Arts, Environment and the Child: Walking the Wheel of the Seasons

Today I spent a good amount of computer time working on projects. I received the emails from Abigail (Abby?) and Hirsh with the information about what to include about the Painted Word workshops, and put a call to artists on the site.

As I am very interested in building up knowledge of ethnobotany, especially of native plants, I did research on medicinal values of the plants that I recorded in the Longhouse Garden. I typed in the plant list I created, and looked up in Michael Moore's Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West the medicinal values of those plants, and entered in abbreviated versions of what his information contains. I think it would be nice to have a reference like this specifically for the plants in that garden. Hopefully as we get more guidance, our project group can use this information to our advantage.

This experience is hard to fit into words. I have been trying to get ahold of Robin in order to work in her classroom, which is the TEACCH program, for kids with autism. We were finally able to connect, and I was able to come in today. Everything was very hectic in there, and I really just didn't want to be in the way. However, once my presence was no longer "new", I began to feel comfortable. The classroom isn't run the way a "normal" classroom is run, and each child is encouraged to learn in the best way they can, using their strengths to build upon. I arrived at lunchtime, when the teachers and helpers were assisting the kids with eating. Some were fine on their own, others had to be encouraged, others needed more help. There are only eight kids in the class, and three or four teachers.

Working with kids with autism will be a challenging experience. They don't have near the attention span of other kids. Some are verbal, others are non-verbal. It is believed that they absorb information more through pictures than words. I think that will make it ideal to do an art or craft type project with them, although it may need to be sort of one on one. I chose to do this type of program for personal reasons and I believe that it will be the most fulfilling to me. Autism is still a great mystery, as are many illnesses that people are stricken with. This one in particular is hard for parents and people around the child, because they are almost so close to being "normal" but they are not, and they have such a hard time connecting with the people around them.

I look forward to having this experience, and I hope it enables my communication across boundaries and to be able to connect with the kids. I hope I can help them learn something about life through the garden and through creativity.

This workshop was so much fun. To tell the truth, when I showed up I couldn't really think of anything I wanted to do on the subject of "Painted Word." My mind was ready to work on my mosaic for my other class, and I had it in the car, waiting for me, as I was going to go to a stitch-n-bitch after this workshop and make more art with more people! What a night. Anyhow, so I had a hard time getting focused on the issue at hand. When I arrived, things were just getting set up, so I acquainted myself with the examples from the previous workshop. I enjoyed viewing this work and it helped me to settle in to what we'd be doing. It helped that on my way passing through the writing center, there was a poetry open mic performed by people in all sorts of costume!

Anyhow, Hirsh gave some instructions and examples on how to play with the sumi ink, and everyone watched with heightened interest. Then he sent us off to create, encouraging everyone to first try it on newspaper and familiarize ourselves with the medium. I liked painting on the newspaper, and thought that it could make an interesting statement to paint a related illustration on top of a story. However, I couldn't find a good story to do that with. I also forgot to bring my book of persian language and text, which I intended to use for inspiration. I began to have the idea and phrase "what is art?" run through my head, and pondering on it. I eventually gave in and decided to write just that. I found a piece of newspaper from the art page, and began to write it on that.

When we finished, looking at everyone's work on the walls was so great. People had so much wonderful work. The stuff by the writing center people was cool - poetry written with different colors of sumi ink. I also liked Ann's vertical cursive. Rebecca's long poem on huge sheets of paper was impressive as well. My favorite (if one should name a favorite) was Pamela's painting, with words and writing, the subject, "I am sorry to make art from your pain; it is to hard for me to make art from my own." (Sorry, I probably butchered the statement, it was very eloquent in the piece. I helped clean up a little bit, clearing newspapers and cups of ink-water, washing brushes. What a great and inspiring experience. I love making art with people.

The gym was finally open today! Shortly after I arrived at the class, it was time for the kids to go get some exercise. There was a climbing wall being installed the week before, preventing the kids from playing, and the weather had turned so ugly this week that when I was here last, they weren't able to get their outside time.

As soon as we opened the doors, they started running. I forgot how resilient and energetic 5 year olds are. They just ran about, playing with whatever they got their hands on: big bouncy balls, bikes, little roller things like square skateboards. They'd fall down and bounce on back up, laughing and screaming. It was pretty cute.

I talked to Robin (the head teacher) today about my project a little bit. I think I'll do a binder with Velcro pieces that have plants, and their names. I'll do some of the illustration, and pull some offline if I can find something.

