I'm on a podcast!!!

This is a quickie post, to share my exciting news.  Back in the early fall, I was interviewed by Cindy Ingram of the Art Class Curator, for her podcast series.  In the whirlwind of my son's September wedding, Thanksgiving, and various other events, time whizzed by and I totally forgot about it.  Well, it turns out the podcast went live about a month ago!  Whoops!  How did I miss that???? 

Anyhow, if you want to hear my squeaky little voice talk about all things art education, here's a link to the podcast.  It's episode # 27, and I hope you'll give it a listen!  We focused quite a bit on art teacher longevity, which, after a public school career of 36 years (and another 6 with my private business) is something I guess I know a little about.  The namesake of this blog, my dragon Lucy (in the sky with diamonds) is mentioned early in our discussion, so above you can see a photo of Lucy and her baby Sparkle on a table in my former art room.  She is not wearing her wings in this photo (they are removable), because, with a 5' wingspan, she takes up a LOT of space.  So her wings were neatly stored on top of a cabinet until she had cause to wear them. 

Late in the episode, you'll hear Cindy ask me about an artwork that was pivotal in my life.  I respond by talking about a drawing done by my late grandfather Harry Levine, who I've blogged about on several occasions, here, here, here, here, and here.  I unfortunately never met my grandfather; he died before I was born.  You can't see a drawing when you are listening to a podcast, so here it is, below.  The drawing currently hangs in my nephew's home.  In the corner of the framed drawing is a photo of my nephew's father, who is my oldest brother, sitting under the drawing as a little boy.  If you listen to the podcast, you'll hear me try to explain why it is important to me.

Weirdly, while we discussed my preference for doing hands-on, tactile art projects with kids, there's so much we didn't discuss.  I didn't talk about toothpaste batik, or building papier-mache masks or cats or whatever, or painting procedures, or any other specifics about my teaching methods or projects.  But I suppose that's all stuff you can find here on the blog, right?

Anyhow, I hope you'll take some time to listen to the podcast, and hopefully get something out of it!

A retirement home for aging dragons

There is NOT a dragon in the Art Room. As our time at North Warren Central School winds down, Lucy had to find a new place to live. I think she'll be happy at Loon Lake.

First, a nervous Lucy sunned herself in the grass, and then perched on a rock (hunting for prey perhaps?)

When she was more acclimated to the environment, she relaxed on the dock, and explored the woods, even practicing a little tree-climbing.

Tired out, and hot from the sunshine, she headed to the bunk room for some rest. I think perhaps she's worried about Sparkle, her baby, who hasn't left the art room yet. Sparkle suffered some injuries this year and needs a little surgical intervention from the dragon doctor (me) but I have assured Lucy that Sparkle will be joining her when she is healed.

In the meantime, perhaps she can find some friendship in some distant relatives already residing in her new neighborhood, such as this lovely dragonfly I spotted today.

Here are some views of Lucy's new home.

The Adirondack chair on the porch is the traditional retirement gift from my teachers' union. On the right is the plaque on the front of the chair. Pretty cool, huh?

Lucy the art room dragon

Earlier today (when I was supposed to be completing my requisitions for next year) I started to do a new blog entry all about Lucy, when I discovered that I had already posted her whole history, back in June!! I know many of you were not yet reading my blog back then, but I don't need to re-post the whole story since you can find it, complete with photos, right here: http://plbrown.blogspot.com/2010/06/story-of-lucy-dragon.html. I even mentioned Dan (the Monster Man) Reeder and his book The Simple Screamer in that post! Why didn't I remember that I had written that?
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Sadly, things haven't gone well for Lucy and baby Sparkle. First, I knocked the baby off the shelf where she was sleeping, and she suffered serious damage. She really was just an illusion anyhow. Made out of tiny samples of an air dry clay, she had a head, a tail, and a claw to dig her way out of her shell, but she had no real body; it was all planted into the fuzz in the egg. I was actually most proud of her egg, which was broken on purpose when I created it and still actually seems OK. But the clay claw and tail both broke, so there's not much left to her. I may have to make a new baby.

