Trip to Germany

A few hours in Frankfurt let me check out the highlights

Last month, my husband I visited our daughter in Germany for a week, and although we didn't spend a lot of time in Art museums, the architecture and history left me feeling like I had feasted on culture for the week. Here are some of the favorite cities we visited.

Heidelberg is a lovely old city with red roof buildings and a rich history. Much of the town is pedestrian only which makes it perfect for exploring its shops, restaurants, three gorgeous churches, and one of the oldest universities in Europe. The castle on the hill is easy to see from anywhere in the city. You can make the short but steep walk to it, or take the furnicular up. The castle was built in 1218 but suffered destruction from lightning strikes, fires etc. and each time it was rebuilt with new additions and updated styles over the next 400 years. One of my favorite parts of the castle was the apothecary museum, which walks you through the history of medicine. 

Mainz is home to the Gutenberg  and his famous printing press with movable type. Around 1455, Gentenberg printed 180 copies of the Bible. These were just commissioned pages that the buyer had to have someone illustrate and bound. About 48 copies of the Gutenbuerg Bible still exist today, and you can see a few of them here. As printmakers, my husband and I loved the demonstration of creating a mold, smelting lead to make the type, and then actually printing on a press that is a reproduction of the original Gutenberg press. Kirschegarten is a charming neighborhood in Mainz that translates to cherry orchard. All the half timber houses there were built in between the 1500's to 1800's. We stopped there for lunch. I would have loved more time to explore that city.

Strasbourg is in France, but it was just over the border and has actually gone back and forth as a German city to a French city many times. The cathedral is gorgeous and it's just a block away from the river tour is a great chance to get the history and sites from a unique view! The European Parliament is also in Strausbourg. La Petit France was an area of the city that was where all of the people who had contracted syphilis were quarantined. This is the cutest part of the very walkable.  This city is famous for it's Christmas markets and decorations, but I loved seeing the flowers everywhere. Try to find some traditional Alsatian food while you're there. It is delicious! 

Trier is a gem of a place just minutes from the Luxembourg/ Germany border. It is called the Rome of the North, and contains many ancient Roman treasures such as the largest standing Roman hall (now the oldest church in Germany), an ancient ampitheatre and an elaborate bath house complex (Keiderslauten). The underground tunnels provide a little relief from the summer heat. I ducked into every church I could find, as the doors are always open, but don't expect air conditioning. One of my favorite stops was the Lindt chocolate store, where you are greeted with samples and all sorts of unusual flavor options to buy a little pick-me-up.

Trier's Porta Nigra would have probably been dismantled like the other city gates for the the stones to be repurposed, had it not been for a hermit who lived inside the port for years. Later, this Roman gate was made into a church and named after that man. 

Trier Cathedral is one of the nine Midevil and Roman monuments that make Trier a UNESCO world heritage site. The courtyard has two churches in one and it feels like something out of a fairy tale!

And if you are looking for a place where there are virtually no tourists, look to Kaiserslauten, where there is a really special Japanese garden, and a short hike through the woods to explore free castle ruins (Burg Hohennechen) and a nice view. Nanstein Castle isn't far from there, and though it cost a small fee, it comes with a set of headphones for self guided tour, and some fun exhibits. I love how the castle is built right into the red rock cliff. 

 

Charles DeMuth Museum

A mile and a half from the hospital where I was born, is the Lancaster, PA home of Charles Demuth. He was a successful Modernist who was playing with the big time artists in New York City (at the time of Alfred Stieglitz) and Paris (at the time of Gertrude Stein). Demuth lived in this brick house with his family since he was six, in the late 1800's.

Demuth was proficient in a range of styles and media, but was probably most famous for his precisionists paintings like "My Egypt" and "I Saw the Figure in Gold" (1928) based on the William Carlos William's poem "The Great Figure" of 1921.

