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!

dreams coming true

Once again, I thank the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for what they do to make projects like this possible.  This was a tremendous undertaking for these kids.  I am just unbelievably proud of them.  Over half of the fifty foot mosaic was covered by seventh and eighth graders!  Some of the classes only had a handful of kids in them.  One of the cutest things is how wonky the letters are in Walt's name.  That was a student's idea.  A different student suggested that we use a mouse for the dot in his i.  

 One day when I asked them to clean up, they grumbled that they wanted to continue mosaicking a little longer.  I said they could if they promised to clean up fast.  They did!

 The goal was to make something colorful for above the book shelves in their school library.  This is a photoshop mock up of what it should look like once it is installed.  For the record, I FIRMLY believe this Disney quote.  Yeah, dreams coming true.

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.

I

mhs represent!

How do I even pick photos to post here?  I would like to post about thirty.  There's just NO WAY for you to see everything in this mosaic.  I mean, I was present for the entire fabrication and I was still discovering new details the last day.  Ahead of time, it was decided that we would work with mostly school colors and let each kid make their own glass tile. We took these tiles, about 100, and mixed them up with regular stained glass to complete the design.

In the bottom photo is the youngest class (seventh graders) that worked on the mosaic.  Every class produced stellar tiles... not even kidding!  There was a ballerina and a flamenco dancer; a bike and a snowman; superman and batman logos.  There were soccer balls, basketballs, baseballs, footballs and pom poms.  There was a donut and a circuit board.  Phillies, Broncos and a top hat... a turtle, a horse, birds, and SO many flowers.

Again, I will thank the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for their generous donation covering a huge chunk of the money that made this Muncy program possible.  I am so unbelievably grateful to have been part of this.  So tired... so happy.  Looking forward to being in my shop tomorrow, aaahhhhhhh.

MifflinMiddle

So last night was the reception that MifflinMiddle gave to present the kids' mosaic to their parents. What a night...for real.  House was packed! They gave me flowers and this photo of most of the kids that helped.  The teacher I had been working with on the mosaic was the one that orchestrated the whole shebang.  The night was a collaboration involving kids and arts.  The kids provided music, both instrumental and vocal.  There was kids' visual art everywhere on the walls.  There were high school tech kids that did all the food AND they were shadowed by middle school kids.  I mean mini stained glass cupcakes??!!  COME ON!   

 

Maybe the best part was talking to a girl that said she was in one of the Mifflin high school classes that I spoke to last week.  She was there with her mom.  It feels good to know that some of the things I have been preaching are sinking in.  This 10 foot tall mosaic is just evidence of truth in my message- that everyone is capable of big things.  Please notice how young these kids are!  I took in cement board and sheets of glass.  BLAM!  You just know it looks 10x better in person too.  On the frame of the picture they gave me, it says, "enjoy the little things."  You know I do... but this was not a little thing.  This was one of the really big things.  So grateful.  Thank you Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for making this mosaic happen.  Thank you Cassie for going so far above and beyond.