Sunday, April 22, 2018

SCASB

When my son has a track meet, he drives fifteen minutes to an hour to get to each meet. But when my students want to compete in track events with other blind students, the closest team is in the next state. So once a year, the southern schools for the blind (SCASB) get together for a weekend of track and field. Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi all came to Georgia this last weekend for the fun and stiff competition.

Because this month was very stressful and busy, I tried to keep my contributions simple.
The origami crane center pieces
 from prom three weeks ago were re-purposed for the administrator's dinner. The mini gift were clay ornaments turned magnets with the note "SCASB attracts the best schools."  The prom screen and lights were reused for the SCASB dance. And I painted a photo background with the school mascots.  Our buddies Oklahoma didn't make it, but if they had, they are also panthers. And for some reason I thought Texas was a lion, so I had to repaint it as a wild cat, once I found my mistake. It was a great couple days with a lot of great kids, and I felt lucky to be a part of it.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Soap Box Derby

It started as a sketch  and ended as a 1st place for "Best of Show"at the Soap Box Derby race today. A team of students have been staying after school to build a soap box derby car, and I was given the task of painting the car body.  I made some quick sketches, had my Art students vote. They chose an all-American, Evil Ken-evil, dare-devil style.

So we primed the white car with white spray paint that was supposed to work with plastic. And then we taped out our design, covering the rest with newspaper.  There were lots of glitches, such as the newspaper turning the white to gray, and the paint coming up with the tape to make rough edges. But the vice principal (Thanks Jon!) got some wide tape and stickers to cover the rough spots.  And we'd hoped that during the race, it would look like nothing but a blur.






Here's a link to the news story, about our driver getting ready for today's race.

http://www.13wmaz.com/mobile/article/news/local/legally-blind-teen-to-compete-in-this-years-magnolia-soap-box-derby/93-538007676

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Student Show at Allied Arts and Printmaking Workshop at Georgia College

This is the second art show this year my students have had off campus, and the first we've ever had in another city.    Last week (the day of prom), Georgia College student volunteers paired with each of my legally blind students for a printmaking workshop, organized by Printmaking Professor, Matt Forrest. Then we all attended a reception at the Allied Arts.  It was a sweet and memorable field trip. Getting our pictures in the paper, was icing on the cake.


Friday, April 6, 2018

Japanese Style Prom Decorations




Last night was prom at my school! This year's prom theme, as decided by the seniors, was "A Night in the Land of the Rising Sun."  That worked great for me because I lived in Japan for a  year and a half and love all things Japanese.  And since all the Japanese people I've met,  love it when geigin (outsiders or foreigners) celebrate their culture, I could share all of their amazing aesthetics without fear of causing offense. I wanted to transform our school cafeteria for as little as possible, and so I spent $100 on paper lanterns and a handful of koi fish wind socks, and pieced everything else together with whatever I could find lying around.

I started by teaching students to make origami cranes. I spray painted eight #10 cans that had been sitting in my room for a year. Then I spray painted branches silver.  I wrapped the bottoms of the branches with newspaper and stuffed it into the bottom of the can, filling the top half with small landscaping rocks to hold everything in place. Each set of branches received 20-25 colorful paper cranes (160-180 total) for dazzling centerpieces.



For a fun photo op, I painted a samurai and a parasol holding geisha infant of a background of bamboo and the kanji characters for "Nihon" (Japan). The heads were cut out for prom goers to peek through.


I used the back of an old photo backdrop to paint another scene:  Mount Fuji with a footbridge, stone lantern, and rock garden, during cherry blossom season.  Our town is home to the larges number of cherry blossom trees in the world, but they all came from Japan and so there's a special connection to that country for us.

This photo back drop gives students (and teachers) a chance to use the photo props I made from craft foam and wire.  The foam was so thin, that I cut out two hair shapes, and hot glued a wire in between the two. This allowed me to bend it to conform to the shape of the head.



When each senior and their escort were announced then entered through a torii, the iconic red gate that often sits outside Japanese cities and shrines. This had been a 4'X8' piece of scrap wood that was cut into strips, and a kind-hearted maintenance man (thanks James) helped me figure out how to get to to be a free standing entrance.




3 8'X8' PVC pipe squares were wrapped in tulle and icicle lights, creating a 24 foot wall, which divided the dance floor from the eating area.


Garlands of large (12" X 18") and small paper (4" X 5") Japanese flags, were an inexpensive, easy way to make a visual impact.


And paper lanterns and fans hung from light fixtures, reinforcing the colors of the flag and creating visual unity.

Some 8' high discarded wood, and a couple of hinges was painted to make a faux rice paper wall.  by having this next to the 8' pagoda painting we did for the spring concert last year, there were places to take length pictures to show off their gowns and fancy shoes.

 
My daughter and husband came to the dance because they know how hard I've worked on this the last few months, and they're really supportive. One of my students (who didn't come to the prom) suggested that it wasn't worth the effort considering that "we're blind." But I had several students approach me and thank me for caring enough to try to make their night special.

Our prom even made the news. You can see the clip here: http://www.13wmaz.com/mobile/article/news/local/georgia-academy-for-the-blind-students-celebrate-prom/93-535773713