They're Flying!

This year I was assigned to teach two sections of Digital Photography 2.  I'd been teaching Photo 1 since my hire 5 years ago, and at this point, could teach it in my sleep.  But I was kind of nervous about teaching Photo 2.

Photo 1 is supposed to be all the basics - how to work your camera, how to control your lighting, how to set up a still life, etc.  It's basically "How to Take a Photo" class.  Photo 2 is much more about using what you know to create meaningful, conceptual works of art.  It's basically "Photography as an Art Form" class...which, with high school kids can be kind of tough.

We're four weeks into shooting, and I'm happy to say I've had a lot of success with the kids- but more than that, we've all had so much fun.

Case in point: last week's Levitation Photography assignment.

What is Levitation Photography?  Google it, and be amazed!

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Levitation Photography is basically setting up and editing a shot to make it seem as if a person or object is levitating, or floating in mid air.  It's like magic!  And honestly, it's so easy to do!

Check out some more beautiful examples of levitation photography here.

Here is a very simple tutorial for how to make a person look like they're floating:

 

The sound gets a little weird when he does the photoshop tutorial, but all the basics are there.  He's right- all you need to do the project is a camera, a tripod (or some sturdy surface to rest your camera on while you shoot), your model, and objects for them to sand/lay/rest on.  And yes, you absolutely need two photographs: 1 of the plain background, and 1 of the set-up with your model.

I stressed to my kids that choosing a model who will listen to you, and be a bit expressive was really important.  If you wanted them to look like a floating goddess, they'll have to move their arms and hands and toes just right- you can't be a floating goddess with flat feet and rigid shoulders, you know?

Using the masking tool was one way to edit the photos (as this guy did in the tutorial) however, the only issue with that is, especially outdoors, your light changes from minute to minute.  So if the kids took a lot of time setting up their model, the masking tool would show the change in light very clearly.  What some of my students opted to do was trace and cut their models out with either the pen tool, or the select too (which most of them preferred).

Here's another much more detailed tutorial with tips on doing levitation tricks with objects, and how to adjust small things to make it look super realistic: here. (For some reason, blogger was being cranky and wouldn't let me embed the video.)  But this guy gives some more specific instructions, and his accent is just lovely!

All in all, this was a really fun, and surprisingly quick/simple project to do with my kids.  Some of them took the concepts and really ran with them- we had "ghosts" floating in graveyards and dads floating away with balloons. 

One of the things that made me most happy was how many students returned from a weekend of shooting to say, "My sister/brother/mom/dad/cousin/grandma had so much fun with this project!  I can't wait to show them how they turned out!"  I love a project that gets family and friends involved.  I hope it sparks an interest in photography for them, but also teaches my student that photography is an interactive art- not just a solo one.

So there you have it!  We have a beautiful day upon us (at least we do out here in NJ)- Give some levitation photography a try!

A Case of the Amidones

It's not quite as physically disturbing as the flu, but it's pretty much just as contagious as pink eye.  It rears its head every school year, multiple times a year, but just around this time is when it starts- near the end of our first real project.  Yesterday, we had our first outbreak.

My four Fine Art 1 classes are just about wrapping up their first project- graphite still life, and I must say they've been working like crazy.  Each class comes in and without any prompting, gathers their materials and gets to work.  They've been very open minded and put forth a ton of effort, and just like every other year, I've got a ton of naturally talented kids. 

However, yesterday the Amidones began.

In one of my morning classes a particularly advanced student put the final touches on his project, which I then framed for the front hall.  I gave him some perspective worksheets to practice with while the other studnets finished up, and that was all it took.  The hands started shooting up all over the place.

Amidone?! Amidone? Amidone?

It was like a virus, quickly working its way not only through that class period, but all four of my Fine Art 1 classes.  Once word got out that someone had actually finished the project, all bets were off.  I spent most of my day crushing all the hopes and dreams of each child who eagerly asked, Amidone!? (just like that, in one long word, rushed and panicked.)