There is a gallery downstairs where local artists were having an exhibit, and a room with a short documentary about Charles Demuth playing on loop, but my favorite part was his studio upstairs, where he made 1,000 paintings and drawings. His 100 year old art supplies are still there, ready to be resurrected. And on the wall, is a small Georgia O'Keefe painting, gifted to him by the artist herself. She thought she was the most fun of the contemporary artists.  Next door is the Tabacco shop, which was a Demuth family business since the 1700's. Charles decided to do his own thing, but it's fun to get a feel for how his parents and grandparents made their living. 

It doesn't take long to drop in on this little treasure while exploring Pennsylvania Dutch Country.

 

Ohio Gardens and Art Day

The east and west coasts get a lot of credit for being the places to go for the Arts, but when I lived in Columbus, OH as a graduate student, I felt like I was in a cultural hot spot, with free evenings at the Museum of Art and bustling first Friday gallery walks. But it wasn't until this year, that I finally saw some of the free outdoor sights, including the Field of Corn (with Osage Oranges) by sculpture Malcom Cochran. This installation is a roadside attraction in Dublin, OH and was right by my favorite Columbus food places: W.G. Grinders for lunch and Graeter's Ice cream for dessert. You can park in a company parking lot and walk among rows of giant ears of corn, or rest in a hammock in the shade of the trees.

Columbus Park of Roses is another treasure that I never seen and in fact, didn't know existed until I saw a sign as we were driving down High Street. I'm so glad we took the detour because walking among a gazillion roses is a beautiful way to spend a morning. I imagine a lot of senior or bridal photo shoots have been done there. 

Downtown Columbus offers a Topiary garden where the School for the Deaf used to be. The bushes are sculpted to re-create the famous George Seauraut Painting "Sunday on the Island of La Grand Jatte." There's even a bronze reproduction of the painting to use as reference. 

Of course I had to make a pilgrammage to Ohio State University, with it's free Wexner Center for the Arts, and more importantly, the Hopkins Art building where I met my husband. Behind that entire 2nd floor wall of windows was the my studio (shared with my studio mate, Julie). And just inside those front doors was where I met my husband. There are always shows in the gallery on the first floor. The building to the right is where I taught drawing and 2D design every day. "Cultured Mind Skilled Hand" is engraved above the door.

The Franklin Conservatory ended up being a favorite stop of our Ohio Day. The children's garden was especially amazing, with tree houses and play houses, places for water play, hills for rolling down, and koleidoscopes for viewing plants. And the trains! I couldn't get enough of them. 

But of course, inside the conservatory was magical as well, thanks in part to the Chihuly sculptures that grace almost every room. There seems to be throughout the country to show is work in botanical gardens from Atlanta to Pheonix, and I'm here for it!

We had started our morning in Columbus early enough that we were able to still fit in the Toledo Museum of Art into our afternoon. If you are ever Northern Ohio, stop by the museum for free parking and free  admission. They have an impressive Matisse mosaic and a nice Asian collection. 

Many of the galleries were closed for renovations were closed for renovations, but the sculpture garden alone was worth the stop. And across the street is the Glass Pavilion where there are glass sculptures on display and they've got a hot shop to see glass blowing demos. It was a lot to do in a day, but nothing took so long that I wasn't able to make it to Michigan in time for dinner and a relaxing evening.

Mystery Themed Camp: Craft Time

This year's Summer Short Course at our school choose a Mystery theme, which included activities such as Host a Murder Mystery, a Forensic Science class,  and playing games like "Clue." Snacks included Jell-O cups, and students had to figure out the flavor because it didn't match the color. 

For Art class, we screen printed Camp T-shirts with the picture of an eye in the middle of a magnifying glass. I loved this image not only because it goes along with the idea of being a detective but also because all of the students have visual impairments and are no strangers to magnification devices.