I visited Ben's classroom at Griffin Elementary today to observe/participate in his activity. It was great fun, and sharp contrast to the classroom where I have been spending time. The kids are so eager, and curious, and they come up and ask questions, talk, and are proud of their works. His activity was for the kids to use leaves in a creative art project, as they have been studying leaves in class. So he had gathered a bunch of fall leaves and gave them to the kids for them to create some sort of picture from them. They came up with so many different things: fish, trees, animals, people, cars...

Ben's style with the kids was very relaxed and friendly and not authoritative. You could see that the kids loved interacting with him. When I first walked into the school and he was out with them at recess, I found him in the midst of a circle of kids crowded around him, each saying how much they liked him. It was pretty charming. This attitude followed him back into the classroom when he was leading the activity. I really enjoyed my time helping with his activity.

Our group got together today to finally do some real work on the Longhouse Gardens. We made it potluck style as well, which was especially good on this day because it was raining heavily outside (like it has been for the past entire week), and it was good to be able to take a break and eat yummy salad, chips and salsa and bean dip, and apple crisp.

I mainly focused on an overgrown and gangly salmonberry and swordfern that are right near the entrance to the Longhouse building. I used loppers to get in towards the base of the spiny rubus spectabilis, and came back with my clippers to tidy everything up. It really looked a lot nicer when I was through. Everything did. We all put in quite a bit of effort despite the nasty weather. Teddy and Allyson put some dandelions aside for me, as I was quite inspired by them after reading about them yesterday.

I spent some time researching some plants to illustrate for my activity. I used the list I made from the time I spent at the Longhouse garden recording plants, and chose ten of the most common plants that the kids would most likely see. I searched for pictures that I can use as a base, and will draw/trace my own images from those I found.

I ate my dandelions today too: sauteed the roots with cloves of garlic in butter, alongside a gardenburger patty with was topped with cheese, tomatoes, onions, and dandelion leaves. It was very delicious.

It was a beautiful day today, so shortly after I arrived the kids went outside. I had gotten Jimmy's coat on him, and led him by the hand to the play area. Upon arriving, he began to cry, and wanted to go back inside. He had done this once before, and I knew he just either needed time or to find himself preoccupied with something. I remembered the other day, being in the gym, and he loved loved loved watching the wagon wheels go round. So, I got the wagon, motioned him to get inside, and took him on wagon rides around the play area. After a couple, he got out, and sort of pushed the wagon a little bit. Taking this cue, I began to pull the empty wagon around the play area. He ran after me, following, clapping, smiling, joyous.

How amazing it is how quickly children can change their moods!

This ended up being a large part of what I did during outside time. The best was when the therapists took Jessica, another little girl, in for her therapy time (I'm not sure exactly what they go in for, each child goes in for about 15 minutes, I think it may be speech therapy), and they took the wagon. Oh, boy, did Jimmy start wailing! So, I grabbed this other small wagon-like toy that is barely big enough for one person and took that around. After one turn around, Ean ran up, and got in (this thing is tiny-he almost tipped it over!), and I pulled him around with Jimmy following, running, laughing, clapping. It feels good to make a kid's day by doing something so simple. I was happy to have made this one small connection with him.

I also played tic-tac-toe on the white board with Cole until he got bored with that and just wanted to have fun writing on the board.

I pulled some pictures of plants offline, printed them out, and set up my glass table like a light table, and traced the general outline of each. Not as great as drawing them from scratch, but much quicker. Although I was feeling tired, and overwhelmed by attempting to get this done so quickly, I soon became immersed in the work. That often happens when I begin to do something creative. Or even like stuff on the computer when I am in Photoshop, Illustrator, or other Design programs (or Dreamweaver - I meant to get to work today, but I have been in here for 2.5 hours instead working on my website and curriculum - 11/10)

I used both a Sharpie and a brush pen to alternate my line weight and make it more flowing. For the most part, I was satisfied with the drawings.

Briefly talked to Ben, Allyson, and Victoria about our presentation. We'd kind of talked about it a little before, but we solidified our ideas a little more. I think Ben and Allyson did some figuring out while I had to go do my own thing at the computer labs, but Ben and I discussed some more about it later on in the evening. We'd like to lead the class to the Longhouse to give them a tour of the plants and the work we've done. We'd also like to take a little while to talk about the projects we did in our classroom and how they relate to the Longhouse Garden Project.