I usually do pretty well with the Amidones, but eventually they gang up on me and break me down.  Toward the end of the day I was starting to feel it.  I'm so glad the weekend is upon us so I can rest up and crush those Amidones on Monday.

No, you're not done, and every time you ask me, I'll find something else you need to fix!

Creative Ceramics

This fall I'm taking a ceramics graduate class.  I've always loved ceramics, but admittedly, it's not my medium of choice.  I'm not a 3-D thinker by nature, so I always find working in clay a little more challenging.  I understand all the basics- how to work with the clay, different techniques, all that good stuff- I just find that I'm not very creative when it comes to actually designing and making something.

This week was our second meeting and we were given our first assignment- a large-scale tile relief sculpture.  We're working in 6"x6" tiles, about 1/4" thick.  We must do at least 4 tiles, but can go up to as many as 20.  I've decided to do 6.

I spent that second night of class rolling out and cutting all my tiles, and by the time that was done, the class was over. I spent the following week designing my tiles, then in my most recent class, started drawing, cutting and building them up.  This is where I ended last week:

 I've had this underwater animal theme going for the last year or so, so doing an octopus was my first idea.  I just love that animal- so smart, and so weird looking!  I'm really excited about creating all the different, fun textures on the tiles next week.

But I started thinking ahead to future projects my professor mentioned and wanted to get a head-start on gathering information, so of course, I went on Pinterest.  Here are some neat ideas/techniques I hope to try this semester:

1. Alphabet Pasta

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Not exactly tile reliefs, but this technique could be used in any ceramic creation.  You just use some alphabet pasta, press the letters into your creation, and when it gets fired, the pasta burns away, leaving you with only the indentations.  How clever!  In the end, they look something like this, depending on how you glaze them:

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2. Imperfect Coils

I tried making a coil pot my first week of class.  It ended up just okay.  Thing is I got all neurotic and tried to make all my coils perfect, and of course, that's really hard to do- especially if you haven't done ceramics in, oh, I don't know, five years?  What I should have done was focus more on the process and just let the coils do what they wanted.  I found this student-made coil pot on Pinterest and I'm in love with the imperfections:

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3. Lace Texture

I thing textures are a huge part of why I love ceramics as an art form.  I love that you can create your own, or press things into the clay so that it takes on the texture of that object.  Recently, I cleaned out the prop room at school and found two really interesting pieces of lace.  I'd love to try them out like the gorgeous vessels below:

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I'm sure I'll be pinning way into the semester.  I'm hoping I can pop out a few extra projects on my own time to really make the most of my use of the studio/kilns at the university.

Any ceramic artists out there with suggestions for a sort-of newbie?

TEACH

It aired a few weeks ago, but CBS had a two-hour special, which followed four teachers from all over the U.S. and documented their trials and triumphs over a year.  It focused on how teachers adapted to their students needs, how students adapted to new technology/classroom procedures, and the ending results of everyone's hard work.

It was one of the best teacher-related documentaries I've seen- so real and inspiring.

If you haven't seen it, watch this promo:

 
Everyone has at least one teacher they can remember as a person who most inspired, pushed, or motivated them to be not only a better student, but a better person.  A person who strives for excellence, and doesn't give up when it gets hard.  

At the end of TEACH, a stuent is asked, "What is a teacher?" 

She responds, "Someone who inspires you to do something better with your life."

Portland, Bangor, Acadia National Park, and Bar Harbor, Maine

Indy and I spent very last week of this summer in Maine.  Each year we try to save up enough greens for a large trip (this year: Scotland) and a more local trip (Maine).  It was the perfect time to go as school had started up in many of the surrounding areas, so the hot spots weren't as crowded as we had feared. 

I compiled a few neat shots of our trip for your enjoyment!

Portland: We were only in Portland for a full day and night, but we walked around and saw some pretty beautiful things.  We also took a ghost tour (I'll have a post about that soon).

