Usually I am the teacher, but sometimes my daughter Element wants to teach as well! She made the beautiful painting featured in this blog, and showed me how she did it!
Remember to Like and Subscribe!
Yesterday was such a cold gray and rainy day! There was no going outside to make art, and I was feeling a bit uninspired! So I decided to sit myself in front of my favorite spot inside here at Burns Valley Herbals and Retreat… in front of the fireplace! Theres no better place to sit and do wood burning art
Enjoy, and keep creating!
Lately I have been called to create videos… instructional videos, time lapse videos, meditation videos, art making videos.
When I was in middle school my friends and I would use the old school camcorder to create videos…. music videos of our favorite songs, stories with our barbie dolls and toys, and plays we put on for school.
I feel like home videos have really changed since the digital age took over. Youtube has created a culture of vloggers. We are constantly recording every part of our life. Every experience is documented, some not as authentically as others.
Personally I love documenting my existence. I find it adds another layer of perception to my reality. When I capture an experience via photos or videos, I have the idea in mind that one day someone else will see my work and perhaps it will inspire them on their journey.
I think it is important for us all to continue to be makers in this world… makers of creations from our minds, and makers of change from the way we choose to communicate. I know that art is the only thing we all can connect to… no matter where we are on our path.
So I have decided to spend more time creating videos that might inspire others to create, through learning new technique and skills for creating and expressing ourselves!
My first two videos are paper folding videos. How to make a pocket journal and a zine.
These two journals are great ways to start documenting your own experiences in life, even if just for your own sake.
There are a lot of mental and emotional benefits from journaling.
Documenting our rituals, habits, thoughts, ideas, and experiences is a wonderful way to know ourselves better and stay in tune with who we are so we are not so easily shaken in times of trial. Writing is a way for us to express things we might not feel safe enough to sharing with others. My hope is you create these easy paper folding journals and use them to get you started on your journey to self awareness <3
This past weekend I taught twelve 10 year old girls how to paint a unicorn! It was a blast! I love working with young adults who are eager to create.
First we drew our unicorns using vine charcoal, and basic shapes. Each girl drew her own unicorn, and decided which colors they wanted to use.
After unicorn was drawn, the girls painted their backgrounds which ever color they decided. Everyone learned to mix paint in order to create their desired colors.
The final products were amazing! The girls were so excited they each named their unicorns.
It was such a pleasure to facilitate this creation party in celebration of an amazing girl named Avery. Thank you for letting me be apart of your special day!
Migwetch <3
Ethereum plays a huge part in the current and upcoming digital world.
The vision is that ethereum would enable this same functionality to people anywhere around the world, enabling them to compete to offer services on top of this infrastructure.
Scrolling through a typical app store, for example, you’ll see a variety of colorful squares representing everything from banking to fitness to messaging apps. These apps rely on the company (or another third-party service) to store your credit card information, purchasing history and other personal data – somewhere, generally in servers controlled by third-parties.
Your choice of apps is of course also governed by third parties, as Apple and Google maintain and curate (or in some cases, censor) the specific apps you’re able to download.
The idea is that one entity will no longer have control over your notes and that no one could suddenly ban the app itself, temporarily taking all of your notebooks offline. Only the user can make changes, not any other entity.
Ether can be used to underpin any sort of computer application you can imagine. The use cases for the ethereum network are only limited by the imaginations of application developers. For example, people are developing apps for energy distribution, digital advertising, and a digital marketplace for unused computing power.
The main selling point of decentralized applications, or dapps, on the ethereum network is that they can be run without a central authority facilitating the transactions.
Dapps, because they’re based on smart contracts, also allow for a relatively easy model of collective ownership and even governance using what are known as “tokens” or ICOs.
The key to the Ethereum blockchain is that communities can create ecosystems that support one another through collective ownership. Entrepreneurs can create tokens to exchange their goods and services with one another through these ecosystems. This is real self sovereignty.
With that being said, creating an ether wallet is your first step.
I recently uploaded my first video on YouTube that walks you through creating an ether wallet, check it out below.
Migwetch <3
On October 17th The Stone Mill 1792 hosted a wedding event with multiple vendors from photographers, caterers, a dj, and party planners! I attended the event and advertised my artistic services for personalized wedding gifts, bachelorette painting parties, and live event painting.
