Monday, June 15, 2015

Birds of Fancy, A Mini Art Quilt Workshop




Birds of Fancy ~ Create a Mini Wall Art Quilt

A Workshop to create, stitch and enjoy
Saturday, June 27, 12-4pm

Cost: Workshop $30.00, Materials $10.00

SUTRA, global by design, 570 Main St, Dakota, Minnesota 55925
Call: (608) 792-7641 to register.

Instructor: Mary Lee Eischen
 


In this workshop, students will learn and create a collage mini quilt with photo images and words on cloth to delight and inspire.  We’ll begin with images of birds, nature and/or angels that Mary Lee provides for the group.  Images and text on cloth will be provided to give lots of possibilities for the creation of each personal mini quilt.

We will consider and discuss composition, color, and placement to give dynamic or calming effects depending on the creator’s desires to support the creating.  As in a quilt, we will have our top cloth with images and words, a middle batting cloth and at back piece of cloth.  Putting it all together will be with hand stitching—no need for a sewing machine for this project.  We’ll also create a miniature hanging devise to hang your mini art quilt on the wall.

All materials provided—you may bring a notebook for any personal notes, favorite art supplies such as pencils, colored pencils, scissors, fabrics, or trims, if you choose.


Mary Lee Eischen is a fiber and mixed media artist.  She dyes and paints on fabric, and creates art quilts.  She uses nature, women, family, color, and abstraction in her mixed media artwork.  See more of Mary Lee’s art at her on line gallery at Breeze on my Skin or at the Lanesboro Arts Center in Lanesboro, Minnesota or Bluff Country Artists Gallery in Spring Grove, Minnesota.

 


Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Art Show at Dakota Area Community and STEM School


Cat in the Hat was happy to be part of the Dakota Area Community and STEM School Art Show that opened May 14th along with the Spring Concert.




Abstract Art created from the children's names created by the third, fourth, and fifth grade artists.



The children created giant guitars to celebrate the culture of Mexico.  The children learned songs in Spanish, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese to celebrate cultures all around the world.








The Pre-K through Kindergarten artists created organic leaf shapes and  they colored  the leaves light and dark hues.




Looking into the distance, paintings by the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students.




Creating contemporary design with straight lines and primary colors inspired by Piet Mondrian.



Chengdu, the panda was created with chalk by the 1st and 2nd grade artists.  This art project was inspired by the book,  Chengdu Would Not, Could Not, Fall Asleep by Barney Saltzberg.  Very fun book and drawings!










Pre-Kindergarten to Kindergarten spring birds drawn with oils pastels and then painted with cake temperas.  Such careful and beautiful art.









The Pre-Kinders and Kindergarteners painted this huge earth  collaboratively together.  They were so excited.  They called it, "The Real Earth."  The school was very bright and colorful for the last weeks of school with all the children's fine art. This was a fine school that closed at the end of the school year,  June 2015.



Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Messy Abundance: Wild Feminine Wisdom of this Earth


This is a repost from Chandra Sherin: Moon Muses

It is a lovely article and photos about nature, our place, messy and neat.  Oh, so lovely.  Check her out at Moon Muses.


Ash tree debris
Ash tree debris

On a walk with my dog, there is no way to avoid walking on the hackberries and then the debris from the ash tree along the sidewalk by our house. There they are all strewn out in hope and abundance. It is nature’s way, in the spring and the fall, to shower down an abundance of seeds, berries, blooms in order to ensure continuance. A beautiful symbol for us, really. Yet, mixed with that observation I remember the scorn, resentment and sometimes outright neurosis of people who saw or see this aspect of nature interfering with their sense of order, neatness, convenience and other structures of thought that have been built in opposition to what is natural.

Hackberries on the sidewalk.


