Word for the Year

Quite a few people I know are choosing a word for the year, to help drive their goals or resolutions. I find it difficult to choose just one word! Hubby has already chosen his: HOPE!

I like that a lot, and was near choosing it, myself. But I didn't want to jump on his bandwagon word, just because. Since he has HOPE and I am his partner, I decided to choose my own so we could "cover more ground" with our dreams and goals this year. Now the three that I have narrowed down are: 

BRAVE

INSPIRED

ABUNDANT

Surely their is not a thing wrong with having a trio of words now, is there? ;-)

I appreciate how these words encompass not only intentional, purposeful action, but deameanor, attitude, and emotion, as well.

What's your word for 2014?

Javamom

Winslow Homer Timeline

I have been selecting art prints to teach this fall in an Art Study (aka via Charlotte Mason "Picture Talk") Class. I spent hours at my favorite used bookstore about three weeks ago (with my married daughter and with friends, of course!) perusing dozens of art books to choose for my background research. It has been years since I taught Winslow Homer in our homeschool. I purchased two books of Homer, two books of Van Gogh, and one new, large book of Norman Rockwell to fill out the 2011-2012 schoolyear.


(Snap the Whip - probably Homer's most popular, well-known painting)


Since then, I have also spent a good deal of time researching prints online, to help choose from different time periods of Homer's work, but also to compare the different media he used over the course of his artistic career. I like to find the obscure works, or the lesser known and find the stories behind them. I am odd that way ;-). Though, finding works from the beginning, middle, and latter part of an artist's career is what Charlotte Mason recommended. For my part, I have been both enriched and enlightened!


Many may know that he began as an apprentice learning how to make lithographic illustrations. He studied with John H. Buford of Boston. Then he did some freelance work before moving to New York, where he began working for Harper's Weekly doing illustrations of the Civil War. How many of you know the rest of his story?


I stumbled upon this chronology at the National Gallery of Art website, which includes thumbnail prints of his work, with a brief timeline of his life to the right. Once you click on one of the small prints, it opens up a new window with more information. What a treasure of concise and visual information! Almost better than a book. ALMOST!

I also happened upon a lecture by Peter H. Wood, author of the book Near Andersonville. His book is about a print of Homer's that was lost for about 100 years, how it was discovered, and what Civil War -related meanings exist throughout the seemingly simple painting. I am thrilled to have found this information. Now my husband and I both want this book on the shelves of our home library. (He is an American Lit. teacher and a Homer fan, too).
What are my fellow readers and friends studying in the arts this first term of the new schoolyear? Answer on either FB or the blog link! I really want to hear!

Ciao for now,

Javamom

Art & Music History Blog

I wanted to recommend a blog called Circle of Scholars:Discovering Music with Professor Carol. I just found this after meeting (and singing with!) Carol and her husband at the CiRCE Institute Conference themed "What is Man?"

You need to see how she has combined art with music, along with the story of the works about which she is writing. Her passion simply oozes out of the very center of her being. I am almost speechless at the treasure, so I will simply leave it at that, and encourage you to go explore it. Go on! Right now! Meet me back here for more discussion, if you like :-).

Can you tell what we will be adding to our sources in our homeschool this fall? Yes, even though I have only one left in 'official' school. I also bought Carol's work, "Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History, and Culture."

Javamom

Artistic Pursuits

I've enjoyed time together with some of our friends and my daughter, painting tiles for a friend who is stepping down from leadership of our homeschool co-op. The Lord put the co-op idea on her heart twelve years ago, and she's retiring this post in part because her youngest graduates this May. She is, however, continuing to lead the Christian Homeschool Prom.

All of the tiles are to go in her laundry/craft room in their new house. We had such a good time talking, laughing and painting together. It's like the old-fashioned "quilting bee" concept.

The photo above shows two tiles I painted (one on behalf of my son, who studied Biblical Precepts with this leader/teacher). The one on the right was painted by my dd.



Everyone did an excellent job!

Inspired by Coffee Art

While visiting nephews and their families this past week, we went to a beautiful coffee shop just outside of Tulsa. The atmosphere of this place, Nordaggio's, was simple but stunning, with hints of Old-World charm; Venetian Plaster and dark wood tables and leather couches. It also could have had something to do with their counter filled with multiple flavors of *real* Italian Ice...YUM!

Another charming characteristic of this cafe was the sepia-toned, framed watercolor art on the walls. You can visit Karen's online gallery, and purchase some of your own coffee art, or be inspired by it, as I am, to try your hand at making your own! Our youngest son immediately recognized the art, since we've spent time with some of Van Gogh's works this fall.

My favorites from Coffee-Art: Cafe Terrace, The Lady of Chocolat, and Mona Latte...and there is just something about Nighthawks (the real version by E. Hopper) that I have always liked. It reminds me of pre-dawn life in a big city, like Chicago or Boston.


Enjoy and get creative!

Javamom

Cafe Terrace

We just started school this week. Picture Study got set aside for the most part since early in 2004, so our younger two boys needed a reminder of how this works! We always have several prints displayed around our home, on various easels or shelves, but I needed to officially reintroduce active picture study again. Today, I displayed our copy of Cafe Terrace by Vincent Van Gogh for just a few minutes and told them to pay attention to detail. Then I turned the print over (hiding it) and asked them tell me everything they could about it. I had them draw their own copies of Cafe Terrace. They really got into it!