Bangor: We stopped briefly in Bangor to snap a few shots of Mr. Stephen King's house.  So cool!

Acadia National Park: We camped in the park for two nights, and it was gorgeous.  We also hiked up Cadillac Mountain, which is the highest point on Mount Desert Island!

Bar Harbor: This was the end of our trip- we spent a day kayaking, where we saw seals and porpoises (they moved way too fast for me to capture) but the scenery stood nice and still.  We ended our trip with a whale watch, and I got some fantastic up-close shots of this one Humpback, Gemini, who flirted with the boat a bit.

It was a wonderful way to end an already wonderful summer.  I can't wait to get back to this beautiful state!

Sleep Studies

As a teacher, sleep is one of my most favorite, yet fickle, things.

Indy and I moved last May in order to be closer to my school to save on gas an tolls (the tolls alone were $50 a month!) but this move also allowed me to gain a little more sleep as my commute went from 45 minutes down to 25 (20 if I manage to catch the lights right!)

Sleeping has always been one of my favorite activities.  I can remember in elementary, and sometimes even in middle school, coming home and heading to the basement to watch a t.v. show and catch an hour snooze.  Even now I feel my inner teenager.  On the weekend, if uninterrupted, I can sleep a good 12 hours.

Now that school's in session, I wake up at 5:55am.  This means I'm usually in bed by 11, and actually asleep around 11:30.  It's anywhere from 6-7 hours of sleep a night, which is okay, but for me, seemingly never enough. From Kristen over at Popcornonthestove, I found a nifty site called Sleepyti.me.  It's a bedtime calculator that will figure out when the best times are for you to fall asleep as to avoid waking up mid rem-cycle, which we all know is usually the start of a real grumpy day.  I've actually tested with two of the bed times it gives for the wake-up time of 5:55 and maybe it's just in my head, but I swear it was easier to wake up and get moving the next day.

This got me thinking a lot about my sleeping habits.  After bedtimes, I started looking up sleeping positions.

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I am a hard core "fetal" sleeper- part of the vast majority, apparently, so much so that Indy has woken me up many-a-night, by trying to push my knees away from his spinal cord, because that's where they end up most nights.

According to bettersleep.org,  "fetal" sleepers "have a tough exterior, but are still sensitive and may appear shy, but warm up quickly."  I find some truth in this super vague sleep-analysis-meets-horoscope.

This got me thinking about all the vivid dreams I have.  I'm one of those people who, every night, has ridiculously vivid dreams, which I remember in detail the next morning (i.e.: this post.).  Indy swears I'm a huge weirdo, and that his dreams are few and far between, and when he does dream, he never remembers them.  This got me searching around about people who have vivid dreams and I found this article, which basically explains that creative people are able to remember their dreams better than other "non-creative" people.

How 'bout them apples?  Score 1 for the Creative People!

Anyone else know any interesting "facts" about our sleeping habits?

Bookworms Rejoice!

During the school year it's tough for me to carve out time to read as much as I'd like.  With graduate classes and band practices and, you know, teaching all day, by the time I'm home with a few minutes to myself it's usually spent one of three ways:

a. Showering
b. Eating
c. Sleeping

I've been better about getting a few pages in just before bed in recent years, but for me, summertime is the best time to read.  I can stay up into the wee hours of the morning with a good book, or wake up late and start off my day with a chapter or two.  My newest thing has been reading my Kindle for the 30 minutes I spend on my stationary bike.  Nothing like exercising your body and your mind at the same time!

According to my goodreads account, I got through 10 books this summer.  Not shabby!  The majority of them I read on my Kindle, which I love.  Thing is, I feel like I could've read more if it didn't take me so darn long to choose new books after I finish one.  I'm notorious for finishing a book, then combing through the "People who bought this item also bought..." section on Amazon for days.  I do the same with the recommendations that GoodReads offers.

I stumbled upon this awesome site, What Should I Read Next?  And for some reason, I swear, the recommendations this site makes are so.much.better. than the other places I've looked!

