Dare

I’ve been using the photos I took from a recent trip to the Ciener Botanical Gardens, to create some little drawings/paintings. The crazy thing about tulips is the vast variety of them! Round and bowl-like, spiky and sharp, lots o’ petals, few petals, etc. This one caught my eye with it’s pointed petals and lovely color pattern…standing out amongst the crowd.

I’ve always felt like the phrase, “Dare to Be Different”, meant that I needed to go and change who I am, do things I wouldn’t normally do, etc. But this tulip made me think that the ultimate in “being different” is to simply be who you were made to be. Sometimes we expend so much energy trying to be what we are not! Certainly it’s good to try new things, to go on adventures, to be daring! But our “differentness” is actually found in being who we were made to be…whether that’s round and bowl-like, spiky and sharp, lots o’ petals or few……;)

May your day be one in which you “Dare to be Yourself!”

**Brian Rutenberg’s most recent Studio Visit 29 speaks to this in the later section of the video. Pretty cool stuff…you’ll enjoy! (Click on the highlighted words:)

**AND…if you’re interested, here are some other posts of mine on Brian Rutenberg and his Studio Visits….here, here, and here!

My Lollipop Girls & Memory Lane

I’m trying to gather myself after last night’s Art Show. It was the culmination of weeks and months of preparation and planning, of vision and hard work.  Though it was an amazing evening, which I’ll share with you someday soon, it is always a bit de-centering.  I do still have much left to do to close out the Art Show chapter, but I waken feeling a bit lost: “what next?”, what was I into creatively before the last month of full-on Art Show prep began?, where would I like to turn my energies now? etc.  Today, my plan is to clean my house which has suffered neglect for quite a while.  It will feel so good to slowly, methodically move through each room to clean and tidy up.

The night before our school’s Art Show, I had taught all day.  Exhausted from that, and from the thought of the mountain to climb on Thursday, I sat at my drawing table to draw from a photo of Maddie I had just snapped at dinner time.  She bought a yellow lips lollipop at school that day and was showing me her “lips”.  It was a good and restorative thing to sit there, after she had been tucked in, slowly drawing my sweet daughter.  Then a memory of another daughter and a lollipop came to mind.

This is my oldest child, Catherine. You can see the date of this pencil sketch. She was 5 years old.  As I drew Maddie, I remembered drawing Catherine from life…she sat so still and long enough for me to draw this, probably due to having a yummy red lollipop to lick while I drew. I had to go digging to find this sketchbook.  There’s a bin of sketchbooks I’ve filled over the years sitting out in the garage.  There are more stashed in a closet upstairs. And still more here in my studio. I remembered the dark green, hardbound, wire bound sketchbook with the star sticker on the cover to denote the “front” of the sketchbook.

I remembered sitting on the park bench while my older two kids played.

I remembered drawing their favorite slide there at Ardmore Methodist Church.

I remembered Catie and William playing together on the “fire truck”.

I remembered that my boy was the cutest thing I had ever laid eyes on.

I remembered Catie liking to draw in my sketchbook. A sweet picture of her with her brother on his first “skateboard”.

I remembered Catie riding her bike with training wheels.

I remembered how hard it was to draw William as he rarely stopped for long on his bike.

And then this.

The birth of  my third precious child. Maddie. This would have been the day after she was born. I remember it. I remember thinking how can you draw such exquisiteness? I remember thinking that the pencil lines needed to be as soft as possible to adequately depict the softness of a newborn. I remember thinking that this sketch didn’t come anywhere close to showing her beauty.

But I am glad that I drew it. So glad I drew all of this and all the thousands of other sketches and drawings I have sitting in that tupperware box and stashed in so many other places.  They are more precious to me than photos, though I love them too.

I’m not sure this has helped me gather myself and move on today.  But it has served to answer the What’s Next question…to continue drawcumenting this beautiful life I’ve been given. It is indeed FULL, art shows and all! Cleaning will be good to do today, since seeing through teary eyes is not a huge hindrance to that kind of work.