Our younger two boys are 11 and 13, btw. They even brought up how we like cafes as opposed to fast food. I asked why. 11 yo's answers were funny, thing such as fast food not being healthy and that cafes are fancy (huh? Nah, they are just very cool) but then he realized the true answer~that we prefer cafes because of the friends we have meet us there and the time spent lingering with them. They also talked about the atmosphere being more conducive (no, they did not use that word) to talking with friends: warmer and softer lighting and color pallettes. Most of the time, they have good music playing in the background.

We have also made Wednesdays our Plutarch days. On this day, our older two kiddos aged 15 (daughter) and 17.5 (son) each have a Worldviews class (Year 1 and year 3) they get to take with other homeschoolers, and this provides the perfect time for the younger two to focus together on "Nobler things," as Plutarch or Goethe would say. Even better, the boys and I thought of Philipians 4:8-12 and turned to it after our Plutarch reading of the day.

Vocubulary words from today:
trifles (which our youngest said he had just learned in his small group at church)
servile
Sophist


This was one of those really good hs days.

Friday Happenings

Art camp finished up today, and I had the help of our 13 son and 15 yo daughter. Dd and I went to the mall to try on jeans and earn a free movie ticket, so we could have "girl time" together. I've missed her, since she was gone for two weeks to Minnesota!

We went to see "The Lakehouse," which is light, surprisingly good, and very clean! Just don't analyze any "time" problems too deeply. Just enjoy. There are a couple of wordly issues that provide for good discussion, but it is still an enjoyable movie. Quite a few literary and artistic references and connections are made, and that provides a little depth to the developing characters.

Afterwards, we visited a friend at the mall Starbucks and she made us free drinks!
What a treat! And free, to boot...except for the gasoline it took to get there. We were already in town and had several other errands to run, so we really saved there, as well.

I hope my readers are having a wonderful summer!

Go see "The Lakehouse" with your teen daughters or friends and tell me what you thought about it.

Art Camp and 300th post

Wow! The 300th post! And it is about Art Camp. Much of my family and I are teaching and helping in a local art camp this week. Our youngest is the only one who gets to participate as a student.

I've been given one of the three year old classes, which is quite hectic! Most all of them are just plain cute and calm (but they ARE still three-year-olds!), so it makes it fun. The ratio of boys to girls is nine to three. That's the tough part. I wish there was more of me to go around, when it comes project time, since I can only help one or two little ones at a time. They made such a fun mess while painting today. Dear Hubby, the Pirate Sparsebeard, was my assistant, but he can only help this one day. We were happy to be in the large choir room, which had an auto harp and a recorder. Hubs took it upon himself to play musical silly songs or Bible songs in between activites, and that helped corral the kiddos a lot. I'm off to bed to get some good sleep. Need all the energy and rest that I can get!

New hobby

While I'm expanding my skills in bookmaking and adding more tricks and supplies to our stash of tools, both our oldest son and daughter are taking up making handmade cards. This is a thank you card 15 yo dd made for a nice lady at hubby's school who often sends fancy tea home for her. If you look closely (click to enlarge), you can see the raised embossing she did in the corners. Wait till I show you the small booklet our 17 yo son and I made together yesterday. The first pictures we took of it didn't turn out clear, so we'll try again today. Son's SLR is broken at the moment, or I could post phenomenol photos of our projects!

My first day of teaching a bookbinding class went very well. Of course, one of my students is my best friend, and she works thoroughly and picks things up quickly. I'll post her project as soon as it is finished.

Summer according to Androcles

Crafts ~ air soft pellet mosaics

Origami

Dear son Androcles had a b-day this past week, so I took him to Half-Price Bookstore for an adventure. He chose an Origami kit for us to work on together. It is called The Origami Book and Kit by Makiko Ikeda, and was originally $30. We found it for $9.98, less the teachers' discount. I noticed there are several of them available at Bookcloseouts.com for just under $13.

This is not something I've ever really tried on my own before, although I have admired other people's origami creations over the years. He took to it rather quickly, and has enjoyed this more than I thought he would! this kit is simple enough for a nine or ten year old, and ds and I both highly recommend it!

"...Whereas Western art focuses upon the freedom to move images around on paper or canvas to create fixed patterns, origami ignores the separation between the image and the paper. The paper becomes part of the image, and is twisted and folded until it is the picture, not merely the surface on which it lies."
[The Artful Universe by John D. Barrow, Chapter 2, p. 7-8]

~*Illuminated Cat*~

Illuminated Cat ~ From The Book of Kells

Can you see him? From what I understand, the Irish love cats, and Irish monks included cats and mice in their illuminated manuscripts.

Renoir's flowers

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful, which God has implanted in the human soul.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Art Festival

I'm going to an art festival with a friend from church (who makes fun jewelry) today. I take vintage book restoration and hand bookbinding classes at this craft guild, and she has taken jewelry classes there. It's been months since I visited my "classmates" and teachers, since I had tendon injury and two surgeries this year. I'm hoping to get back to class in January and get back to work!!

It is pretty much a given that I'll come home with some more pottery :-). Maybe I'll post pictures sometime...