I feel that when Amazon shows me what other "people who bought this item also bought," there's an agenda there- the books they recommend are always on the higher end price-wise, and, the Amazon reviewers always give away major plot points!  Boo! 

The recommendations from GoodReads are usually pretty good, only I find the GoodReads reviewers to be a way tougher crowd to please than the Amazon ones, and I'm so quickly turned off by some reviews that it takes me even more time to find something I'm interested in trying.

On What Should I Read Next?, you type in the title/author of a book you enjoyed, and they spit out a HUGE list of books they think you'd like.  When you click on the "More/Buy" button, it takes you to that book's Amazon page.  I just have to be sure I only read the synopsis, and not the reviews. 

The last book I read was Wonder by R.J. Palacio- the assigned summer reading for all of our students this year.  It's actually considered a "children's" book and was in that section of my town's library, but it's 300 pages of the most beautiful story about self acceptance, acts of kindness, and treating others as you would want to be treated.  It's such a quick read, too!  I picked it up on Friday and I finished it last night!\

Next on my list is:  Warrior Princess: My Quest to Become the First Female Maasai Warrior, by Mindy Budgor.

What was the last good book you read?  Have any suggestions?

She is a Warrior

My school's mascot is "The Warrior." We refer to all our students and staff as "warriors."  It is empowering, and it brings us together to rise above not only the day-to-day grind, but also the larger-than-life moments we all experience as a clan.

This weekend, we lost one of our strongest.

On my old blog I wrote a few posts about my co-worker, Mrs. O.  I started teaching at my school in the fall of '09, and Mrs. O was hired the following September.  Although she was old enough to be my mother, she and I became quite friendly.  That friendship only became stronger when Mrs. O's niece,who I now refer to as my work BFF, was hired that February.  The three of us spent many afternoons hanging out in their classroom sharing our funny or frustrating stories of the day over some much needed chocolate.

Mrs. O became an art teacher much later in life- it was her second career, and it was obviously what she was meant to do.  She taught Crafts and Sculpture, and got her students to really understand not only how to create interesting works of art, but why we make art in the first place.  She was passionate and always looking for new, exciting ideas to share with her kids.  She held her students to a high standard, both academically and behaviorally, and they respected her for it.

All of us lady art teachers would have lunch together, and each week one of us was responsible for the "dessert."  Mrs. O was a big fan of the small dove chocolate hearts, the ones with the inspirational messages in the tinfoil wrapping.  When it was her turn to bring in "dessert", that was her trademark choice, and we all looked forward to it.

In December of last year, Mrs. O was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.  It came on suddenly, out of no where, and at the end of an already trying year for her.  From the beginning, she, the doctors, and all of us at school had nothing but high hopes for a speedy and full recovery, and for a while, things looked like they would end up just that way.  And then things changed.  She fought hard every day over the last 9 months, but yesterday the fight ended.

Some might say she lost her battle, but I say she won.  She earned her wings, and she left the leukemia far, far behind her.  She's in a better place now, where she is free from pain, and doesn't have to fight anymore.  We may have lost her, but she didn't lose.  Warriors always win.

You Know You're a Teacher who Watches Breaking Bad When...

-You look at one of your class rosters, and when you see the name "Jesse" on it, you practice saying it in your best angry-Walt bark.

-You bump into one of the chemistry teachers in the hall and as you excitedly ask, "Do you watch-" they smile, cut you off, and say "Yes."

-When you find out a co-worker watches the show, you fangirl for a second before asking which episode they're on as not to accidentally ruin it for them.

-You comb through the names and faces in your 8th period senior study hall looking for the "Jesse Pinkmans."  They're easy to find- they're all huddled together, listening to music that's only slightly louder than the hoodies they're wearing.

-You wake up from a very detailed dream in which you and Saul Goodman are crawling around the floor of an old movie theater avoiding your husband's cousins- and you turn to Saul and say, "If they see us, just say you know me from high school."

