1,000 Words

So, I got into the habit of binding books again! So much FUN! There is nothing better than to take nothing and create a brand new book! What have I done with these books I've created? Check it out! Art Journals are awesome! Not only do you get to express yourself through words, pictures and Art really jazz it up! Follow me on this journey and start your own! Art Journal Entry #1 A Random Memory of Someone You Love Photo Collage and Chalk Painting How to do a Chalk Painting:

Lesson: Chalk Paintings

Big Goal: Students will learn about the use of resists.

Specific Outcomes:

• Students will learn about color value.
• Students will about history of resist art work

Procedure:

1. Have students sketch out some ideas they would like for a painting on scrap paper.

2. After they have a pretty good sketch of their painting, give them a piece of light colored construction paper and a piece of chalk.

3. Have them draw their picture on the construction paper with the chalk. Make sure to press pretty hard on the chalk so you get a nice, solid line.

4. After they have chalked their drawing out. Show them how to paint within the chalk lines. We do not want paint on the chalk. The chalk is what will create the resist. Show them how to use white and black to create different values in their painting to make their project more dynamic.

5. Once they are done with chalking and painting and their paint is dry, make some Black Tempera water. Add a bit of paint and a little, tiny bit of water. Mix it up and then paint on top of the project. Tell them how the acrylic paint resist the black tempera water. The chalk soaks up the black tempera water to give an awesome effect.

6. Let project sit with black water paint on it for at least 3-5 minutes.

7. Once this has happen, gently rinse the black paint off of the painting.

8. Let sit until dry. Take home.

Materials:

• Construction Paper
• Chalk
• Acrylic Paint
• Paint Brushes
• Water bowls
• Sponge
• Palettes
• Black Tempera Paint

Soon

Coming to you soon, a new blog, full of fun Art projects and creative ideas! Yay! I'm excited!

Peru.

Constipation. Diahrea. Altitude Sickness. Long, twisy bus rides. Beauty always has a price. Since the moment I left the Lima suburbs and headed into the mountains I paid the price. But alas, it was worth it.

Villages. Bare feet. Dirty faces. Inca Ruins. Inca Masters. Macchu Picchu. Other Travelers. Tamales. The biggest ears of corn I´ve ever seen, (even coming from an Iowa girl!) The most amazing man in my life. These were some of the rewards.

Peru is a country that has surprised me in so many ways. It´s landscape is so diverse. Crowded Lima, beaches, deserts, hot, sunny Arequipa, damp, chili Cusco. Gigantic mountains. Beautiful Jungles. Warm, friendly people. It only took 7 months in America to make me feel sanitary and safe, that hot water exists all the time, everyone has enough to eat, electricity is something everyone has, clean restaurants are a must, sewage is properly disposed of, of course! I forgot that these are not basic needs, but luxuiouries. Amazing how quickly we forget.

The Andes mountains are huge! We climbed 14,000 feet and weren´t even close to the summitt. Summited a 12,000 feet mountain and there we were looking down at Macchu Picchu. The Incas are truly an amazing race of people that have existed on this earth. I cannot even begin to fathom how they constructed the most awe inspiring structures.

One day, we set out to hire a donkey to carry our things up to a high mountain village. 4 hours before this, I was running back and forth from the bed to bathroom with a terrible case of diahreha from a mysterious piece of meat I had tried. As the taxi cab dropped us off in the middle of the Sacred Valley, all we could find was to rent a 40 year old man to carry our stuff to the top. Lucky for him, we were headed to the village where his wife lives so it was an added bonus for him to carry our stuff, but still, he hiked up 30 KGS on his back and walked faster than Juan or I did , up the mountain. It was magnificent as we reach the village. Stunning mountains, rocks as big as buildings, women, dressed in traditional clothing with sticks in their hands beating the earth to sow their crops. We camped that night at the church, the most exquisite building in the village, as I woke up at 4 AM with the worst altitude sickness of my life. I didn´t think I was ever going to make it off the mountain. But several concotions of pills that I had taken made me pass out and by morning we had a whole crew of visitors curiously waiting outside of our tent.