Hackberries on the sidewalk.
The idea that a tree is messy comes to mind. That was a foreign concept when I first heard it. “I hate that tree. It is so messy! Cut it down!” I had not experienced that attitude in my own family and as an adult it was an abrupt introduction that came with home ownership. What I was hearing was that walnut trees were a nuisance because they get in the way of mowing, mulberries are weed trees because they grow so quickly, stain pavement and allow the birds to poop purple poop on freshly washed cars; that a person would love to have a flowering tree or a tree with berries but they are so messy! I had only ever known that trees are homes for many creatures, they help us breathe cleaner air, provide shade; walnut trees feed the squirrels in the winter, mulberries feed the birds and people. The “messiness” comes and goes in cycles and once was recognized and appreciated as food, fruit, harvest.

I wonder at how creativity and especially creative people living in ways that are different (than the structures set in place by today’s institutions and “traditional” venues as THE way to be and work and live) are seen and treated so much like the critics I thought of who spoke of and treat certain trees that bear fruit, nuts and other debris with such animosity and disrespect.
The idea of the “nuisance” of these fruitful trees is created because of made up constructs that go unquestioned.
“If my cement is stained, I will not be liked or respected. If birds poop on my car it affects the value, the paint, my esteem and causes me to have to wash my car again. If there are walnuts in my yard I will have to do extra work because I need to mow my lawn. I need to have grass and mow my lawn because that is what everyone does. If I have debris from trees all over my yard it has to be cleaned up. I must keep my yard manicured like the aristocracy from England of old so as to denote my status, esteem and untouchableness. I must use pesticides to maintain a “perfect image”. ”

For me personally, if someone judges me or sees my property as less because there are some passing stains from nature on the cement, or clovers and violets growing more than grass, I see them as missing what is really important in life and forgetting the deeper harmony and appreciation for nature and what nature requires. I remember that the artificial constructs are constantly demanding us to be overly self-conscious, to the point of applying poisons to our own land and seeing nature as nuisance and even, sometimes, enemy to be homogenized.
Cement is there to help us to walk and drive more easily. That is all. It is utilitarian. Is it good to take care of what you have on the material level? Of course. And it can become a preoccupation and a distortion too.
Click and Clack from Car Talk (NPR) always suggested it is better to get a used car than a new one. They knew that then a person is less prone to becoming outrageously upset about every scratch, ding or smattering of bird poop and can relax about it. There are more important things in life than getting mad about bird poop on cars because of certain trees.

Some of this is about wanting control and order. Some of it is about stupid norms in our society that ignore and refuse to respect the wisdom and gifts of nature. And it has gotten to the point where this kind of mindset is threatening nature and her creatures in critical and serious ways. And it affects our health. In many ways. Our health and well-being is strengthened and enhanced by connecting with nature and her elements, by feeling a part of the natural world. When we respect and recognize the gifts and power of even the messiest parts of nature, we begin to allow that kind of wild messy abundance that exists within our own being as well.
So my shoes have berries pasted to the bottom of them by pine needles with sap and ash tree debris to boot. So my cement is stained for a while and my yard is unruly like a mini forest. So what? Am I less human? Is it less valuable?
I am a creative person who lives in a counter-cultural way. Not because I want to be different, but because that is how I am wired and who I am. I don’t seem to fit in with the Institutional, the highly organized and structured corporations, the mainstream “Traditional” structures….even if I want to, I have ended up feeling like those messy trees when I try. I am regularly told by those who know me how talented I am, how many gifts I have and such a great ability to teach, yet I don’t seem to fit anywhere. I don’t seem to have value in this monetarily centered world. I don’t believe that, but that is the message I have gotten overall from it.

I realize that the only way I am to hope to make a sustainable living is to jump through their hoops, which would be a death to my spirit at this point, OR make my own way, plodding along, throwing my fruit and seeds everywhere I can and further with the help of the wind (Spirit) in hopes of continuance via messy abundance in harmony with nature.
The concrete and the literal can always be symbolic of inner states of being and outer realities. There is always depth and purpose strewn out before us. Sometimes the people we love are messy and inconvenient. And when they are gone, that is often what we miss most. When the children are small the chaos and demand and mess can seem stressful. When they are older it is missed. When the dog destroyed beloved material objects or ripped up the garbage, it was outrageous and bad. When they are gone, that short life, that messiness is missed and thought of with humor and tenderness.
When we realize this, we raise our awareness to a level that embraces the wisdom of nature. Mother Nature, our Earth is ordered chaos, messy abundance, wild wisdom and beauty. As are we, when we free ourselves from the facades and constructs that have alienated our being from simple wisdom and simple truths.