Indy and I have watched all five seasons of Breaking Bad in about a month.  We have one episode left on Netflix, and then we're onto the second half of season 5 all stored up on our DVR- ready and waiting for us.

Our goal is to catch up so we can watch the very last episode live.

Let's hope Saul stays out of my dreams until then, at least!

Putting the Big Rocks First

Honestly, I'd ended last school year on somewhat of a sour note.  Even though last year was my first tenured year, I still found myself running around in the habit of picking up extra jobs all over the place.  I scrambeled to meet deadlines to only later find that the projects had been canceled and nobody bothered to tell me.  After being asked for ideas on a huge mural, I did research and sketched only to find that when I was ready to present my idea, no one was interested anymore.  When I was asked (repeatedly) to provide a few names of potential teachers for an open position in our department, I went nuts finding the best of the best, thoroughly checking them out before presenting all of their information, only to find that the person I'd recommended wasn't even given so much as a phone call, let alone any real consideration.

 Over this summer I went out to eat with a fellow department member who told me that the 5th year for teachers is huge- it's the make it or break it year.  She said the key to success is that if you're going to make it, you need to put 100% into the kids, and what you're being paid to do, and leave everything else for someone else to figure out.  She said one of the most important things about being a successful teacher is recognizing when to stop taking on extra jobs, and thus stop being taken advantage of.  If you're genuinely interested in an outside project, go for it- but if you're expecting any kind of special recognition or privileges afterward, forget it.  She explained teaching can be a huge part of who you are, but it can't be all of who you are, because the little things, the nagging bits of the every-day will consume you.

Well, last Tuesday was our official first day back at school.  We have a new superintendent this year- an energetic, positive, young (I mean, real young- like, 34 years-old young) female superintendent, who started the day with a really beautiful opening-day speech.

Toward the end of her speech she shared an anecdote with us that I've never heard before, but found really inspiring:

A science teacher was trying to teach his students about time management.  He had a large, glass beaker, and four jars beside it.  The first jar was filled with large rocks, the second with gravel, the third with sand, and the fourth with water.

He first took the large rocks and placed them in the beaker up to the brim.  He asked his students if it was full, and they said, "Yes."

Then, he took the gravel and poured it over the rocks.  As it was smaller, it filled in the gaps between the larger rocks.  He asked again if it the beaker was full, and catching on, the students said, "No."

He then poured the sand over the gravel and large rocks, and smaller still, the sand filled in the crevices between the gravel.  He asked the same question, and the students asnwered, "No."

Finally he poured water over the sand, gravel and rocks, and it filled in every last bit of space in the jar.

The teacher then explained, "In life, we have big rocks, gravel, sand and water.  The big rocks are the things most important to us- our families, our health, our education, our goals.  The gravel are smaller things that are important to us, but not as important as the bigger rocks.  The sand even less important, and the water, not important at all.  If you put in the big rocks first, you'll always find room to fit the rest.  If you start the other way around, with the things that don't matter, there won't be any room for the big rocks."

(I made this visual in photoshop- it took way longer than it should have, haha!)

When I heard this story I felt a mix of emotions- I felt relieved, I felt inspired- I felt like my whole life right then had been re-prioritized.  This story only confirmed what my co-worker was trying to tell me the night we went out to dinner.

This school year I'm going to do my best to put all my big rocks in first.  I'm going to focus on my students, my lessons, and loving what I do.  Side projects and menial tasks and disagreements other department members will always be there, but I need to be sure my big rocks are there first, so I don't get consumed with all the insignificant things.

If I can do all that, I think it's going to be a great year!

The Walk

For 5 of the 6 years Indy and I have been together, I have participated in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Walk in Central Park with his family, who has been doing it for so long that they simply refer to it as, "The Walk."

Indy's mom is, as of this year, a TWENTY YEAR survivor of breast cancer!  She is one of the strongest, most inspiring people I know, and Indy and I wanted to try and make this 20-year celebration even more special for the family.