These children were beautiful. Modest and humble. Dirt covered their faces and clothes. I was freezing in all of my fancy clothing plus hiking boots and there is a 3 year old little boy, standing in the wet grass, no shoes, a little skirt on, a warm shirt and hat with his sisters hand in his. The weather hardly affects these children. It doesn´t really matter what they wear, because what they have on is all they have. If it rains, if it snows, if it´s hot, they are dressed the same. We made breakfast. Everyone was a part of it. With our bag of oats and raisins we were able to feed ourselves, Daniel, our amazing porter, and 7 kids. As Juan blessed the food he said something very important: Please bless this food and make sure that these mouths never have to feel hunger. Make us appreciate the food we redily have and that these children may have the same.

We entered the home of Daniel. A thatched roof, made of stone and mud. No electricity. A clay stove. As we enter gramma and baby sit on the dirt floor preparing the food as the guinea pigs run around the house. They all live together. Even though, the guinea pigs will sooner or later become dinner. Maylin, Dainel´s daughter, is 9 years old. She is dressed in traditional gear and floats like a butterfly along the mountain trails. She is beautiful. She knows nothing of the luxuries we have in the States. She is simply happy eating her brother´s left ove chicken bone.

As we begin our descent back to the United States I am humbled once again. I am lucky in so many ways. The first thing I said to Juan was the only necessity I really need is a hot shower. Well, I was right on that one, but my eyes have been open to what truly is a basic need. Thanks Peru! I´ll think of you everytime I turn that hot water knob.

A New Day

Wow! I've been to some pretty amazing places in my life these past two years...but none of these places can top what I experienced today!

At around nine o'clock on this beautiful, sunny, crisp November morning, I packed up my Honda full of art supplies and headed off to Sunset Park Place Retirement Community. It was our first session of our Creative Aging Program that we are starting at the Dubuque Art Center.

As I entered the activity room at 5 minutes to ten, I already had 8 students patiently waiting. They were all very curious about what was going to take place. As I began to unpack and open my supplies, I had one very bright and cheery lady helping me out any way should could, loving the feeling of being useful.

In the next ten minutes people of all abilities started to trickle in. Soon, I had 20 bright eyes staring at me ready to see what we were going to create. I gave a quick demo of drawing materials and some basic watercolor techniques and let them quickly get to work. It was amazing to see their apprehension as the new materials laid by their fingertips. With a little encouragement though, the magic began.

Eyes lit up, grins appeared across faces, old skills came back to life, stories and memories flooded the air! Art awakened their senses that had seemed to be closed for much too long.

Near the end of class, one little old lady walked in and had a seat. I gave her some watercolors and she asked me "What should I do with this?" I said "Let's just have some fun and see what we can do." Then her story began.

"My name is Margaret she said. I'm 94 years old. I can remember one March day at school when I was 13 years old. On this particular day at school we went for a walk. Our teacher wanted us to draw a picture of what March looked like to us. So, I began to draw a clothesline with the clothes blowing in the wind. I was very proud of my picture. And then all of a sudden, the teacher picked up my artwork and held it up to the class. I was feeling very excited, thinking she liked mine best. Then, all of a sudden, she said to the entire class, "This is the worst picture I have ever seen." I felt terrible and since that day I never did another picture."

After this story, I was shocked! I couldn't believe her teacher had said that, and yet again I could. So many times in Art, we judge our work and feel shame for not being "good" at it. Yet, the beauty of Art is that it is neither right or wrong, it's about how our eyes see this world.

So, as I begin to set up my new office space here at the Dubuque Art Center, I feel excited and lucky to be able to create an environment that is safe for the creative process to be explored. After 81 years today, Margaret finally had the opportunity and the courage to take the risk and paint. I will now proudly hang up my first painting at my new desk. Do you know what it is? It's a beautiful clothesline with clothes blowing in the wind!