The weather started out sunny and beautiful but quickly changed to cloudy and cold. None the less, the event was hosted in such a nice spot it didn’t matter much. People from all over attended the event!
I had such a wonderful time meeting people and networking with the other vendors! I met so many people and made some new friends.
When I arrived, I set my table up next to the wonderful photographer, Summer Kelley. We hit it off right away, she was so easy to talk to and so much fun! When the crowd dwindled, I had her to keep me company! Summer’s a freelance photographer based out of Baltimore Maryland, a M.I.C.A. graduate, and currently works as senior photographer for an estate auction company in Towson. She is passionate about working with local businesses and helping out around her community! It was such a pleasure meeting her and being able to spend the day next to her. Her energy was light and fun and her photography is unique and beautiful, I would highly recommend her.
On the other side of me was my dear friend Cindy from Glen Rock, with Flowers by Cindy! I met Cindy three years ago when I first started my painting party adventure. She had great advice for a first time small business owner, and beautiful floral arrangements. When I started painting parties at The Stone Mill, I was thrilled to see her arrangements decorating the place! Her sweet energy and a beautiful personality reflect in her arrangements.
Lavender and Locks is a floral and cake designing company in South-Central Pa. They had samples of their cakes, which tasted delightful, and floral arrangements. I liked their marketing idea of posting a picture of yourself with their floral arrangement on Twitter and Facebook to be entered into a drawing for flowers. I had to take them up on it.
Tasteful Occasions, and FFF Catering were both catering companies at the event that had samples available for guests to try. I have to say Tasteful Occasions had a great spinach artichoke dip, and FFF Catering had an amazing pulled pork bbq.
After trying all of the delicious savory food, I sampled some flavorful cupcakes from Sprinkles Specialties. They provided chocolate, pumpkin and vanilla with raspberry! All three flavors were a perfect balance between sweet icing and moist cake.
And with all this food, there was great music playing. KLOCK Entertainment kept the jams flowing with great tunes. Adam Grobman was an awesome DJ with a great attitude and took my music requests!
Room Tone Productions is a company created by an artist named Patrick. His passion is for documentary filmmaking, but has worked on various film productions for Investigating Discovery, Food Network, and public services announcements for the City of Philadelphia. His hope is for Room Tone Productions to become a creative force to help people tell their stories through films, animations or web videos. He is also interested in helping with world, and does so a little at time by using recycled, eco-friendly DVD packaging for his event packages, and business cards from Loktah and Cards of Wood. In talking to Patrick I could hear his passion for his art through how he talked about what he did, and by looking at one of the wedding films he produced that was playing at his table, I could see it come to life. I am so glad to have met Patrick and Sarah at the event.
The event planners, Party Belles were also in attendance at the event. Michelle was a great representative for the company, outgoing and full of great ideas for wedding planning, coordinating and decorating. She has earned the title celebration specialist!
Artists Leigh Ann Hawkins and Michal Ann Boyd were also vending at the event, with their company Inside Out Upcycles. They recycle and reuse materials to create beautiful pieces! I was so inspired by their work that when my students do their paper mache projects I am going to use their work as examples !
When I have attended events like this in the past, I never really stopped to appreciate all of the amazing things humans do…usually if you’re at an event its because you are looking for something, whether specific or just as a time filler. But as a vendor at this event, I was able to see it from a different perspective and get to know the vendors as amazing and talented artists and entrepreneurs. Thank you everyone for taking time to share your stories, thoughts, ideas and energy with me. It was truly wonderful meeting you all.
Three days until I go back to school…
I’ve been working on figuring out how I’m going to present my new student centered learning ideas to my students when they come back on the 24th. Aside from planning that out, I will have a language arts class and homeroom in my room this year… Luckily one of the coolest teachers I teach with is my new room buddy! We are going to have so much fun setting things up and collaborating on different ways to integrate art and writing into lessons! I’m so excited!!
So today I will write 3 list…..
3 things I want to do in my classroom before the students come back:
3 things I want to create before my students come back:
3 things to plan for the first month of school:
Oh I am super excited!
You must be logged in to post a comment.