end of the school year

I can't say enough thank-yous to the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for hiring me to do these residencies.  I want to again hire my photographer to shoot all four of these projects and will post in situ photos.  For now, I am going to share some of the photos that are of what goes on. 

 I'm anxious to see all these projects together and hung.  I am so proud of them that I have decided to make a serious effort to change my work's direction.  Way back when I was trying to decide if I should do mosaic or fused glass, I knew I should combine both.  Now, I am hoping to find ways to combine my own art with these projects because, frankly, I am addicted to both.

Who wouldn't love working with these two?

For one thing, twenty people at one time can get a whole lot of work done, FAST.  Sure, there are stinkers to contend with, and I don't always get through to them all.  I don't expect to. But when I can get through to one of these tough nuts, it is an indescribable high.  I can tell you that every day of this 40 day stretch, I was looking forward to going to "work."

One school, had a project where each kid got to make their own tile, then we started on the mosaic. 

In the third one, each kid got to do his own little section of a feather.  They chose a color and we assigned real estate.

 They made their own little video of the process and put it out on FUSFOO

 The last one was huge mirror letters that the school wanted in a mosaic of their school colors.  I was dying to do something with Ben Day dots so I was thrilled. 

For right now, I have to work on lining up some epic projects.  WOOHOOOOO!

how can it get any better??!!

A friend told me that when something really good happens, she always thinks to herself, "How can it get any better?"   ... and then it somehow does.  An example, you say?  So, I got this mosaic done weeks back and there was a little reception yesterday at the community center (MACC) where the mosaic was installed.  That's cool enough, right?  But here is how the Universe will one-up an already great thing.  We (my mom and I) drove a roundabout way through the mountains to get to MACC because we went somewhere to eat that was much further than I had thought.  So on the way to the shindig, we went RIGHT PAST the entrance to the Mt Pisgah alter that MACC wanted in their mosaic.  We had never been there before and happened to be just early enough to drive up.

You can see it was an absolutely stunning day.  Serious inspiration, for sure.  Anyway... kicking it up even further- I was told that there is another project in the works that has my name on it.  This one is about half an hour closer to home.  Somebody pinch me.  Thank you again, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

coming up for air

So totally swamped. I will have the whole skinny on this shortly. For now, here are two "fast and dirty" photos of our progress in Middleburg. This is a result of THREE DAYS of these kids' work, no kidding! First day I spent just explaining how to cut glass...eight times. Every period we start over and each kid takes the time to try it out so the first day nothing was adhered. I can't freaking wait to see this done. Saturday and Sunday I can work on my sneaker mosaic.

OK, here is how I know I have it good. We played the lottery for this weekend's 500 big ones. If we win, the above paragraph will still acurately state my intentions for the next two weeks. No shit! That's my life. I'll hire help around the house so I can WORK MORE!