Culture Shock!

Alirghty...it might sounds a little bizarre that after being gone for two years, I wasn't expecting to be culture shocked. I thought Israel would give me some padding for normalness, but DAMN! It didn't!

I wasn't in Dubuque for more than two hours and as we entered the pizza joint and I saw the 3 trashiest girls smoking cigs on the corner, I went inside and put my head down on the table. Whoa! What am I doing here, I thought to myself. I was ready to leave right then and there.

But...after being back for 6 days now and as I entered Iowa City last night, a huge breeze of relaxation took over my body for the first time in 2.5 years. Wow! Seeing College Green park made my heart finally feel rested after my travels around the world. Something about this town makes me feel at HOME. Maybe it's the people who go outside to enjoy the park, the people walking home from class and work, the people riding their bikes everywhere to save money on gas. It could be the hip retro fashion that everyone is wearing these days, as well as, the hip retro bikes they are driving around, also...there are people on scooters here! Though they are not wearing helmets which I think is insane. Is there not a law here for scooters and helmets? I can't believe that! I feel like there is a Jess style person on every corner here!

But! I know that as each day comes and goes, new ideas, people and places pop into my head. At first it seemed like an arduous path before me, but now, as I begin my way on creating a new life, things are looking brighter. I am up for anything that comes my way and look forward to continuing to network with anyone I meet. I am also going to continue enjoying the yummy food I have missed for OH SO LONG! heheheh....

Back Home

I think John Denver sums it up best in his song, Back Home Again, when he says, "Hey it's good to be back home again, it's feels like a long lost friend."

I woke up this morning at 5 a.m. Walked down the same creaky stairs as I did in High School, went straight to the kitchen to make some coffee, looked at the coffee maker and thought to myself, "How in the hell do I make this thing work!?" That's when I realized, I've been gone a real long time.

I feel overwhelmed. I don't know which way to turn, where to go, what to do. I'm shocked. I didn't think I would be, but I am. I feel scared.

At 8 a.m. I decided that since I don't know what to do, that I would take my car out on a drive. As I opened the car door, sunk down into the seat, my past life smacked me in the face. I looked over at my CD case, flipped thru the pages and looked at the music I used to listen to. Some I didn't recognize anymore. Then I look up and hanging from my ceiling was the beautiful sight of the turkey feather my brother Dan gave me, with a piece of Blackfeet Sage tied to it. Wow! I thought to myself...Now that is Jess! Those first moments in my car, just sitting there looking, I felt like I was tying all of my learnings and growings into one "Jessness". I realized I've been many places and met many people and now I have finally completed the wholeness of who I am.

As I stuck the key into the ignition, my feet had no problem remembering the clutch and the gas pedal. My hands knew exactly what gears to move to as I began my morning drive. I headed straight for Highway 52. I can remember laying in my bed at Christmas time in Taiwan just feeling like I would give anything to drive that road. So, this moring that's exactly where I headed.

Iowa has never looked so beautiful before. There is green everywhere. Land for miles and miles with nothing on it! It looks so expansive to me! It is incredilbly beautiful! The farm houses, barns and silos ease my overwhelming feelings. I feel the curves of the roads like I had been there yesterday. I go past familiar places, signs, bars, country stores and nothing has changed, it's incredible! Nothing has really changed. I drive out to where my ancestors are from and think of my grandparents and miss them deeply, I drive past my best friend from HS's house and tears fill my eyes, I drive old roads to see new bridges have replaced the old rusty ones. Beauty is everywhere.

As I look around the city though, that's when the fear sets in. I don't even want to go into it. I am afraid. I want to keep myself sheltered right now. To fill my soul only with familiarities and not think about the future at the moment, the future is so unknown right now and so many decsions to make, I am glad I have the time to sort it all out.