We only had three days together, so for the two day project we did basket weaving. This allowed a discussion about how looking for and understanding patterns can help solve crimes. In a series of crimes, what is the common thread? Are they all committed in the same part of the city? Are they committed at the same time of day? Are the victims a similar age, sex, or race? Do they know each other? Maybe they're all members of a club or students at the same school? We discussed several scenarios in which finding patterns would be helpful in cracking a case. Then we discussed the pattern used when weaving a basket. It was a little bit of stretch for a crime solving theme, but everyone enjoyed it, and they had something nice to take home after two days of weaving.

 

The Perfect Wedding Gift: Venue Watercolor

As an Art teacher it's important to stay in practice and find time to work on my art own projects. It's always fun when others commission me to do projects for them such as watercolors of a childhood home or new home. For example, when a friend was moving, she commissioned me to do three paintings of the house they were leaving so that her husband and both of her sons could have a physical memory of the life they built together in that special place. And most recently, I created a couple of paintings of wedding venues so that the happy couples can look back on their special day without it being obvious to everyone who comes into their home that it's a "wedding picture." Above is a grandmother's gift for her grandson of the place he was married in St. Augustine, Florida and below is a church in Macon, Georgia where some sweet newlyweds tied the knot. If you have a friend who is having a move or major life event, why not reach out to an artist who can document the time and place in a painting? They'll appreciate your original and thoughtful gift.

Prom Decorations: Enchantment Under the Stars

 

Another prom is in the books. I had a great time figuring out how to hide the cafeteria lunch line with a wall of sets that were a series of photo ops. The lover head lighting fixture provided a structure for hanging clouds and stars on fishing line. One of the lightbulbs was removed so that a converter could be inserted to provide a power source for the LED lights that strung in and out of the clouds. I lost the remote in all of the things I had to move, so they stayed blue the whole night, but it would have been fun to make some purples and pinks appear in the clouds as well.

This is the first year I ever used balloon arches, but they left over from the previous Teacher Appreciation Week events and so I borrowed and rearranged them.

The Rocket and Paper moon photo booths were something I made in 2017 for a church prom, and kept in case the need would arise.

The hot air balloon hooked on to the top of the set. I added the burlap ribbon and rope at the last minute. Originally I thought the balloon would be twice as wide but I cut the angles to sharp and when it closed up it made the entire ellipsoid, instead of just the front half of the balloon. It looks a little more balloon shape this way than the bottom half of the balloon as I had first planned.

Seniors came in early for their pictures. The lighting was better before they went to dinner and came back for "senior lead out" and the dance. A simple color scheme sometimes is enough to have a big impact, but a coherent theme is the icing on the cake. After dancing and chatting with students all night, I have to say it was a pretty enchanting evening...under the stars.

DYI Hot Air Balloon Photo Booth

For our Enchantment Under the Stars prom I thought it might be fun to have sky and air related decorations..so when someone showed up at my classroom with the side flaps from tri-fold boards,  wondered if maybe they could be used to make a hot air balloon.

I started but cutting a the corners at using masking tape to make a template so they'd all be at the same corners. Then I used spray paint to get a little color going.

After creasing the boards where the angles are, I began using hot glue to get  the edges to stick together. 

I did all of the bottom parts before bending them up and gluing the center section. This At this point, I completed the final two edges to make a barrel shape and then finished up the top flaps. With all the guess work of the angles, I was pleased that it resembled a balloon shape.

The basket was made by weaving strips of cardboard. We used two sdes of a large box, with enough cardboard at the bottom to stand up on it's own. I cut out the spaces n between the vertical slats to be about the same width as the slats themselves.  I stapled the ends of the horizontal strips to the vertical slats and let students weave them in and out. We used brown paper lunch stuffed with newspaper for the sandbags, and I made little pendants that matched the colors of the balloon and spelled out Prom 2026.

