Tracey in Maine

What IS the art of wrecking, you might be asking yourself? Well, let me tell you…I have been asking myself that very same question over the last couple of months–after stumbling upon Keri Smith’s “Wreck This Journal.” After browsing the pages at a bookstore, and later returning to purchase Smith’s “How to be an Explorer of the World” (another highly recommended buy!), I decided that the “wrecking” activities in Smith’s journals could be PERFECTLY applied to artful explorations in nature (and the art classroom in general)!

 

Many, if not most art teachers have some sort of sketchbook for their students. These are often used for practice sketches, free draw activities, and notes. What if, instead (or along WITH) these sketchbooks, students had a Wreckbook for explorations? Once a week (or more) students would be given a prompt for one or two pages in their Wreckbook. This could be used…

After a few months’ hiatus, I am back and ready to return to my artful explorations in nature! The first few months at a new school proved to take up much of my time and creative energy—leaving little left to put into my blog. So, thank you for sticking with me and not unsubscribing 🙂

And now, onto some fun new ideas! Oh–and before I forget to mention it–my blog has officially passed the one year mark–Exciting! And now, the fun stuff—

First I’d like to share with you a project that my fifth graders recently worked on, exploring the ways in which artist Ben Heine explores the world through his cartoon illustrations!

Here’s an example of Heine’s work:

My kids particularly liked his work involving animals, such as this example:

Below are a few of my students’ examples. For this project, they chose a landscape photograph (most from calendars)…

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, the subject of our newest artful exploration in nature focuses around the concept of a research workbook. What is a research workbook? How could this possibly relate to artful explorations? Well, my dear readers, let’s find out together! The journey begins…now!

1. The first and most important step to beginning a research workbook is finding SOMETHING to transform into your research workbook! I was able to find one fairly easily, as I tend to collect sketchbooks and notebooks from various travels and not-so-distant adventures.

2. After establishing the space that will be your research work area, think of a broad topic that you want to explore! Since this blog focuses on artful explorations in NATURE, my topic will be just that…natural. As an artist and nature enthusiast, I always seem to be drawn to trees. They are so expressive and interesting in their variety…

I love to travel, but it feels good to be back home. 😉

 

Meanwhile as I work from home today because of Sandy, it is fascinating and inspiring and a wee bit fear-inducing to watch the rising winds dance with the oak tree that towers above the house.  The leaves fall to earth in a beautiful golden brown spiral.

Somehow it seems more right (excuse the bad grammar) to try to capture what I see with other tools besides my camera.  I may feel differently over the course of the day as the light changes with the approaching storm, and the action outside my window is such that I want to capture as much as fast as I can with pixels instead of calming watercolors.

We shall see what the evening holds.  Meanwhile have a good, safe day, folks. 😉

 

It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who wrote, “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”  His words have been in my head a lot this election year as has his following statement:  “Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up … injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.”

I did not begin the morning thinking of Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  I began the day thankful after learning, via phone calls and emails, that friends and family across the storm zone were all safe and with power.  But then I accidentally read a blog post. …

Meanwhile as I work from home today because of Sandy, it is fascinating and inspiring and a wee bit fear-inducing to watch the rising winds dance with the oak tree that towers above the house.  The leaves fall to earth in a beautiful golden brown spiral.

Somehow it seems more right (excuse the bad grammar) to try to capture what I see with other tools besides my camera.  I may feel differently over the course of the day as the light changes with the approaching storm, and the action outside my window is such that I want to capture as much as fast as I can with pixels instead of calming watercolors.

We shall see what the evening holds.  Meanwhile have a good, safe day, folks. 😉

Not to rush time, but I am happy to share that I have two 2013 calendars available for purchase:  Leaves and Petals and Butterflies and Moths.  I’ve ordered them both and am quite pleased with the quality. Even though many people keep detailed schedules on their phones these days, for those who still like to put pen to paper or just glance at a wall calendar with a peaceful image, I hope these items will be of interest for personal use or as a gift.  I have one more calendar planned before year’s end and its imagery will focus on food.  Stay tuned. 😉

I recently sent my young nephew a paper object (a train).  I warned his parents that it was coming through the mail, and that I did not expect it to last more than one gleeful scream and then be forever changed as strong young hands enjoyed an ephemeral object.  And that was okay.  I wanted to give him a gift that could be enjoyed in the moment and not worried about preserving.

These ephemeral works I created as a gift to myself … and probably to my neighbors below.  I could not sleep and decided I should stop pacing the night away.  And so I sat and found some paper and pens … and some leftover lip gloss and decided to see what might end up on the page.

 

Well, while in Dublin, I have to admit that I did take pictures of a few other things besides leaves and letterpress.  Even on the rainiest of days, the interiors of the churches were beautiful to view as subdued light shone through stained glass windows and fell upon lovely murals.

I was watering herbs with a misting bottle while waiting for a paper to print.  As droplets settled on neighboring cut flowers, I just wondered what would happen if I pulled a few petals and let them settle on my papers  …

.. and on my notebooks …

and other items below?

As usual, beauty found in unexpected places.