The most amazing thing to me though, is that everything looks so clean. Dad says, they cleaned the entire city just for me. Ha ha! Just makes me realize what filth I've been living in. Also, as we drive down the city streets and I look at all the houses and stores and realize Sacred Heart Church never looked so enourmous to me before, but something seems missing, like there should be more trees or something and then....I just realize...it's becuase I can see the sky. I'm not used to seeing the sky anymore.

Now it's time to start my day...where to begin, I'm not quite sure, I guess I should take a look at my finances, that might help a little. And I think I will just take it easy...I look forward to seeing you all in due time....just gotta shake this shocking feeling first. Love you.

Israel

Wow! Sorry, I've been terrible this trip at keeping my blog up to date! So, I have now been in Israel for over a week. During this time, we've been able to see a lot of this small, but versatile country.

We've been up North to the Golan Heights, past the Sea of Galilee, where we went water hiking. Which was super beautiful and it happened to be on the hottest day of the year. Water hiking, for those of you who don't know, cause I didn't, is when you go hiking in a river. So for a long, long time, we went hiking thru a tunnel of greeness, with spotted pink flowers hanging over our heads. It was a great way to spend a hot day and even better when we got to the end, we were able to hitch a ride back to the car with some other people and have coffee and cookies at the end. While being up North, we were right on the Syrian border. That night we camped at a beautiful, old Syrian military pool, where natural water just filled it up and ran in and out of it. It was so nice! I also got to brushen up my camp fire making skills. Also on the way home from the North, we stopped at a little town that is super religious called Safad, where lots of artists are, little children running around with long sideburns and old men in tall black hats. The archeitecture here is wonderful and I have lots of great shots of doorways and lamposts and the buildings are these beautiful golds and blues.

A couple days later, we headed to Jerusalem. Here we went to an all night concert. Some very popular Israeli artists and Macey Gray. Well, I enjoyed the first two bands and by the time Macey came on I was a bit too tired and the beer had really kicked in, so I wasn't too much fun at that point, but after some sushi, I was ready to go. By 4:30 AM though, Noam and I were both so happy to find Amit and stay with him and his freinds! Yay! No sleeping in the car! The next day, we woke up at about two and headed to do the typical sight seeing. It happened to be Jersaleum day, so there was lots of action on the streets. We went to the Wailing Wall, which was super interesting. To me, it was amazing to see how devoted people are. The praying and devotion these people were showing was something far beyond my eyes have ever seen. The energy in that place is like a magnet, it just sucks you in and is super powerful.

From there we decided to go and try and find the Church of the Holy Sepuclur, which is where it is said that Jesus's cross was put into the ground and where they whipped him and gave him his crown of thorns. But before we found it, an old Arabic religious man started randomly talking to me in the little bit of English he knew. He kept inviting me in for coffee and his house telling me "It's free, it's free!" So, knowing that I love these types of random meetings we took him up on his offer. He was a very passionate man who use to run a tea/gambling house, which is what we were sitting in, though, you would never know it from the dust that caked the walls, chairs and kitchen. David was his name and he was a very passionate old man. Noam had to try real hard to decipher is Arabic/Hebrew mix of language being spoken. I just sat there, drank some yummy tea and took it all in. Jerusaleum, to me is a beautiful city. Once again the architecture is amazing and I love all the old stones and shades of blue everywhere! When we finally eneded up finding the church of Jesus, it was quite a sight. I would say it's the most beautiful church I've ever been in, even compared to the ones in Europe and Prauge. It was immense! The cielings were as if they could touch the sky. The gold and lights that decorated the place was beautiful! Once again, the people who entered the place were just full of devotion. Such a strange sight to me....I had no idea people still really care about religion this much, especially the Christian aspect.

Some of the things I love best about Israel so far are 1. the bread! It is so delicious to eat tasty gourmet bread. 2. the Olives! So many yummy, salty olives to eat 3. the people, everyday I am shocked by how friendly everyone is! It is so nice!

Well, I am off to the museum right now, so I will update you on the Dead Sea next. Ahhh! Heavenly! Miss ya!