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.

welp?

So yeah...  It's been a while.  I just completed a residency that was my most ambitious yet.  I worked with about two hundred MiddWest art students for four school weeks.  I gotta give you a short run down because I am just blown away here.

 

Consider the fact that everyone in the room shuffles out and new people shuffle in every 50 minutes.  Then subtract the time for the repeated explaining and rearranging that goes on with each switch.  In my calculating, I came up with about 2 to 2 1/2 hours each day, working with about 25 kids (give or take a few) and about 2 hours each day, working with about 4 kids (give or take a few.)  Then subtract the first two days because they spent them just learning to cut glass.  We got done a day early so I will tell you that we completed this mosaic in 17 of those super short days.  I am not even sure how it all got done.  My biggest projects before were three panels in size.  Frankly, I am still trying to figure out how they managed to make those people tiles!

I took a little video but failed to get it in this blog.  An attempt to put it on facebook left it on my daughter's page.  Doh!  Check it here. Normally, the finished work remains in the school that hosts me.  This particular mosaic will be hung at the Middlecreek Area Community Center.  A great deal of the design was driven by input from them, starting out with mountains in the background- complete with the Mount Pisgah altar.  I thank Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for the funding that makes these projects happen.

If this isn't enough to have kept me busy, I have been working a part-time job since January.  If you are laughing at my photo, then YOU try and look cute in an orange apron!  I  hope your spring is turning out as fun as mine is.

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