Day 91:Orange

Short day that mercifully got longer! Did a pen and ink of sketches I did in red .. Mom's still in hospital...learned a lot of human character today. Level of respect grew for some and plummeted for others. Peace and fabulousness!

Day 90: Orange

Happy Friday! Today I'm doing just a simple pen and ink. Since I didn't sleep much last night (I'm just so tired today!!) and am a bit distracted by my mom in hospital, tieing up loose ends at work before spring break, fighting a headache and hosting a gathering tonight, decided to keep it simple. Just hoping dad or sis calls with an update soon. Since I'm off work the following week, the picture of the creations will be a bit sporatic. For some reason, I can't download photos onto the blog from my phone. I shall try again...if not, then I'll post them when I get to a coffee shop or something :) Peace and fabulousness Just heard from mom, they're keeping her at hospital for another evening.

Day 89: Orange

The days before any type of major break are tough. Today the students were hyper or crabby or somewhere inbetween. As the day progressed I found myself to be ebbing and flowing between those to ways of being as well. So at the end of the school day I decided to just take a mini break and do a pen and ink. I knew too that tonight I wouldn't have much time, will be busy getting ready for a small teacher gathering I'm hosting at my place, especially since I want to get to bed early tonight. Had an argument with myself as to why I had to get up this morning and almost fell back asleep in the middle of it! I am sooo looking forward to next week... time read, workout and create (and repeat)to recharge. The last quarter of the school year tends to be the most exhausting for me. Along with just teaching and the students getting cabin fever, I have the big student art show to prepare for, start shifting into director mode for the summer program and prepping student work for the State Fair,etc... Breath> Peace and fabulousness.

Day 88: Orange

Today was a blur of school, cleaning, planning and shopping. One of those days where all the lines were short and the lights were green and things were on sale! Talked to Mom she sounded so tired but was holding food down. Between the flu and her RA and the side effects of those meds for RA, it became a perfect storm of sickness. A small relief but still a shadowed thought throughout the day ...I did a small canvas with a blue background with an orange water colored flower that comes off the canvas.

Peace and fabulousness!

Day 87: Orange

As most of you know Tuesday's are draining. Got a lot done but feel like I have a LOT more to doand half of the classes I taught today were hyper! My sister called to let me know mom's sick. It's not good when she gets the flu ...dad may have to bring her to get medical help tomorrow if she doesn't keep food down. :( Hard to create with orange in the midst of worry & feeling alone. I did do a small canvas with acrylic paint. Turned out well. Peace and fabulousness!

Day 86: Orange

Did 2 orange things today ... since my origami crane was a bit off I decided to try it again. Thanks to the support of some of my 6th graders, this one actually looks normal. Of the two 6th grader classes I teach, love this one! They want to learn about so much in regards to art and love seeing where my 365blog is headed. So they humored me over the first crane attempt. :) I decided to also do an abstract pen and ink too.

Peace and fabulousness!

Day 85: Orange

Today was a balance between rest and finishing things up like painting that room. I actually did 2 projects today. I wasn't 100% happy with my decision Friday of counting the orange trim as my project. BUt it was orange and creative. :) I found orange duct tape when I was buying paint and got excited by all the orange possabilities! So I made an orange rose type flower and then in conjunction with the 365-ers group on Facebook I made (or should say attempted to make) an orange paper cranes. Pictures tomorrow!

Peace and fabulousness!

Day 84: Orange

What a great day! Catching up with great friends the Golden Girls(2 of whom I owe an art piece (sorry for my creative block ), shopping at a great supporter of artists and a friend as she is cash mobbed, then cleaning out the gardens, painting the library/TV room.....I'm beat. Did take a break to-do a pen and ink and watch 20 minutes of hgtv. Did I mention I'm beat?

Peace and fabulousness.

