Holiday Wall Plaques.

I worked on these at the end of the summer. But, I'm finally getting around to glazing them now. The prototype had a salmon colored glaze on the exterior. I changed it to gray after the salmon had been fired, and I like it much better. Some of the salmon is still ghosting through. But, during Thanksgiving Vacation, I can try to get cooking on glazing all of them. 

Maybe if I get a few glazed each evening before Winter Break, I'll finish, and get them mailed off to friends and family. Fingers crossed. 

 

Ouch.

This particular kiln firing had some peculiar results. I was quite pleased with how much of the work fired. But, the tree stumps vitrified a bit too much on the exterior bark. Also, the small stump that was supposed to fit under the glass dome didn't shrink enough. It doesn't fit. Off by a whisker.

I like the way that the pills turned out, and now I'm mulling over coating the capsules with clear glaze. The donuts vitrified weirdly too. So, back to the drawing board. I only want the frosting to be glossy. The part that vitrified stuck to the kiln shelf. And, while trying to sand it off of the shelf, I split my index finger open quite deeply. My kitchen looked like a crime scene, because it bled a great deal. I only have novelty bacon bandaids, so they had to do. Today, the finger is still sore.

 

Stick a Fork in Me.

Well, the election is over. A criminal is now our chief law enforcement officer. I can't be an art teacher, and a felon. But, it's different when you're the president.

Here are some things that I will be doing:

1.  I will no longer watch any news programs, except for "A Closer Look". I have already eliminated most news related posters on Instagram and Facebook.

2.  I will no longer look at or listen to our leader.

3.  I will work to figure out how to help immigrants, when he sets up the internment camps. I will protest, and will actively protect those people facing deportation.

4.  I will no longer recognize myself as an "American". That label no longer serves my interests.

5.  I will think of my house, and my tiny plot of land as my own country.

6.  I will listen to music in the mornings, instead of to the news.

7. I will cultivate my creativity through using a sketchbook, reading, listening to more audiobooks, and making art.

8. I will boycott companies that enabled this presidency.

9. I will meet up with others, to work on resistance.

I have been busy making art in my classroom. This portrait is done in the Fayum style. And, I've been busy exploring what it means to get older. My medicine cabinet was going to be just for donuts. But, now I've expanded it to show dental issues, painkillers, and pain ointment. I'm looking forward to firing the glaze kiln tomorrow night! The neuropathy, arthritis, vertigo, and joint pain continues on...

 

I'm Stumped.

This week, I've been building stumps. Since my backyard looks like the landscape has been clear cut, I thought it might be fun to enhance that appearance. These are built hollow, and then they are decorated with a cornucopia of leaves and flowers. Heading out to the clay shed to build another, smaller one.

 

Destruction is Vandalism

 

One of the most hurtful things that humans can do, is to purposely destroy artwork. I recently received a text from a friend, explaining that all of the student tiles on the outside of my former classroom were thrown into a dumpster. Also, all of the many nests that I had made to decorate the outside of the classroom received the same treatment. Why? I'm sure that the students might have wanted their tiles back. Some students were kind of mad that I had commandeered their work to decorate the school. My classroom had peeling paint and a broken ramp. It was always coated with brown dust, and never cleaned. Frankly, I was just trying to distract from the shabbiness. I painted two wall murals in the school library. One was completely painted over by a teacher, only a few months after completion. What makes people disrespect art, and effort? Is it motivated by thoughtlessness, or jealousy?

At my old school, I created several projects with students. Two of these projects were destroyed, or damaged by the same teacher. This seemed personal. It was a teacher who actively did not like me, so she had no problem ruining student work, because I was part of the project. The students had nothing to do with it, the affront was directed squarely at me. I remember when several students and I watched the teacher taping big sheets of paper over our mural. A third grade student yelled, "That's going to rip the paint off of our mural." It did rip large chunks of paint off of the wall. The other students with her were shocked, and angry at the disrespect. I felt terrible that they learned such a hard lesson.  At that same school, there were colleagues who appreciated the efforts of my class to make things look nicer. My class also planted a garden on a patch of weedy soil near the playground. And, even when the playground received new blacktop, the construction crew carefully shielded, and preserved the garden. 

At my most recent school, the reasoning is more complex. The destruction seems to be done in ignorance. If you have never created a large scale art project, you probably can't have much empathy. And, if you think that art isn't important, then you treat it as unimportant. My boss kept asking me to repaint murals in the new library. She asked me four times. There was no understanding that I didn't want to spend my money or my weekend free time doing the murals AGAIN. There was zero understanding of the disrespect.  

I am glad that I won't have to hear about the tiles being destroyed, since I will be teaching at a different school. There will be anger, especially if any of the students witnessed the destruction. And, it's a special kind of smoldering anger. It clings, and it becomes bitterness.

There is so much that kids learn when working on a large scale project. It also builds community. At my first school, we received a tree for each classroom because the Winter Olympics was being held in our city. Each class sent a representative to select a tree, and then volunteers drove the trees to the school. Each classroom was able to dig a hole, and plant their tree, as a team. The trees were quickly vandalized, not even lasting a week. I was crushed. I was a first-year teacher, and I was in charge of the entire tree enterprise. I took our broken sixth grade tree back to the classroom, and tried to replant it in a pot. We hand watered it, but in the end, the tree died. In the class mailbox, a student wrote me a note, thanking me for trying to salvage the tree. I'm hoping that we learned a lesson about the value of nice things, and what trees can bring to a hot, shadeless campus. We learned about disappointment, and how to not give in to it.

After 27 years in the classroom, I guess that I never have learned the lesson about big school projects. I am always hopeful, so I keep getting set up for the sadness that is vandalism. Why? Big school projects teach students how to care, and how to give of their creativity. These projects create pride, and love. Removing or destroying them creates the exact opposite.

 

New Shed (Exterior)

 

Saucy Sign

I paid the magical Nolberto to clean out all of my wild blackberry brambles. He did a beautiful job. This has really improved access to the shed, because now you can actually see the shed. It was hideous. Two sides were yellow (at the neighbor's request), one side was chartreuse, and the front was black and white. So, now all of the sides are the same color. And, there are no more spider webs everywhere.  

Finished

Painted to Cover Holes

Almost Done

Outdoor Shrines

Signs 

Before

The Door

In Recovery

 

I have spent the balance of the summer trying to recover from four years of low-grade mental, and emotional manipulation. And, I'm slowly starting to feel better. Today, I was sitting in an appointment with my very kind eye doctor.  We had a really good, life-affirming talk about behavior, and about change. Although I'm extremely nervous about my future, I know that I will be able to find success. I know I am worth something.

I also want to thank my sister for being my therapist last year, and all during the summer. I always feel so supported by my family, and their love is front and center.