When you sign up for "The Walk" you give a donation and receive that year's t-shirt and a "race" number.  However, one of my favorite parts of "The Walk" is reading all the fun custom-team t-shirts that people make.  There are the standard boob-themed team names you see every year, "Save the TaTas" or "So-and-so's Breast Friends," but I'm always happy to see how much more creative people get as the years go on.  Here is a pretty great compilation of team names.  I think "The Rack Pack" and "Treasured Chests" are two of my favorites.

Well, Indy and I knew that we couldn't just pick any team name for our t-shirts as this was such a huge year for his mom.  And in a surprising move, we stayed away from all boob-related names and made it more about his mom, whose name is fun and unique already: Bess.

Whenever we discuss politics at Indy's parent's house, his mom says, "In my next life, I'm going to be the President of the United States!" she usually follows that up with, "I was the president of my middle school class! All my posters said, "Bess is the Best!"  So that's the team name we went with- but that's not all...

Indy's mom is a survivor for a reason- she's a bold, outgoing woman with a lot of spunk. To match her personality, she's got a signature look.  She has a big puff of jet-black curly hair, and is always wearing red- her lipstick, her finger nails, her glasses- red is definitely her color.  The best way I could describe Indy's mom's look is that of a Greek Bette Middler.  Here's a photo of them at walk a few years ago for you to get an idea:

 Feather boa and all!

So Indy put his super awesome graphic design skills to work and came up with this logo for our team t-shirts:

Indy designed it at work and showed me when he got home one day, and I LOVED it!  It's so simple, but spot-on.  We ordered 5 shirts for the 5 of us who walk every year- Indy, his parents, his aunt, and myself.  I have a feeling once they see it, they'll ask us to order more for the rest of the family (all 12 of them....this happens with a lot of things).

We ordered our t-shirts from Custom Ink.  The price was right and the turn-around was fantastic- I think it only took just over a week to get all the shirts in.  I would absolutely love to use them again for other custom t-shirt work.  Family reunions, team t-shirts, or just-because, this site will be used again.

"The Walk" was this passed Sunday, and I don't think I'm being biased when I say, we were the best looking team out there. =0)

Prettying Up the Place

When I decided to start up a new blog, I also wanted to try and learn a little more about the blogging process.  I understood writing posts and having followers and all that good stuff, but I didn't know much about customizing my blog.  All I'd ever done was change up my background or layout templates through blogger's own editing guidelines.

Actually, while I was "in between" blogs, I considered switching over to wordpress. I played around with the idea of getting a wordpress.com account- the kind you pay for- but that was way over my head.  Then I checked out making a wordpress.org account - the kind that's free- and even though it was closer to blogger's format, I still found a lot of it to be rather confusing.  So the decision of sticking with Blogger was made.

That's when I started a little internet sleuthing, combing around, watching different tutorials on how to make a custom background for your blog, or how to change the alignment of things.  Turns out, customizing your blogger blog is way freaking easier than I thought.  Also?  There are hundreds bloggers who have not only already figured out all the possible tips and tricks there are to customizing your blogger site, but they've also  written incredibly clear, step-by-step (with images!) posts about the different processes.  These people are awesome!  Here are a few who helped me out, big-time!

1. The Cutest Blog on the Block - The name says it all!  When I typed in "How do I make a custom background for my blogger blog?" into google search, this post was the first to pop up.  I used Indy's computer (he's got Photoshop) to make my background from an image I found off of Google, and was done in minutes!  The only thing I would say about these instructions is that toward the very end, where it says to copy the "code" for your image from the image hosting site you use, make sure you copy the "direct link" code.  I copied about 4 others before that one, and was getting frustrated when they didn't work.  But other than that small detail, these instructions worked like a charm!  I will definitely be hitting up this site in the future.