But Lucy's own problems are worse. Being rather large, she has never really fit ANYWHERE. I have a small Victorian house with little rooms and strange broken up spaces and no place for a 5' dragon with a 5' wingspan, so she has been at school for a few years now. For a while she lived on the floor behind my desk, but she was very inconvenient and intrusive there, and being a klutz I was always tripping over her.

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So then she moved to the top of a cabinet, but I was told she was too close to the ceiling for fire codes and had to be moved lower. Since then she's been on top of a drying rack cabinet. But she's wider than the cabinet so I took off her wings and propped her sideways against the wall.

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Yesterday I decided to take Lucy down for the first time all year, to take some new photos of her. She's gotten quite dusty and because of her rough texture and jewels glued randomly between her scales it's almost impossible to sponge or dust her off. (I tried.) So her rich color and glossy sheen is definitely muted with a year of dust. Ugh.

I tried to put her wings on, and the metal rod that support one wing broke right through it. The wing hung down bumping into Lucy's head. Since the wings are already upside down and backwards anyhow, and were never attached in the correct place on her body to begin with, this just made them look worse :-(

And then I realized that leaning her on her side for so long had seriously warped the 2 legs that had supported her. She used to lie flat on her belly, with her feet and tail also on the ground. Now her front wrist is bent and cocked backwards, so it looks like she is going to awkwardly grab something, and her feet and tail hover slightly above the table surface, looking very awkward.

I wish I had a good end to this story but I really don't know what I'm going to do with Lucy now. She'll probably go back on top of the drying rack for now, but after that - I don't know. The realization is that she is not fixable. So maybe this summer I'll need to try to build another dragon...

The return of Lucy, and my son in flight

These photos are of my crazy son on his 216m bungee off the Bloukrans Bridge in South Africa. It has been called the world's highest commercial bungee, though there's one slightly higher from a tower in China. I guess it depends whether or not the Chinese one still has an actively running a commercial operation. He said it was very smooth, but being that I break into a sweat even driving over a much lower and smaller bridge, I have my doubts that I'd ever want to jump off of one. Thank God he made it home safely!

Anyhow, I put him on my blog tonight to thank him, because a few minutes ago he helped me out. He fixed my original blog heading with its photo of Lucy, the dragon who really does reside in my art room, so she should fit appropriately in the new blog design. I'm glad to have her back where she belongs! Thanks, Ben :-)

Below is a photo of the Bloukrans Bridge. The bungee operation would be right below that truck in the center of the bridge. Yikes!!!!!

I'm a failure at transforming my blog

I am very frustrated. Tonight I tried to download a new template for my blog, to solve the problem with people who can no longer leave comments, and it made all my followers and my list of blogs I like, and my photo and personal info disappear. So in distress (it is way past my bedtime) I tried to put it back. But my heading with my sweet dragon Lucy (in the photo above) and imbedded title are gone. So this will have to do for tonight. It's a temporary solution at best, until I can find someone (my son? Please Ben give me a few minutes tomorrow?) who can figure it out and fix it.

In the meantime, thanks for sticking with me!

Changing the blog AGAIN???

SO. Is this blog thing just a lot of smoke drifting away? No way! I think we all learn so much from each other and I'm not just blowing smoke!!!

Here's the problem: I've been told that some of my blog visitors are having trouble leaving comments on my blog since I transformed it. I'm totally confused about how to fix it and I cannot get it back to the way I started. So tonight I ended up going crazy designing this newest look, but I doubt it's permanent because it may be way to busy. Please bear with me until I find something that really works with my dragon, because she's not leaving my blog! And continue to try try try to leave me comments. If for some reason my blog won't let you post a comment, please go to my profile and send me an email to let me know. I just edited my profile to include my email address so you can do this. I want to solve the problem!

Thanks, faithful followers! You are the best! And thanks Mrs. Hahn for telling me that I had a problem, so I didn't just wonder if nobody was reading me any more.

