Lately all I want to do is turn the music up high and sketch.

Listen to the melody and sing along

to all those soul-stirring tunes.

This is my latest effort.

A High Priestess.

She had a very difficult nose and wild hair

but I’m glad she came to life

on the page

this morning.

]]> http://mydarlinganodyne.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/sketching-to-songs/feed/ 0 mydarlinganodyne AJ 143 http://mydarlinganodyne.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/i-tweet-with-paint/ http://mydarlinganodyne.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/i-tweet-with-paint/#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:03:13 +0000 mydarlinganodyne http://mydarlinganodyne.wordpress.com/?p=347 ]]>

Last night I had the girls over and we worked on art journals and canvases.

It was so fun to serve my home-baked bread and homemade pasta salad, to share laughs and get our hands (and forearms) covered in paint.

I highly recommend making s’mores for dessert. They were a hit!

Carmen did some gorgeous canvases and Rene experimented with black gesso.

I find that I’m lovin’ the high gloss gel medium and velveteen scrapbook paper.

(This page is inpired by Julie Prichard.)

Oh! I also got to write an article about the amazing artist, Lori McNamara for the Treasure Coast Women’s Art Alliance.

It’s been a busy week and my heart is full

knowing that I have such good friends and good work to nourish my soul.

Here is my latest Petitie Doll. Her name is BonBon LaPetite.

Here are two more- a nerd girl with her iPod on and a robo-dog and BonBon with a stuffed animal giraffe.

What do you think?

Then I decided to take Julie’s grungy pink background (made in the Layer Love class) and add a petite doll and voila!

It’s a work in progress. I have to be patient and let it dry before I draw on it.

I painted the background. Then I drew the doll on paper, cut her out and used gel medium to adhere her to the painting.

I added a scrapbook paper dress and leggings.

Then I painted on top of her face and hair and cut out the hearts.

Next I will add pen, prismacolor pencil and neocolor crayon details.

My doll has heart balloons!

I have a nice wooden word to adhere to this once it is finished, too but I’ll post more pictures when it is finished.

Thanks for giving me more courage about canvas, Carmen!

I’m off to scrub the paint, gel medium and walnut spray off of my arms and make dinner.

******************************************************************

Here she is. My first painting with a person in it.

Yes, there have been many storms but some beautiful results.

Isn’t that true?

Life is full of suprises.

Every once in a while teaching middle school has it’s perks. While plowing through the textbook in 7th grade Language Arts I stumbled upon this wonderful story by Ray Bradbury Dark They Were and Golden Eyed . It’s full of the type of suspense and literary skill that makes reading a joy.

“Earth people left to the strangeness of Mars, the cinnamon dusts and wine airs, to be baked like gingerbread shapes in Martian summers, put into harvested storage by Martian winters. What would happen to him, the others? This was the moment Mars had waited for. Now it would eat them.”

This story quickly became one of my favorite lessons of the year and my enthusiasm for it was contagious with my students. My “pre-reading activity” consisted of talking the story up. “This is the most awesome, creepy, strange story in our textbook by one of the best writer’s of all time.”

The students enjoyed turning it into reader’s theatre and it was a joy to hear the realization dawn on them as they exclaimed, “our book cover has a picture from the story!”

Another such Mars adventure began with a poetry assignment. As part of studying  poetry, my 6th graders had to write a letter to their assigned poet. One of my students, Natalie, got a response from the amazing poet Marvin Bell, Iowa’s first poet laureate. He wrote a very nice letter attempting to answer all of her questions and included a flyer for his poetry reading. I tucked a copy of his letter next to his poem in my book and I still smile whenever I see it.

Mars Being Red   by Marvin Bell

Being red is the color of a white sun where it lingers
on an arm. Color of time lost in sparks, of space lost
inside dance. Red of walks by the railroad in the flush
of youth, while our steps released the squeaks
of shoots reaching for the light. Scarlet of sin, crimson
of fresh blood, ruby and garnet of the jewel bed,
early sunshine, vestiges of the late sun as it turns
green and disappears. Be calm. Do not give in
to the rabid red throat of age. In a red world, imprint
the valentine and blush of romance for the dark.
It has come. You will not be this quick-to-redden
forever. You will be green again, again and again.

I resigned from teaching this week with the knowledge that as I embark on my new career wherever it takes me I have experience with the unknown.
It will be another adventure.

It perfectly captures the poetic violence of storms.

In the song the storm is looking for it’s lover.

“I have waited with a glacier’s patience
Smashed every transformer with every trailer
Till nothing was standing
Sixty-five miles wide
but still you are nowhere, still you are nowhere, nowhere in sight… “

It is  hurricane season here in Florida and it has been storming every afternoon.

Above: Views from sunporch

Tornadoes and hurricanes are both formed by wet, warm air when winds blow into each other from opposite directions.

Hurricanes form over water and tornadoes over land.

My name is the same as one of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes in history.

A friend from Africa once told me that some Africans believe that hurricanes are the souls of the taken Africans getting retribution for their capture and enslavement.

There have been 5 hurricanes here since I’ve lived in Florida.

The worst hurricane that I have ever witnessed was Hurricane Wilma. After the eye passed Coral Springs the backside roared like a train and our sliding glass window shuttered and shook. We sat on the kitchen floor and played cards while our satellite dish took flight. The metal roof of the nearby baseball diamond dugout sailed by our door. Our cars were trapped by trees.

Still, we were very lucky.

Lately it has just been raining and thundering. Bastian does not like taking walks in the rain.

He’d rather sit in his papasan.

In the song the identity of the lover is unclear. Is it the Earth?

“Your rails could always outrun mine so I
picked them up and crashed them down
in a moment close to now
cause I miss, I miss, I miss, I miss
How you’d sigh yourself to sleep
when I’d rake the springtime across your sheets

This tornado loves you

This tornado loves you

This tornado loves you

What will make you believe me?“

Snuggling a new puppy is one of life’s greatest joys.