Working in my artroom at school today -

I am working on my classwork (for SulRoss) today- collaging bits and pieces of xeroxed pictures, Japanese newspapers and maps, crossword puzzles, a kimono linoleum I copied onto old pattern tissue, and the definitions of daughter, journal and journey(Bought a very old dictionary at the library, but only ended up with A-K half of it, so no 'traveler, seeker, pattern, etc!!)...and xeroxed all of it on old pattern tissue - I like the transparency of it. I've tried elmers, matt medium, and now glue sticks - any other suggestions for working with flimsy paper - it is layered on my finger tips, I had to quit, because it was a loosing battle between me and the paper - more on me than on my 'flowers'.

I forgot to bring Dan's camera over here today - I want to see if I can get truer color - the pictures I took the other day were awful...incorrect color and too light or too dark. This room has tons of fluourescent lighting, but not right for photos.

I also printed on an 8X10 transparency, an old picture of my parents and me - I don't know what to do with it yet, but it's cool. I also have a small picture of me at about 1 1/2 yrs. and I want to make a pin with it, but it needs light colors behind it because the face except for the features, is blank - no shading at all...just found a card my mom sent me that has the word daughter written in it and it fits on my shirt...hmmm...
I went to Barnes and Noble and bought a japanese-english dictionary, I made a stamp that says 'pattern' like sewing or design for something. I made 2 more stamps too, two designs in the kimono linoleum blown up to about 3X4 each. Yesterday,I sat around and designed a dozen more, I'll take the stuff home to cut them out tonite. I don't know what I want to do with them yet, but it was fun!

I need to go home, but I can't work there yet, studio isn't done. It's a true dilemma - my classroom which I have 24/7 access to 365 days a year, is 30'X60' with 16' ceilings and I can spread out everywhere all summer...and I love the openness and size, but I need to move my self to a much smaller place-10X20, my studio that's in my backyard so I don't have to put everything away every day when school starts - I'll need to get the absolute most efficient storage for all my stuff - and room for a computer and copier/printer. A TV set to watch all the how to videos I've purchased...but first I need a new floor!
I need help - wonder what my art kids are doing this week??? ^_^

New Art Room Blog!!

Well, I did it!! I made a blog for my artroom - I'd like a different profile and picture for it, does anyone know how I can do that? Do I need a different email address?

http://ahs-artroom.blogspot.com/

Anyway, I'll email it to my upper level art kids so they can check it out! I got email addresses and cellphone numbers before school was out - it'll be fun. I'm happy, thanks again to everyone who has given me suggestions, pointed me in the right direction, and most of all for the encouraging comments and emails. You are the BEST!! Art Techniques folks, do you mind me linking your blogs and/or webpages to my blog??? Let me know! PATA (posted on Art Tecniques Also) Gotta pack and do more laundry for the trip! I'll ahve to check at least one suitcase so I can bring ocean water back from CC - Have a great weekend!!
I love the new save feature, I thought I'd lost this!!!!

Blogger Help Group

Went there to get all my posts to show on the page, so for at least a while all my carefully chosen words will show! I'm so proud of myself!!
I also found several art teachers who use the blog as a class webpage...what a cool idea for those of us with no knowledge of these things! And those I've seen have LOTS of pictures and info - eventually, I want an interactive webpage, with printable assignments and rubrics, syllabus(syllabii?) for every level, etc...but I don't know how to do it myself, and don't really want to learn either, I just want to know what I need to know to change or update it, FOR FREE of course! Art $$$ don't stretch far enough, I am always using my own money for things. Tech people say 'someday', and computer/multimedia teachers don't have time for it either. This is the most fun I have had in a long time - thanks for all the help out there!

Is it still Thursday??

