Flying Hands Mural: Art is the Universal Language

When you work with kids, to give them a voice in an environment that is particularly harsh, crushing and potentially foreshadowing. It is important in my opinion to foster flying when possible. To rise above the hurdles and let them not hinder dreams and goals.

Our resident art teacher, Jenni Ward, brought down a large oiled drop cloth and paints. Teachers and Students alike decorated it with hand prints. Then the HOPE Art team doodled all kinds of things onto the mural, to inspire flying.

Wings
Pegasus
Birds
Angels
Flying pigs
Dragons
you name it, we doodled it.

We’ll be hosting an art show this Summer to show off our mural. The finished product is beautiful, but the process to achieve it is even more so.

Freedom

Words escape me, on describing this Haiti Trip.
Cruel Poverty.
Beautiful Strength.
Raw Survival.
Laughter.
Love.

I know I need to go back, again and again to fully understand what is happening. Not on a political landscape. But a human landscape. This is truly what life is about … and I am so far removed from real life in my air conditioned SUV, in my air conditioned fully stocked supermarket, in my automatic overdraft online banking deposit a check through the iphone, in my new shoes and dresses, in my cook-what-I-feel-not-what-I-have for dinner, in my quest for self-actualization rather than survival.

ALL you need is love.
I love you Iyiti.
Thank you for reminding me who I should be and how to get there.

Mwen ren men ou.

Burlesque Thanksgiving Dinner

An exploration into cooking Thanksgiving Dinner in our underwear.

-Oakland, Calif

Giving a Voice

I am going to Haiti to offer art therapy to children in January, for a week. I need your help funding the project. Won’t you please donate just $5.
Click here to send love to Haiti.

photo credit: PW

Lace and Markers at 4AM

In the garden of good and carroll.
Early Morning with markers and love.

Monsters

All summer long my home has been the workshop and subsequent gallery space to a certain 9-year old artist, named Jared. I took Jared to an art show at my friend Austin’s house, which inspired Jared to become more serious with his own creative process. Soon my house was filled with monsters of all sizes, skills, capabilities and colors.

Every wall in my house has a hand drawn monster on it. And if I move a monster, Jared notices immediately. And we must revert the monster back to his original spot.
(I had to move two monsters because the open patio door kept blowing them down, Jared suggested we use more tape rather than move the monsters. Genius)

Most of the monsters are drawn on 20″ X 20″ sheets of paper, much too large for my Canon scanner. Here are a few of the monsters drawn on 8.5X11″ paper. I’ve promised Jared we will screenprint one of his monsters onto tshirts that we can gift his friends as party favors – for his upcoming 10th birthday party.

Won’t you vote for your favorite monster?

mason jar revolution

Three members of my non-profit and I, recently participated in an art workshop at Earth Art Studio with sculptress Jenni Ward. The focus of the workshop centered around upcycling old glass jars into bird feeders to be used as a catalyst for a 4th grade Scientific Method experiment.
For more information about creating your own re-purposed bottle bug bird feeder click here:

The Scientific Method includes 7 steps. A basic outline is to form a Research Question. The research question is the most important part of the puzzle. Every part of your project is done to answer this question. The research question is sometimes formed as a statement and is called the “Problem” or “Problem Statement.” Next up is the forming of your Hypothesis or an “educated guess.” Followed by the execution of your project’s Experimental Design. Essentially plannning an experiment in which you can test your hypothesis through data collection. You must list all your Materials (supplies and equipment.) The Procedure is a somewhat detailed, step – by – step description of how you conducted your experiment. Example: “I observed a blue jay at my bird feeder for 3 minues at 9:08AM on Thursday.” Compose a Results statement that explains or interprets the data. Example: “After 30 days, I saw little to zero avian activity at my bird feeder.”
Finally, summarize your Conclusion. The conclusion is a summary of the research and the results of the experiment. This is where you answer your research question.

Research Question: Will local birds eat from glass bird feeders and attract more birds to the bird feeder to encourage a healthy neighborhood macro-habitat.

Hypothesis’:
Melissa Schilling – I believe that a bird feeder hung high in my oak tree will attract more avian visitors than a bird feeder hung lower in the branches. I will space my bird feeders 10 feet above the ground and 20 feet above the ground and watch for 30 days. I am using a bird seed blend of ____________ and will replenish the seed every 5 days or so, depending on volume of visitors.

Materials:
Melissa Schilling:
-Two Upcycled Mason Jar Bird Feeders, one large, one small
-Bird Seed

Follow our Experimental Design through our LadyLUTS twitter account, using the hash tag #bottlebugs.

and of course … Happy Birthday Teresa Finney!

shadow wand

My dear friend Austin held an art show in his loft the other day, in Jack London Square in Oakland, Calif.
He made a shadow wand to accompany his paper cut out images.
They are pure magic.