The story of Lucy the Dragon

This is Lucy, minus her wings. How do I happen to have a dragon residing in my art room? Here's the whole story: I've been a freak for dragons for as long as I can remember - I began drawing my version of a dragon when I was a kid. (I think it's cool to know I was born in the Chinese Year of the Dragon.)

Anyhow, about 1/2 dozen years ago I decided it was time to build my very own dragon. I do a lot of papier-mache with kids at school, but I wanted to build BIG so it needed to be stronger than newspaper and goo. I recalled a really cool book, "The Simple Screamer", by Dan Reeder that I had bought in the '80's. He does what he calls "cloth-mache" using old sheeting torn up and then dipped in a thinned-down Elmer's Glue-All for the outer shell of his creatures. Here's what that book looks like, plus another of his that looks really great.

So during a summer vacation, I set up shop on a bridge table in the backyard. I built the basic dragon structure using chicken wire, duct tape, and whatever else seemed appropriate. I used sheeting for the first layer of cloth-mache, and then used a heavier cotton duck cut into the shape of scales, which I individually dipped in the glue and applied to the dragon. It was a laborious and time-consuming process but I loved it. When it rained, I covered her, and each winter I brought her to stay in my classroom as she is too big to go in my home. Here she is as a work-in-progress:

It took me a long time to figure out how to make her wings - I knew how they should look, but I didn't have a clue how to start. Once I completed the wings, I realized they had to be removeable or the dragon would not be able to be transported. Her body is about 5' long, and her wingspan was about 5' wide. Not easy to fit in the back of the car. (I considered putting her on the roof rack, but she's not particularly built to withstand the 30 mile commute at 70mph. Though she would have looked great going down the highway!)

So - I made wings without a plan to attach them, and then painted everything. From start to finish I spent almost three years constructing and painting Lucy, who is named after the Beatles song: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

However, I still had a BIG problem. I had wings but still no plan; but I had an opportunity to exhibit Lucy and her baby (yes, there's a baby, forever newly 'hatched' - the students have named her Sparkle - that's her below) in an art show. They had to be ready to deliver the next day.

In a panic I consulted the very creative technology teacher (formerly known as the 'shop' teacher - he's the guy with all the power tools) for an idea. He borrowed Lucy to devise a plan, and returned her a couple hours later with her wings on, without first checking to see that I approved of his solution. Big problem - I had designed her wings to curve forward and downward to envelop and protect the baby, but he had put them on upside down and backwards so they curl up and back. Even though the wings are removeable, they unfortunately are not interchangeable due to the way they are attached, and therefore could not be fixed. To this day, Lucy's wings are sadly wrong. :-(

Here is Lucy resting without her wings.

Figuring it all out...

This is my art room, where, as per the 1st photo below the sun is always shining, no matter the weather outside (which can be very snowy in the winter). On a recent cold gloomy day, I painted the sun on my shade that you see below (and then asked permission).
As for the photo of my art room door - it relates to my basic art room rule: NO WHINING. Complaining is not tolerated in a happy art room! The other two photos are large pieces that have been residing in my art room for a long time, both made with plaster bandage. The mummy's hieroglyphics spell its name, Professor Paw, based on our school mascot. The body was a cast of a 6th grader several years ago.
And by the way, about my blog name, YES, there is a large dragon residing in my art room. I'll explain more about her (her name is Lucy, for Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds) some other time.

It's evening and I'm still trying to figure out my way around in the blog world. I have a student teacher currently, so while she was teaching earlier today I had a little time to spend with the computer tech gal here at school to get me started developing this blog, but I've got a ways to go. If you check back in coming days/weeks, hopefully my heading etc will look more high-tech (I know, my photo doesn't currently even fit the format. It's pitiful so far). Hopefully, when my 21-year-old son is home from college in a few days, I can get him to sit down with me and help with the web & computer graphic stuff I don't understand before he packs his bags and heads to South Africa for the summer. After all, unlike those of you who are in the beginning of your career and the technology has been a natural part of your existence, I've been teaching over 30 years, and this is all alien to me. But I love reading your blogs and hope you'll put up with my shaky start and maybe even offer help or advice.