Day 83: Orange

I decided to count the orange trim I painted in my Library/TV room as my orange project. It's so vibrant next to the blue I chose. Feels like it's a creative expression of me! The orange is much brighter in person and the blue much darker and richer. The lighting in the room is not the best. Peace and fabulousness!

Day 82: Orange

I really had intended to do something again with paper, but it just seemed like a lot of work in the midst of all the things on my to-do list. Plus half the furniture in my house was move to the other side, so the delivery guys could get a piece of furniture in. So I went with a simple acrylic flower on a 2" x 3" canvas form...Sometimes simple is best. I'm painting the trim in one of the rooms of my house orange... can that count as an orange project? Hmmm must ponder that. Peace and fabulousness!

Day 81: Orange

After a day of working with my awesome students, grading/critiquing/recording grades (finally finished!!!) I decided to take a mental break and make something orange. I had a vision of what I wanted to do upon waking this morning, but as the day progressed the vision weakened into but a faint misty vision. So I took one piece of it and created this 3D paper project. I really like it and once again, want to take this type a bit further when I have a bit of free time. Some day - some time! Peace and Fabulousness!

Day 80: Orange

Yesterday I did a pen and ink flower. Something feels a bit off on it, but it is what it is for now. The large rain from the night before really spurred on the new growths. I think some plants grew at least 2 inches over night. I'm almost finished critiquing my student's art pieces for their 3rd quarter grades! Then I can catch up on the rest of my life : ) Peace and fabulousness.

(Sorry this is such a random thoughts blog post. I'm tired.)

Day 79: Orange

Grading and critiquing, grading and critiquing .....finally getting close to catching up. First thunderstorm of the season also rolled through tonight. So awesome! So once again I kept it simple with a pen and ink. I think this time of the year is 1 of my favorites in regards to my garden. I love watching the new shoots start to sprout out of the ground. Those tiny, delicate leaves popping up through the soil, in so many different shades of greens. It's such a beautiful thing to see.

Peace and fabulousness!

Day 78: Orange

Another record breaking temperature day. Had to get into the gardens again. To put this into perspective as to why ...I have to clean out plants from the fall due to plants coming up that typically don't come up until early May!! So I kept it simple and did a little pen and ink. This is going to be a busy 2 weeks, but with uber good organization skills I should be able tackle it all! :) Peace and fabulousness!

Day 77: Orange

An amazing record breaking day here in Minneapolis. Happy St Patrick's day BTW. Out in the gardens, out for a walk, caught up on a little reading all outdoors. Did take a moment to create a pen and ink drawing that kind of represents the new life I'm already seeing (in March!!) springing up in my gardens. I also attached it to the earlier sun piece. Also found out I was selected to be 1 of 10 to be part of a new art share type program here in North Mpls!!! So pleased,excited and honored! Peace and fabulousness!

Day 76: Orange

I try to be a good stewart of my resources. I hate to waste. Also since I have such a limited budget in my classroom, it's always a challenge to make what I have go a long ways. For example, we have a scrap paper box the contains leftover pieces of construction paper that if empty would comfortably hold two small kindergarteners. It is filled to over flowing! I also try to encourage my students to do the same, which is huge challenge in today's disposable society. So today, I took the leftover pieces from past papercuts and assembled them to create this:

I really like the negative and positive spaces. Have a great weekend! Peace and fabulousness!

Pink Day

Today I worked with the kindergarteners again with the color pink. Here I am dressed all in pink!

The rest of the school dressed in green, so I guess I need to work on my kindergarten color unit's timing a little more better for next year. Peace and fabulousness.

Blog 75: Orange

Today was so fun with the kindergarteners! We did a little experiment. We took white paint and mixed it with red paint. Hearing their expreessions of exclamation as they realized they had just created pink was priceless! You would have thought they had won the lottery. So fun! Then they experimented more making lighter shades and darker shades. Tomorrow I'll teach them all dressed in pink as they create the pink page for their book of colors. (Yes - I will try to remember to take a picture of me and post it.) Since I am feeling so behind after last week's week of stress, I decided to keep it simple and basic. So I did a simple paper cut glued to a circle of orange. Hoping I will get all caught up next week (report card grades due) and I can really dive into orange. Peace and fabulousness!

