The Governor Morehead School
In February, I had the wonderful experience of conducting workshops at the Governor Morehead School in Raleigh, NC. Students there have varying degrees of visual impairment, including total blindness. This required me to design programs that would have meaning to people who may have lost their sight some time after birth, as well as those who have never had the gift of sight. Their fantastic art teacher, Ms. Zincone, also explained to me that incised lines would be difficult to detect for many students, so I created models with raised lines. (These included insects on leaves. I gave...
Read MoreAfrican Animals – Lions and Rhinos and Apes, Oh My!
In addition to a particularly busy fall and holiday season, I had an artist-in-the-schools residency in Raleigh in mid-December. It went great! The art teacher fully prepared her students for my visit. This makes a huge difference and I have been very lucky in that regard with most of my artist-in-the-schools workshops and residencies. The theme was Animals of the African Biomes and it coordinated well with classroom studies and the previous art project, silhouettes of African animals in their biomes. So students were pretty familiar with the shapes of these animals. We discussed...
Read MoreKitty Commission
In October, a friend asked me to create a sculpture of her sister’s five cats so she could give it to her as a Christmas present. First thing was to get a lot of photos of the cats without letting her sister know why. Next thing was getting photos of these active fur babies from as many angles as possible! She got enough for me to capture some likenesses and the personality of the kitties. There are two black cats, so I ordered a second shade of black underglaze. Juni has most unusual markings and is the smallest cat so I wanted her to be at the top of the pile Keiko always...
Read MoreThe 2012 Saxapahaw Holiday Market
Saxapahaw was a mill town and is still dotted with small homes that have been lovingly renovated. About 15 years ago, a tornado swept through here–it traveled down our property line, scared the heck out of our horses, and cut a path to the center of the village. The mill, which was still in operation, was badly damaged. It took a while, but the Jordan family and others in the community restored the mill and adjacent buildings and Saxapahaw is enjoying a renaissance as an eco-friendly place with both visual and performing arts (Paperhand Puppets and music events), wonderful...
Read MoreConnecting with the Past – A Beautiful Show in Concord, NC
Party Girl This past summer, Lin Barnhardt, Visual Arts Director of the Cabarrus Arts Council in Concord, NC, emailed me and asked if I would like to participate in a show entitled, “Hey, Diddle Diddle, ” with the theme, “Whimsical artwork that recalls the child in all of us.” Lin had seen images of my work and felt it would be a good fit. He wanted some of the pieces I still had in my possession. And, as always, whenever possible, I wanted to create original work especially for this show. And, as always, I began lots of research on the Internet. I was born in the...
Read MoreArtist-in-the-Schools Booking Fair
August is a busy month, with teaching in the studio and sometimes off-site, preparing for several fall and holiday shows (including a studio tour), and the annual Artist-in-the-Schools Booking Fair. Lots of performing and visual artists are brought together to present their programs to school representatives. It’s a long day but the Fair is wonderfully organized by the United Arts Council of Wake County and it runs like clockwork. My booth I’ve been an artist-in-the-schools for about 10 years. Currently I’m mostly in Wake County, NC (the Raleigh area). Since my...
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