Saturday, May 30, 2015

Last Day of School 2015 Ridgeway Community School Part II


Our end of the school year event for health and wellness is a walk/run around the West Lake in Winona scheduled for the Saturday following the final school day.  This year was an especially exciting year with celebrity runners  joining us for our before school Workout Wednesday and then sharing stories of their love of running and staying healthy.  Students were encouraged to get fit with running or walking the track at Ridgeway Community School.

Another thing to get the students excited was to get small donations and for each dollar, the homeroom group received a shoe that was taped to the wall.  The Homeroom with the most shoes would be able to duct tape their teacher and Ms. Jodi, our school coordinator to the wall!  That bit of fun play got students very excited!  Two homerooms for going very close to being the winners--Mrs. Meyer and Mrs. Johnson.  Who would win?  Oh, my goodness, it was a tie and they both got the fame of being taped to the wall.  

 Ms. Jodi, duct taped to the wall.



Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Meyer, the two tying Homeroom teachers!


Students in each homeroom along with their teacher.



Smiles and hugs all around.



After lunch, the very exciting kickball game began with 5th Graders verses Teachers.  The rules were gone over and agreed on by both sides before the game.  Mrs. Cindy Smith making sure all was fair for both teams.


Students and teachers getting ready for the very exciting game.  The game goes for 4 innings or one hour which ever comes first.  This year, though the teachers were winning 5-4 after 4 innings, it was agreed to continue for the full hour.

In the end Teachers won 5th Graders--10 to 6.  Good game by all.



After the game, everyone excited a freezy including Mrs. Hundorf, our Special Education para-professional and out fielder.






Mrs. Langlie, our music teacher and second base player.





Mrs. Maynard, Special Education para-professional helped keep all the children safe on the playground and in the bounce house.


Mrs. Conway, our Special Education teacher and 3rd Base person.

 
Ms. Geier joined us for our final day.  She student taught in Mrs. Johnson's 1st Grade through the spring semester.


Mrs. Meyer, our 2nd & 3rd Grade Teacher and 1st base player.


Mrs. Anderson, 4th & 5th Grade Lead Teacher and our fabulous out fielder with some of her students, Nyah, Elise, Jocelyn. 
There were many more teachers playing and having fun with students that missed my photo eye.




Mrs. Anderson and Tyler.



Ms. Eischen, Art Teacher and Nyah.

Last Day of School 2015 Ridgeway Community School Part I



The last day of school is filled with finish up, clean up, awards, lunch and play ball--the especially thrilling kickball game: 5th Graders verses the Teachers. (See Last Day of School 2015 RCS Part II)

 
Elise during wrap up time in Mrs. Anderson's room.






 Ms. Ashley giving out 100% Attendance Awards!


Students participate in accelerated reading at Ridgeway Community School.  After they read a book, they can  take a multiple choice quiz and gain points depending on the difficulty of the book.  The students above received a Bronze Metal.









Silver Metal Award Winners.



Gold Metal Award Winners.



Crowning achievements for two of our teachers.



A special gift for our friend, Nyah, whose family is moving.  A canvas painting of thumbprints from everyone in our school creating a growing tree.  The leaves of the tree are Grades 2-5 students.  The trunk and roots are the Kinders and 1st Grade students. Three 5th Grade students added rootedness with their thumbs at the base of the tree.  All the fruits and flowers are the teachers favorite colors.  The red thumb prints are strawberries--one of Nyah's favorite fruits.


The canvas was provided by Mrs. Cindy Smith--a loving parent of one our 5th Grade student's, Nathaniel "Viggo" Smith.









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