Day 74 : Orange

Some of the students in one of my 6th grade classes is really getting into this color project. So I was pondering alound what I should do next for the color orange. 2 girls automatically piped up that I should do another balloon picture. When they said that, today's piece is what came to mind. I'm pretty sure it's not the type of balloon they meant (see day 57)but this is what came to mind so I went with it. It's all done with paper except the thread. This is another one of the projects I would have liked to have taken further, but time constraints hinder that. I'll just add it to my growing list of to do projects. Peace and fabulousness!

Day 73: Orange

Yep it's Tuesday again. Went into the day with some anxiety and sadness, but after doing a mini unit on portraits with the first graders and having them draw me, my mood quickly improved. Today's project is a little painting too, like yesterday. It's only 2" x 3". My quandary is, is it too blue for orange? May have to do another project to put my mind at ease. Yes, I know it's my blog, but...too blue for orange?

Peace and fabulousness.

Day 72: Orange

I forgot my orange pens at school so I decided to do a little orange painting with a blue background. Feels a little phoned in, but it is done.

It was a bit of a challenge to create, today. Sometimes I get the unwanted glimpse into the dark side of the world ...a darkened edge where there should only be light. Coupled that with the anniversaries of the earthquake in Japan and a friend's child's death adds a rather somberness to my soul ...it's hard to express that with the color orange. Maybe I need to switch to black and white for a while. Sorry for the dark turn but sometimes you see darkness in wrong places. Hug 'em if you got them.... Peace and fabulousness. __

Strands

Here's the piece I did for the 365-ers group's Strands of Emotion. I almost did a different one but this was my original thought so I decided to go with it. The strand is called security. It came to me after a friend had her house broken into. I may actually explore this further. The different levels of emotion she felt (and I felt in empathy for her and then for my own home and security) had so many levels to it. Living in a large city/ the inner city, there are all the things a person does to safe guard their house, from alarms, to motion lights, to locks and timers,... These things can never really protect it if someone truely wants to get in. So the piece I created tries to show those different layers. From feeling secure within, to creating an environment that feels secure, to when something happens to break that feeling (whether at my home or someone elses) to the feeling of needing to do more to get that feeling back. Not sure if that was what was conveyed but only had couple of hours to do it. Happy Monday everyone! (I don't have a computer at home so that's why I'm posting it today! Peace and Fabulousness!

Day 71: Orange

Another gorgeous day here in Minneapolis! I knew it was going to be nice and I had a lot of other things to accomplish,so I got a start on today's pen and ink during a break from my volunteer duties at church this morning. One thing I learned however was that good light is an important thing. The lighting was dim and I didn't realize until later( in the sunlight) how much that played out in the picture. I like the idea but I might have to redo it in better lighting lol. The camera isn't fully capturing the delicate nature of the sunburst against the bold vine like lines. Peace and fabulousness!

Day 70: Orange

Today was so nice! 66° and sunny! Got to Penco and had fun buying orange pens and paper. The women at the counter gave me an odd look, but I explained it to them. So in honor of today's sunny day, I made a pen and ink sun. Peace and fabulousness!

Day 69: Orange

It's Friday! While my first grader's made their under water scenes out of paper, I decided to do a paper project myself. One big party of creativity! Not sure where the shape or thought of this came from, but it was a strong image. I wish I had more paper of this shade so I could have taken it even further. Going to have to get to Blick this weekend, I search all over my studio space last night but all I found was one orange piece of paper! 1! And the only orange marker I have left is fading fast. Have a great weekend! Peace and Fabulousness!