I HAVE to take some pictures of my artwork to post - I may try the Art Techniques (Yahoo group) newbie ATC challenge. Question - how do you get such clear closeups? Just cropping? I wish my studio was finished, I either work at school or on the kitchen table and both of these are temporary solutions... I have a 10X20 building that needs to be resided and redone inside(I'll take before pictures - it is a mess right now!!) I've sanded most of the floor, and I have some cool ideas for the walls - I want to collage over the old icky paneling, not too fussy, but maybe old sketchbook drawings, xeroxed family photos, pattern pieces, maps, etc. and some old picture frames painted bright colors with cork inside, so I can pin up everything nearly, because I really do suffer from BSS (Bright and Shiney Syndrome) I am so easily distracted by ANYTHING!!! It's a joke, but then again...and then there's a terminal case of OSOM(Out of Sight, Out of Mind) - if I don't see it, it doesn't exist(guess my mental developement stopped at Peek-A-Boo when I was a baby!)
Well, time to spend an hour in the garage - have to make a stickie note(I LOVE STICKIE NOTES!!!) or I'll forget to go get tortillas for fajitas and my medicinal chocolate(Russel Stovers mint patties - awesome)

First day all alone!!!

Every one in the family is back at work BUT ME!!! My first real day of summer. I cleaned and washed clothes and looked up realestate in Galveston, TX, Cloudcroft, NM and Texas City, TX…just for fun…we’ll be looking this summer.The first week off, I clean house. Clean out the house actually, having done a superficial job of it at Christmas, this is really a once a year thing - who has time the rest of the year?My Mother died May 6th…we’ve been going through her papers, trying to find personal and financial things she ’squirreled’ away. She kept a planner nearly every year since 1963 - couldn’t find any earlier than that - that was the year my dad went to Germeny for 2 years, and she stayed home with 6 kids. Guess I’d write alot too, especially since there were no relatives in El paso, Tx -so anyway, I got all my school papers and cards and letters I’d given her - my Dad wanted to burn it all - all of us(there are 7 ) got all our things she’d kept. It is still the most surreal feeling that creeps up now and then - my mother is dead - I don’t cry, and I don’t really know why, I just can’t, not yet.But the reason I want to clean now, the reason it’s so important, is that I don’t want my kids to get their papers when they’re 53, and I don’t want my life reduced to paper sacks, of ‘keep’ and ‘burn’. So I will get rid of 1/2 of everything I own this summer. And make scrapbooks, and give things away, because, it’s better to do it now while I’m alive, than to wait until I die.I don’t know much about how this blog stuff works - I’ve checked it 20 times since I wrote the first time…guess I thought the community would be instant…

Summer is here!!

As with every summer for the past 10 years, I HAVE A LIST!!! Not just any list, but the list from 2004, with the years crossed off, so I can reuse it AGAIN…now this might seem depressing, but it gives some comfort - no new giant projects have appeared and I have made some progress on the old projects. Maybe I should start fresh with a new list, but then I’d find the old list 5 years from now and think ‘Oh my GOD!!! I am still working on the same old things, I just THOUGHT I’d accomplished things each summer!!’ This way, I know what’s coming, and am not afraid -mildly amused, a little sad, but mostly, fired up!Every summer is like every new school year - bright and shiney and NEW, filled with potential and so very long - this year especially, because Texas has school starting a week later, so we get an extra week of summer! Kids don’t come back until Aug 27 - woo hoo!!!So I’m pinning hopes on this summer to be the best ever, and not sit on my behind playing on the computer or watching TV(except the 200+ hours on Crafters across America, scrapbooking and B’original I’ve Tivo’d since January..)I’ll meet with my incoming Art 2-4 kids and get some individualized plans for each of them, have a swimming party for my art club kids(I don’t get wet - the ‘poof’ doesn’t ‘do’ wet!), clean out the garage, remodel my studio, clean the artroom at school, clean out Prom storage, take on the dandelions(again), and do some fun trips to Corpus Christi, TX, Dallas Metroplex(visit grandaughter), Cloudcroft, NM, and Half Moon Bay, CA - can I do it all??? no way!! But with such big plans, and a bright shiney NEW summer, the possibilities are endless! I’ll keep you out there in blogland posted - maybe some art teachers, procrastinators or packrats who want to brag, challenge and/or commisserate will write to me.