem like a back-handed compliment.  I try to use my powers for good.  After a bit of minor discussion about said statement, one of the other kids said to me- I am still pretty amazed by this- "Mrs. Oswald, you always try to make us feel good about ourselves."

Silent pause.

Wow, that was a great way to end the day. From the mouth of a boy who I never expected would say such a thing. I was so surprised, I was rendered slightly speechless.  I had been standing there trying to figure out if I was ever going to let any of them ever go to the bathroom, drinking fountain, or LMC again for the rest of the semester..... not to mention grace me with their presence during study hall.  Ha!  If they think that I need to have them pestering me during my small class, they have another thing...... oh, man.  That was a great compliment.  Sigh.

This is why I am the Mad Art Teacher, I guess.  Those little comments are my paycheck and my benefits.  And the governor can't take that away from me.

Hope springs eternal!

We are in the home stretch for the scenery.  The backdrop is about 95 % complete and really what needs to be done is the little kid fish hats and the giant eggs.  The fish hats are partly done, a couple are paper mached, and need to be fitted and painted. The eggs are being worked on.  This will be an interesting week!

Until next time- be a joy giver, you never know when someone is going to notice!  :)

Really? We need that hour of sleep....

Ugh, I must fight the urge to become a whining, complaining "middle-aged" person, but I have a real hard time with the losing that hour of sleep in the spring.  Do we really care when we have our daylight hours that much that we have to upset our sleep cycles?  After all, the whole tone of the day is set by how well you rested the night before.  Took 2 hours to fall asleep?  Feel like your pillow is made of gravel? Your day will not start off well, but nothing that 3 or 4 cups of coffee can't solve.  Fell asleep but then woke up 35 times- probably from Mr. Snore laying next to you?  Students can expect snappish behaviors, but eventually the coffee, soda and sugar that you have been ingesting all day will bring you to some sort of equilibrium by 3 pm or so.  Or how about that terrific couldn't fall asleep for hours, dozed fitfully, and of course fell soundly asleep right before the alarm went off?  An IV drip of caffeine isn't going to help you out that day!  Daylight savings time is just not good for any of us!  Now, talk to me next October when we get that glorious extra hour of the day and I will be singing a whole different tune, I think that is my favorite day of the year, after my birthday...... and Thanksgiving..... and maybe Christmas......

Butter fly chair

garden bench

So I am thinking about sunny weather and spring and summer and have been planning some of my art work for the summer break.  I want to finish my giant metal hand.  I began planning for my hand sculpture about 3 years ago,, after I took my concrete mosaic sculpture class at Pigeon Lake (aka art boot camp) in Drummond, WI.  I made the lovely "Lola", then started a garden bench, which I finished the following summer.  I also began and have mostly completed a butterfly chair (my own personal throne!!) along with some other miscellaneous things which includes my large hand.  I sort of got a vision (probably in the midst of one of my sleep deprived nights) where I saw a hand emerging from the ground, holding a shallow bowl of planted flowers.  The logistics of it have been discussed, at length, with many knowledgeable people.  I am not sure exactly how I am going to make it do what I want it to, for sure, but I have some ideas that I am going to try this summer.  It will involve digging, rerod, and some serious concrete mixing, but I think the results are going to be magnificent.  I still can't believe I am making art with concrete- too weird for words.

Back view of hand- incomplete

Well, surprise, surprise it snowed on the weekend when I can actually be out in the weather.  But it was so beautiful that I HAD to go out and take some photos.  It is sort of a siren's song for me, I have no control over it.  If I see photo-worthy opportunities, I will be taking camera in hand and going for that next magnificent shot.  I have never q u i t e gotten the best, most full of fabulosity, picture that I want, but I am working on it.  So, yes, that was me you saw on Omaha Road in the snow storm taking pictures OF the snow- in March- like we don't know what THAT looks like already.  But that is the mad photographer for you!

Until next time- please be a joy giver.... someone will notice!  :)

Chicka dee-dee-dee-dee

Scarecrow tree

Deer path

Progress

Kind of beautiful!

     I am thrilled to say that I got out of school before 7 pm today!  I beat the busses out of the parking lot, in fact!  I got home in time to go for a walk, which is where progress begins today.  Usually by this time of the year I am so ensconced in scenery painting and such things, I have stopped my exercise program entirely.  I usually just give up on it from February through the end of March, but for some reason this year- I have not!  Good news, as heaven knows it is harder to get back your fitness level when you are over - uh- I'm going with 35.  I easily conquered my almost 4 mile route that I like to work up to during the summer.  I am waaaaay ahead of the game.  I'm thinking about working towards the 7 mile loop by the time school is over, then I think I'll just walk over to Minneapolis or something.  I bet I could find a sister that would take me in!  :)

It's all those years of furrowed brows!

     So, during this walk I thought it would be fun to snap a quick picture of myself and prove that the sun does come out in northern WI during the month of March.  Well, my fun turned to slight disgust at the first picture- note to self: do not hold your head down when taking a photo of yourself, no one should be subjected to that chin thing!  I considered reaching around the back of my neck to hold the slightly loose skin under there, but decided that might look somewhat unnatural.  And someone might think I was choking or something if they happened to drive by while this occurred.  So, with chin up, I took another.  Off center and good lord, smile woman.  And don't squint- we're not used to the sun, you know.  I took another ( really it was like 10 or 15, most of which were trashed) and it was sort of acceptable.  So I came home and eventually downloaded it.  Here is one of the cropped versions of the photo- I'm considering a couple rounds of something non invasive, like Photoshop, to get rid of the crevices on my forehead!  Seriously, I am blaming the children for this, since I was smooth and fresh not all that long ago.

Bucolic farm scene

     More progress was made on the scenery last night- finished the clouds, added to the mini herd of cow-age and a little, bitty farm is added in the distance.  I had begun that the other night, but it was turning out so poorly, I quickly wiped out all traces and then painted over.  It was not pretty, this farm looks pretty good.  I think I bribed all the children that saw it into not divulging the fact that the art teacher can goof up BIG TIME.  Lol, like they didn't know that!  Next week, it will be the building of the giant eggs!!  More to come...

A young Jacpot

  
 Finally, I have a picture of the little sample I made for the Advanced Art students and their relief sculpture.  Here is the little fella- I feel like I should name him.... I keep thinking Wildfire, but that name is already taken!  :)  It is interesting to try out something totally new and really stretch yourself.  I will have a few student pictures at some point.  There is a variety of subjects happening- starfish, tree, a profile, etc.  I am mad about their art work, those kids rock!

Progress comes in a lot of forms.

Until next time.... be a joy giver!
  

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!