Enjoying Fall in the Midwest

First Stop was to Visit Scott and Ashley in Cincinnati. I made them stop along the side of the road to get a shot with these beautiful trees. Ashley and Scotts yard landscaping is what we worked on.

 

Scott and Ashley had some landscaping yardwork to help them with (because we asked them to). Above the rose bushes after they were pruned by Trish.

Here are the new bushes nicely planted and mulched. We added some purple mums to the left side of the yard.

When we got to Steve and Lindsey's, the first project on the agenda was to strip the pressboard off the garage walls.

Steve and Lindsey have an older home with a slate roof . Steve had been planning to get some tiles fixed. Its very complicated to work on since you cant lay on the roof. He ordered a special ladder and hooks that can be hooked on the top of the roof. Doug helped him finagel the ladder to the correct position so Steve could get to work.

I was bound and determined to do some raking despite the fact most had not fallen yet.

Doug is vacuuming the debris out of the wall from the crumbling brick mortar.

You can see the high tree over the garage that caused the damage when a limb fell down. Steve plans to get some more pruning done on these overhanging branches.

It was a two person job to get the ladder lined up on the peak of the roof.

I found some time to hit the local Art Space. A children's book exhibit was displayed with many types of media: pastels, oils, pen and ink, watercolor. It was a wonderful display.

You can see how much trash we gathered together between the vines on the garage, and pieces of the garage wall.

While we were at Steve's, Ashley and Scott ran the marathon in Columbus.

Scott ran right through Ohio State Stadium but forgot to get a picture.(Doug's request)

Hiking in the Great Smokies

For our fall break we traveled to the Midwest to visit our kids that live in Ohio. During the week we drove down south to Tennessee to hike the Smokies National Park. The first day we arrive was late afternoon so we enjoyed the fading sun with a short hike to see one of the many waterfalls in the park.

Laurel Falls

This hike was on a paved path and supposed to be super busy. Because we went late afternoon it was quiet.

The day was bright and sunny and the sun cast beautiful colors on the faraway trees.

Here is a view from opposite the falls , kind of a hanging pool of water running off downnthencliff edge.

Up into the sides of the trail were interesting mushrooms or fungus growing on a decaying log. The smells were musty and damp in the forest.

A Weekend to Appreciate Art

I am planning a field trip for the 7th and 8th grades to the Vangogh exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. We need a place to go afterwards for lunch and to kill some time. I thought the Museum of Outdoor Arts might work. I headed over there Saturday to check it out. Here are some of the sculptures there. Many had an Alice in wonderland theme.

They were setting up for a big concert next door at Comfort Dental Ampitheater.

This sculpture was across the street. I went to get a closer look. This is titled "the Fence"  It is supposed to represent stonehenge like closepin people. The park seemed very small. I'm going to get a look at the branch over by Santa Fe Drive.

I headed over to the Denver Art Museum. I just recently became a member and wanted to check out a couple new exhibits. The first was an airport architecture display. They featured the Denver International Airport and had models, videos, and descriptions. The design director Curtis W. Fentress is  one of the foremost airport designers in the world. Fentress Architects is currently at work on the modernization of LAX. They had models of several airports that he designed, Seattle, San Jose, Korea and the Los Angeles still under work. I highly recommend this exhibit if you like to fly.

The other exhibit that was on preview was El Anatsu, an African Artist who uses pieces of metal and bottlewraps, and caps to sew together with wire to create sculpture.

Here is a closeup of his works.

Matisse Collage Paper Art
The last stop of the Day was a class I had signed up for at the Denver Public Library. I had gone to one before and ifs a series called fresh air. I met a few of my Mile High Mixed Media artists there and we all sat together and had a good time cutting and talking.



These are two of my finished pieces. What do they look
Like to you?

It was fun to walk around and see others work

Wednesday the day for Dance

Notice mom and dad sitting on the rock in the foreground

Notice the dancers on the ground while the bass is played

 

Today the highlight was a trip to a dance venue called Jacobs pillow. It's another destination tucked into a forest of trees in becket Massachusetts . They have many theaters and even a video library devoted to dance. Our first show was held outdoors in an open air stage. We sat on rocks for chairs . The dance was very modern and used the spoken word and chairs. While one dancer was writhing on the stage, another plucked a string on the bass. I enjoyed the movement although I was lost on the meaning.

 

The finale was a treat with the Royal Winipeg Ballet dancing to Carmina Burana with 4 costume changes.

The movements were more progressive ballet with the whole piece danced to choral music. There were 22 dancers on stage at times. This was held in a building that was laid out in a wooden barn like feel. The dancing was phenomenally talented coming from all over to perform here.

 

For Our scheduled free time in the afternoon, dad and I explored the Hancock shaker Village nearby.

 

It was a living museum with beautiful architecture and gardens. This is the religious group known for their wooden furniture and shaker pegs on every wall. Unfortunately there are only 3 left due to their belief in celibacy.

 

 

I loved the colorful buildings and seeing the finely made baskets, chairs, brooms and boxes. The kitchen was well set up with stoves and ovens for multiple uses

And dumb waiters going to different floors for washing dishes ,cooking, and serving.

 

A week in the Berkshires

We enjoyed a drive through the green hills of New York state to get to our destination in. pittsfield Massachusetts . Patience was a virtue as I was on an elderhostal (now called road scholars) tour with my parents. I looked forward to spending some time together this week enjoying the arts. There are lectures and speakers included in the event we will see .

The town of Williamstown is the home of the Williams. College where the Clark museum and Williams. College Museum was located. Many church buildings of all shapes and sizes were passed on the way. Most very small and sometimes 3 or 4 next to one another. They are beautiful but wonder if they are spiritually full.

The Williams College Museum was small but had some nice pieces. One of the student projects filled a room of constructed architecture.buildings based on an artist. They even had the lesson plan displayed. Maybe a future project.

There was a nice Louise nevelson piece and a Greek vase I enjoyed. Some outdoor sculptures of eyeballs were fun to photograph.

The special exhibit At the Clark Museum was my fav. Clark had led an expedition to china and unearthed some burial sites. They had reconstructed sculptures and
objects of discovery.

There was a brand new annex with a walking trail through the woods. I loved the architecture to the. Building. The special exhibit continued there. I rode a golf cart with my dad to get there.

Student projects

We ended the evening with a new drama called the North Pool. This was excellently acted and the story proved much to talk about afterwards with the actors. A mystery that craft fully unfolded as the play progressed.

 

Collage and Corkscrews

The teachers at my school wanted to do a painting class on canvas. I taught them a collage mixed media class.

We all started with red backgrounds and added our choice of collage papers to texturize the background.

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Each person made some type of tree on the canvas with paper. Next we added paint for the trunks and sky.

We had 12 teachers come to the neighborhood center where we held the class. Of course, we had beverages and refreshments.

Here are some of the finished creations.