I glued three pieces of cardboard to the back of the balloon. The two perpendicular pieces had notches cut into them to slide on the top of the wooden set panel and give the illusion that it is floating in the sky. Painters tape covered the seams and imperfections. The night of the prom, I hot glued a banner, and ropes to the balloon once it was hanging. It's always nice when the process pays off.

 

DYI Piñata and Maracas

 So far this semester we've studied Australia and made Aboriginal dot paintings. We studied Ancient Rome and made mosaics. We made batik and shadow puppets after learning about Indonesia. We made kites inspired by China, and brush and ink paintings, calligraphy and wind socks inspired by Japan. But we've got cultures to learn about right here in North America, so we took a virtual trip to Mexico for the week of Cinco de Mayo and learned about pinatas.

Piñatas were originally ceramic jugs filled with seeds or fruits by  ancient Aztecs before breaking open. Catholic missonaries who came to Mexico 500 years ago, incorporated this tradton into their teachings of the seven deadly sins by adding seven points to the piñatas. This object lesson taught that breaking bad habits and overcoming sin yields rewards. Today, children still reap treats from breaking open piñatas at parties. We made our piñatas by wrapping strips of bulletin board dipped in liquid starched around balloons. Two or three layers does the trick.

While some students made animals such as llamas or dogs, most stayed with the traditional coned shape. This was done by cutting a pie slice shape out of a card stock circle and wrapping it into a cone. These usually needed hot glue to attach to the dried paper maché. Then most students used squares of tissue paper wrapped around the flat end of a pencil and dipped into a little glue before adding to the piñata for texture and color. It helps once the piece is positioned on the piñata, to hold the edges of the tissue with one hand while sliding the pencil out with the other.

There were no complaints about making piñatas, as students could work at their own pace and fill the time. Some students claimed this was their favorite project of the year.

Kite Making

The Chinese invented the kite thousands of years ago as a military tool. Today it is used it is used for recreation and sport and the largest kite festival in the world is in-you guessed it-China. As we were doing our sumi ink paintings while studying Japan, it had to be mentioned that Chinese also use ink and brush for calligraphy and nature images. We started our unit by watching a video about China and then comparing and contrasting the two cultures. Which one can claim the origins of Confucianism and which Shintoism? students wrote, typed and printed words and phrases for each other to sort into a tactile Venn diagram.

Day 2 we began to work on flags. students used bamboo skewers, wooden dowels, or straws as the skeleton for kites in various shapes and forms. Kids with some vision drew on on bulletin board paper, while those who were totally blind used dot makers, tape, stencils or collage to decorate their kite. Tales were made with string and with ribbons tied to them, or crepe paper streamers.

Then came the test of flight. The week before kite week was breezy but there was no wind on the days we tried to fly our kites. Students would run and hold their arm high to get it going, with a few glimpses of success. For for someone who'd never seen a kite, much less tried to fly one, it was pretty fun. Next breezy Saturday when my students' families are looking for something to do, maybe they can consider taking a kite to the park and trying it again.

 

Koi Fish Wind Socks

Spring time ushers in the Cherry Blossom Festival, which is a big deal in my town of 300,000 Cherry Blossom Trees. This is the perfect time to introduce my students to Japanese art forms, including ink painting.

I spent weeks working on just a horizontal brushstroke in my college Chinese Calligraphy class, so I know that using a sumi brush and ink is more than a week long project, but this lesson was more about exposure than mastery. We learned some brush strokes to make bamboo and after a couple of days, some of the students really started getting the hang of it. I also taught each student how to write their name in Katakana, which is the Japanese alphabet specifically for foreign words and names.

Younger students made koi fish wind socks out of bulletin board paper, and they used the ends of toilet paper rolls to stamp paint on the paper to make scales. I brought artifacts for students to handle from Japan, including paper lanterns, model of geisha in kimono, bamboo, and a wooden daruma doll, which uses the same principle as the American weeble wobble toys: fall down 7 times, get up 8. This leads to a great conversation about emotional resiliance and endurance.