Day 68: Orange

WOW! This day keeps feeling like Friday!!!!! Woke up before the alarm this morning, just early enough that it didn't pay trying to go back to sleep. I knew if I tried to, I'd enter a deep sleep just when the alarm would go off, causing me to feel uber tired. So I got up and headed to work early to see if I could get a project done before the end of the day. Today was one of those days when the idea hit me strong and clear. Decided to do a boxie "O" covered with orange vine like lines adhered to an orange back ground. The center was going to be angled in like the rest of the O, but I like the feel of having it slope in instead, kind of draws the eye to the orange background and softens the sharp angles of the shape. Peace and fabulousness!

Day 67: Orange

To do something different, I'm having my 6th graders make Ojo de Dios (God's eyes) I wasn't sure how they were going to react to this project. Thought for sure their would be the standard eye rolling, stand offishness, indifference. But no,they are loving it! Most have never done it and after the first day of learning how, they now are undoing them and doing them neater and more precise. Most even took on the challenge of reversing them. So exciting to see! So I thought for my orange project of the day, I would do one with them with them. It's mostly orange, but I added other colors for contrast. Decided to finish it off with feathers. Peace and Fabulousness!

Day 66: Orange

Tuesdays,Tuesdays,Tuesdays! The best part of today: sunny and 60° in March! Put on my shorts, took a chair and book outside and enjoyed it... even amongst the snow! Almost forgot I had an orange project to do!! Went on with pen and ink and did a big ol' flower. 2 of my 3 orange fine liner pens have messed up tips already ....no clue why. Feel like orange ideas are slow to come,but thinking back, red was slow to start as well. Peace and fabulousness!

Day 65: Orange

Tomorrow the accreditation teams come to our school and start their three day stint. Yikes! A little pressure. Last night my dreams were about that and a wee bit orange intertwined amongst it. So I wasn't sure what I was going to do ..So after two attempts I came up with a floral pen and ink heart ...and I was amazed how much I liked it concidering I had no idea the direction I was taking it when I started it. Peace and fabulousness!

Day 64: Orange

I came across a canvas I had oil painted with a darker shade of blue. Yesterday's flower looked amazing on it just a bit small. So I created another today, just larger and it'll pop off the canvas almost like a spider. I may end up putting them both on the canvas. Love how the orange plays off that particular shade of blue! photos tomorrow! Peace and fabulousness!

Day 63: Orange

The upcoming week at work is going to be a stressfull one so I think my mind is in a preoccupied fuzz of stress and such plus. So I kept it simple. Water color petals adhered to create a somewhat delicate flower.

Peace and fabulousness.

Day 62: Orange

Very busy day today and a busy evening in store as well, so I used some time during my lunch break and a staff meeting to do a simple pen and ink scene. I really like the color orange but my mind is slow at churning out ideas for it. My friend Stephany did give me a few ideas which got the gray matter moving a bit! Have a great weekend and more pictures on Monday! Peace and fabulousness!

Day 61: Orange

Switching to orange was harder than I thought. Red has kind of become part of my day to day existence, almost decided to change the direction of this blog and continue with red, but having to do things "right" orange it is. So after a failed attempt at drawing a glass of orange juice, eating some carrot slices and a navel orange ....just lost my thought train ...choo choo! I'm just not feelings it yet!! So I went back to the paper cut cheating a bit by adding bits of red in the background. Red the love I can't let go of. Be patient with me peeps!!!

Peace and fabulousness!

The Reds that didn't make the cut

As I was straightening up my work areas, I came across partially finished or discarded red pieces. It started feeling like an island of misfit toys. They were the Lebron James of Red. (As a non sports kind of person, is that the right analogy? )They were started drawings or paper cuts. Snapshots of ideas that didn't come to fruition or weren't "good enough" or "too simple". SO I combined a few and finished the other 3. The pen and ink had a smudge/water droplet incident which makes it not even close to perfect :), but I included it in this farewell to red.

Peace and Fabulousness!!