Project Reflections
| Date | Place | Reflections |
| 10/3 | My room | I discovered ways to make natural dyes from dandelions, and onion skins, and reminisced in the mesh of memory of my childhood of craft making and working in the ideas of my teachers that were wiser and more well intentioned than I had realized at the time. |
| 10/8 | Lincoln Elementary | This meeting was a bit unproductive and confusing because I had expected it to be a formal one involving my groupmates and turned out to just be a planting event that I had received an invitation to. |
| 10/19 | Lincoln Elementary | This time the meeting was well planned, and I got a calm and realistic understanding of the school. I really enjoyed walking into the empty classroom of the music and science teacher Michael, and looking at his decorations of collections from nature-ie-a hornets nest hanging from the ceiling and photographs of dew drops and grasshopper wings- and the woodworking tools and drums that were stocked for the children's use. |
| 10/21 | Media Center and my room | This process was more of a technical and organizational one, but it allowed me to envision the mood of the first class on Sunday, and to incorporate my own enjoyment of wordless, emotional jazz music when I am doing art into this vision. |
| 10/23 | Seminar II building and organic farm trail | The class began with alot of ambivalence on my part because I had been notified of the death of a close relative the night before, but I trusted the honesty and enthusiasm that I find to be especially apparent in children to pull me through the class. I really enjoyed the walk down the organic farm trail and identifying mushrooms in Mylee's book, and learning from the children how to experience the environment of this region that I am so new to. |
| 10/26 | Lincoln Elementary Garden and Project room | I found rare momentary peace brainstorming with Karen on what to do with these gourds, and thinking back to my childhood and the simplicity I found in art and miniature hiding places and linking mixed media. I felt further enlightened when I ventured into the project room and began to express these ideas with the gourds by making designs in my head and then with my hand for wind chimes and boxes and shakers that the children could customize themselves. |
| 10/30 | the house where I live and the classroom in the Lab II building where we hold the Sunday art classes | The process of making cookies began with much excitement and enthusiasm, which later dwindled as time wore on and I realized the complexity of making these two different cookies, as well as icing for one kind, at the same time. I was glad to share this food with the class, as I always love to share food with other appreciative persons. |
| 10/28 | the writing center, and a room behind it. | I really enjoyed the open mic because I need to share my writing with others once in awhile, and the art portion of the written word workshop was rewarding but very difficult because I was experiencing the fresh deaths of a couple of people and was having trouble calming myself down. |
| 11/6 | the room in the Lab II building | The portion of this class that was the most memorable was making the rain makers out of old toilet paper rolls, and learning about the relationship between the amoung of rice put in the rolls and the sounds that the rolls make when shaken. |
| 11/13 | The room behind the writing center | I enjoyed mixing the kids from the art class that we teach, and my fellow classmates who host The Written Word workshops, and seeing how they get along. During this class I felt a huge inability to work in a disciplined manner, and was unable to sit myself down and work on calligraphy, so I painted a large colorful tree on a piece of paper tacked to the wall to use in my presentation group's ritual. This calmed me down alot, because I was able to use my hands to stop my brain from over thinking, and to see my extreme ambivalence on paper.
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| 11/15 | the house that I live in | I was very pleased to have received some interest in this project after thinking I may have needed to abandon it from a lack of response. |
| 11/16 | the kitchen in the house that I live in, the office at Lincoln Elementary and the greenhouse in the garden at Lincoln Elementary | The process of making the mobile was fun and rhythmic for me, as craft making often is. I was also a bit stressed out, because this creation took alot longer than I had expected it to, and I needed to rush to the bus to meet with Marti on time. Ii really enjoyed brainstorming with Susan on what to write on the description of this project, and thought up the use of broken ceramic plates and having the kids paint on and shellack old pottery pieces as well as having them cut up old photography and laminating them to hang from the bottoms of the gourds. |
| 11/16-11/17 | the kitchen in the house that I live in | This process was a grueling one, because I had these ten gourds lined up and alot of obvious methodical work to do that was in my face. Eventually I began to work faster and more efficiently with the stabbing and forcing the paring knife into the gourds . I was also able to be inventive with the different arrangements of holes in the differently shaped gourds, and imagined the unique possible outcomes for each gourd mobile. |
| 11/18 | buses, the greenhouse at Lincoln Elementary and the kitchen in the house that I live in | The commute to Lincoln Elementary to drop off the gourds was a bit frustrating, because the travel time was much longer than the actual time that I spent at my destination. I made the paper mache sculpture later that night as I was making bread dough, and was lad to have this project to guide my fidgety hands as I waited for the bread dough to rise. This work reawakened my familiarity with the medium of paper mache', and it went along reassuringly smooth. |
| 11/26 | a multitude of stores | I dont really enjoy shopping at pretensious art stores in Seattle, which is where I happened to shop, or at last minute stops in Safeways which is what I happened to do. |
| 11/27 | seminar II building | The process of getting y stuff together, and traveling on the bus with all of these heavy bags was rather difficult, but I did it. I found it difficult at first to get everyone's attention when Jamie and I were explaining this activity, but once I did, and everyone understood the basics of this work, I was very excited to see what they would do, and felt the creative energy in the room was inspiring and helpful for my own art production. |
| 11/28 | the computer center | I'll be honest. I really dont like being on computers for extended periods of time. *knock on wood, please dont let this one fail me* |
