Gift at my doorstep

When I went into my classroom this morning I found a perfect dragon fly specimen laying on the floor just inside the door. It is not even the season for dragonflies! So as many students seemed grossed out by the fascination I showed, I had to use it to demonstrate how a real model could add a unique perspective to a painting. Instead of painting it as I photographed it, I tried to paint it at and angle, and then from the underbelly.

Stretching our hearts

Mixed media on paper, 2016

This February I will be taking a group of students to Haiti for three days. We will go to visit the St Thomas orphanage and Elementary school with art supplies ;-), sanitary supplies, clothing, and sports equipment. The school is over crowded and we hope to build another classroom, and eventually cover the cost of a teacher's annual salary. (They often go without pay.) There is so much to do, and my students are passionate about helping. They will assist the Haitian teachers with classes, and cultivate relationships with the students through art and games and conversation. Two years ago they helped dig and cap a filtered well for fresh water at the school. Then, last year, they helped fund a medical team to visit. There is no shortage of possibilities... just the funds to make it come true. A new policy at my school is making it harder to hold bake sales and ask for funds, so this group of students have created a gofundme campaign on their own. Please check it out, help if you can, and pass the link on. I promise 100% of all the money will go to the school in Lamecette, Haiti. Help us stretch the love and do our part, as lucky and entitled as we are, to raise others from poverty. Thanks- Tilly
https://www.gofundme.com/2tsm9yjn

An wonderful night at the Lowe

I loved the way they projected the winning works at the Beaux Arts awards ceremony- but it did make it hard to take pictures. The whole show is very competitive, one of the best I have seen yet. There are almost 200 works by students from all over the county. 

The middle school works really blew my mind.  There is a new generation of artists, with sophistication and visual juice, growing up out there.

This is art teacher fun!!!!

Sweeping the awards at the Lowe show of student works

We have 5 (FIVE) winners among our students, including the "Best in Show"!!! It's been a dream of this art teacher to have so many talented students at once. I am really blessed.

Best in show winner Stefani Tolchin

First place for High School Mixed Media Kaitlyn Levy

The annual juried Beaux Arts student exhibition at the Lowe Museum on UM campus opens tonight.
5-8 pm reception and the show will be up through the weekend's Beaux arts Festival,closing at the end of the day on the 17th.

What house do you live in?

In the process of getting to know their brushes I had my 55 painting students paint a house shape as part of a design in a thirty minute assignment.
I loved what they came up with:

I swear these reflect their personalities.

Rare peak offered with Anselm Kiefer at Margulies Warehouse Collection

Get ready to have your heart stop.
Kiefer's work, in mud, lead, photo transfers, and painted dried plants leaves you desolated.

There's a large room with a pile of paintings- stretches and rolled canvases- reaching to the ceiling. Interspersed among the layers are boulders, folding chairs, lead books and dried sunflowers. The palette is somber and ashes and pigment pepper the floor. It looks as though it is a life's work on display as rubble. I feel prodded to ask what becomes of all this STUFF we make.

 Kiefer is one of my favorite artists. He was born in Germany at the end of the world war and uses the language of destruction, rubble and loss is part of the fiber of his childhood. Words scrawled on the wall, (for example a whole series "illustrating" Romanian Jewish Holocaust survivor Paul Celans's poetry is part of the show), and visceral media such as tar and straw put the work outside of any clear medium genre. His works have been called an "Apocalyptic Opera" by the Financial Times. Looking at his work hits me outside of the realm of the intellect. I feel it in my belly. The work punches you in the gut. The symbols, from mythology, reflect my German European DNA.

My favorite piece was the lead books with wings on a giant plinth... a giant sandwich of rusty lead books and delicate metal folding chairs (almost bird-leg like) with soaring wings rising and filling the space. It is beautiful in both it's texture and symbolism.Don't miss checking this out yourself.
‘Anselm Kiefer: Paintings, Sculpture & Installation’ through April 30th, 2016
591 NW 27th St
Miami
Florida 33127
United Statest

Lining up my show at Miami Dade Public Library

The text for How to Bury a Friend has had to be cut... down to 5000 words, and then again down to 1400 words... so I can't help wondering does it even tell a story? I look back at the pictures and edit and add new one. Steve's spirit is upon me. I feel him nearby as I make new additions to the collection. It's appearing as though I will have 32 paintings- 2 for just one label, and... only a sentence or so for the text. BUT it will be translated to Spanish and maybe even Creole!!! This is a dreamcome true...paintings I have been holding dear since 2008.
The show will be at the little Havana branch. Click here for more info about My show