2. Tet's Little Finds - After setting up my background, the next step was trying to center my header so that it fit right in between the two textured sides.  I tried to remember what I could from my middle school days of xanga and livejournal, and threw the 'ol <center> </center> into the HTML section of blogger, but it didn't work.  I goggled, "How do I center my blogger header?" And in two seconds I had my answer, in this post.  Absurdly easy.

3. Beautiful Dawn Designs - Naturally, after the header was centered, I needed my pages tabs to be centered as well.  So what did I do? You guessed it, I asked Google, and this post came up.  Strikingly similar to Tet's Little Finds, but the coding was just different enough that I don't think I could've done it on my own.

I'm sure as time goes on I'll continue to make little (or big) changes here and there.  I'm just so thankful there are people out there who are smart, well-spoken (or maybe, well-written?) and kind enough to post such clear, easy tutorials for all bloggers to benefit from.  If you feel like your blog needs a little sprucing up, don't hesitate to check any (or all) of them out!

Places for Edgy Inspiration

Like all other dedicated teachers, a good amount of my summer vacation was spent researching ways to update my lessons- or in come cases, make entirely new ones! This is my 5th year teaching, and it's time to update my bag of tricks, for sure.

Of course I used Pinterest a ton, which lead me to one of my most exciting internet finds to date:

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The Jealous Curator is one of those sites you can peruse for days.  I can so closely identify with her sub-header, "...artwork that inspires & depresses me...." it's scary.  I think every single time I've gone to a gallery, museum or even just a craft show, I've had that feeling about at least one piece.  That feeling where you see something and it's so good you actually get angry.

This website offers page after page of gorgeous, wacky and breathtaking works of art.  Some of it is a bit too edgy for my high school tykes, but with the right amount of pruning, I think this will be a go-to site for when my lessons need an extra zap of tangy inspiration.  And for myself? I'm all over all of it.

My discovery of The Jealous Curator actually lead to my rediscovery of another fantastic art-based website:

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(Sorry, Phyl!)

I'm not quite sure how, but years ago I found myself on Who Killed Bambi? and I was done.  I spent days browsing through the art, music and fashion featured on their site and found myself longing to be cool enough to be just an acquaintance of the three women who founded it.  Much like The Jealous Curator, I found myself drooling over fantastical works of fine and wearable art- much of which was just a bit too risque for my kids, but inspired the hell out of me.

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I fell deeper into the rabbit hole (different movie, but still Disney!) when I discovered YNot?, the blog run by 1/3 of Who Killed Bambi?, Ms. Marcia Zottino. I find the work she posts to be a bit more classroom-friendly, although, there's still a heavy amount of sorting that needs to be done before hand.  Her "Photography" tab, in particular, has been very inspirational for me as I'll be teaching Photography 2 this coming school year.  Photo 2 focuses much more on photography as an art form, conceptual works, and unique ideas as opposed to Photo 1 and I am so ready for the challenge.

Back in Action

I'm back in action and starting anew!

I got my start in the blogging world with a blog I updated rather frequently (almost every-other-day) for the last two years.  It was mostly focused on the trials and tribulations of a non-tenured high school art teacher- the lessons I taught, the tools I used, and the artwork created by my students. I *loved* how that blog allowed me to showcase and celebrate the successes of my students outside of school.  I also loved all of the fantastic art-teacher-blogger friends it introduced me to.  However, toward the end of last year, I was craving a change.

I was starting to feel limited about what I could and couldn't share on a blog that was so much connected to my professional life.  I was getting tired of finding ways to keep that blog as anonymous as possible.  And while teaching is a huge part of who I am, in my fifth year, I'm fast discovering that it isn't all of who I am.  I decided then to close up that chapter of my blogging life and start this one.

I'm hoping this blog will become a place where I can continue share a general tips and tricks of the teaching trade, but focus a little bit more on sharing some of my own creative endeavors, funny stories, travel experiences, and so much more.  I'm hoping for it to be yet another creative outlet for me, as it seems I can never have too many!

Anaïs Nin once said, "Creation which cannot express itself becomes madness.”

Welcome to my attempt at postponing the madness!