Block Print Synergy

Here is the finished collaborative block print my students and I created at Arts Powered Schools recently (College of Idaho campus in Caldwell - great place, wonderful FOOD!)

Since the students all made their own cards and samples, I took the liberty of keeping this group print (we made two of them). I shared the other with my friend and fellow teaching artist Linda Wolfe who assisted me. It was a blast.

I just may frame it, like this print I made with 3rd graders at Troy Elementary in the spring of 2010.

Art Collaborations / Goings On Next Door

Here is Jacob, from my summer school group in Elim Alaska, making a block print. And, more recently, one of my students from the Arts Powered Schools Institute, putting a finishing touch on the collaborative print we made in my workshop.
This "linoleum" block-printing is fun!
Want to try it yourself ? I'f you'rein the neighborhood, I'm giving a workshop this Saturday at the Prichard Art Gallery in downtown Moscow. To find out more go here or to preregister call the gallery at 208-885-3586.

Today Next Door:
My brother and his wife are doing us one better. They were inspired by the shrinking aquifer in this part of the Palouse to invest in a rain catchment cistern. They will 'harvest' rainwater off their soon-to-be-roof.






So while we installed a 550 gal. above ground tank several years ago for watering the veggies, they are burying a 2,000(?) gal. vault. Whoa! That'll do a BIG garden! Here is was, arriving this morning.

Mixing Personal and Professional (Goals and Projects)

Here I am surrounded by the wonderful teachers from across Idaho who were my students in the class I just had the privilege of teaching for Meredith Essex, at Idaho's Arts Powered Schools Teachers Institute in Caldwell recently. It was jointly sponsored by the Idaho Commission on the Arts and our State Department of Education. We all worked on collage/assemblage boxes using (in Meredith's words) "a compelling personal story of transformation." Each of my students completed a wonderful art piece (their fearless leader isn't quite done...) and I am so proud of them all.
Now I am making public #1 a personal challenge, #2 a professional/personal goal (we artists tend to wrap them all up together) and #3 a specific project goal that is a key to my future:
Challenge #1 is to post something in here each day for one week. I figure even 6 days' practice should help get a habit started, and I really want to get better at this.
The personal/professional goal is to get 30 people subscribing to my little blog here. I'm not sure how long that will take, but I'm sure it'll be more than a week. Why 30? Maybe it's because my hubby and I are celebrating our 30th anniversary. (See what I mean about the personal and professional getting all sloshed together?)
My #3 project is to complete the commission I am doing for my wonderful web designer Susan Weaver who has been waiting so patiently for it for TOO long! (The reason this project is so important is that I need her help big-time again. I have places to go and stuff I wanna do with this website... and I am too embarrassed to ask her for any more help till I get this done!)

So there you have it: Jeanne's Monday-in-a-Nutshell. Oh did I mention that life is about to change around here? My brother and his wife are building a house next door, and will be living upstairs in my studio for a few months in the meantime. As I write this they are on their way down the highway from Alaska after 35+ years in Fairbanks. The guy in the foreground with the shovel is our son Sol, who's on the construction crew!