Eclection Perfection

Chris Federico, the owner of Eclection in downtown Kernersville, has opened the arms of her shop to the faithful few who love to come out and draw. We are really grateful for such a beautiful spot to be indoors for the cold weather, to have so many wonderful things to draw, to sip  delicious tea, and even shop the unique, eclectic creations there if we want to!

Even though there are only one or two others who draw with me, I love having this regular spot in my week to get out in the world and draw.  This is just one of the many drawings I’ve made this winter while sitting in the lovely “living room”.  Each week it is arranged and decorated differently, using some of the unique creations from the shop.  One time Chris even set up a still life for us to draw, gathering this and that off the “floor”.  Now THAT’s rolling out the red carpet!

I won’t be able to be there this Friday, due to the Art Show happening the night before and needing to either recuperate from that or go in and do some tidying up from the show. But I look forward to next Friday, and the next.  If you’re in the area on a Friday morning…come draw with us! Chris would love to have you!

There is Music in my House

I am, as I type, listening to Eileen Ivers O Holy Night, a gorgeously simple violin piece. And I gaze at an ornament on my tree that was made for me many, many years ago by Nan, my violin teacher. I played the violin, learning by Suzuki Method, from age 3 through 8th grade. Took it up again as an adult, getting back up to Book 4, where I’d left off.

My youngest hums tunes around the house. We hear her in the shower singing. We hear her hum while making things and doing homework.

Tunes waft through the house in guitar, mandolin and ukulele from our son upstairs in his room, playing hours on end. Singing along too! Some tunes belong to others that he has taught himself. Other tunes he is creating himself.

We’ve traveled several times to Wingate to hear our oldest sing with her University Singers choir at Wingate. Enchanted, Randy and I  listened to them perform live on WDAV at St. John’s, a church in Charlotte just a few weeks ago.

We attend every Concert Choir performance at Glenn High School since William sings in it now, as his sister did for years prior to that.

We always have Folk Alley’s Christmas streaming through the speakers. Or we play all our gathered Christmas music favorites through iTunes.

We head to Pittsboro, NC to enjoy my brother and sister-in-law singing in their band Trilogy on the 22nd of December. This is one of the highlights of our Christmas holiday.

Many of the gifts under our tree are music related.

Both of my parents were music majors in college. I knew this about my mom all along, having studied at UNCG. But I just recently realized that dad had been a music major his freshman and half of his sophomore years at ECU before switching to study theater at Cornell Univeristy. ECU wouldn’t let him major in voice and minor in violin. (The things you never knew about your parents!)

I love this.

I have a friend who lives alone. Every time I visit her I say she needs to be playing music! For me, music is so much more than a background tune. When I am cast down, it uplifts. When I’m weary, it soothes. When I’m blah, it cheers. When I’m dull, it fascinates. Music is amazing. And the more my kids study it, the more I’m amazed.

And there’s a Music that runs in my heart and mind that is woven in and through the voices and instruments no matter what kind of music they play. It’s a tune that has to do with the Christmas story, with what follows that, with a Person who was God come as a Babe. Even when there are no notes in the air, this music still plays on.

This Christmas, I’m grateful for music. For the Music of the Ages and the music through the ages. I will always be a violinist though I do not play it anymore. My ukulele provides the outlet I need for music making. But with so much wonderful music in my house, I am content to listen, to get caught up in the hums and tunes throughout our halls.

May your Christmas be filled with Music! I wish all my online readers and friends a holiday filled with beautiful Music for your heart, your soul, your mind.

A Christmas Line

A Christmas Line

If you followed a line from the angel on your tree
All the way down to where presents should be

Would you revisit  memories of the years gone by
Curling ‘round ornaments with a twinkle in your eye?

Would you find yourself there when your babies were born?
When they made preschool ornaments, now shabby and torn?

Would you see faces of friends who  made or gave one to you?
Would you relive your childhood, tracing baubles from then too?

And as your line meandered through santas and stars,
Penguins and trees, toy trains and cars…

Would you find ‘neath your tree more gifts than you could count?
Dazzled by the ache as your memories mount?

Your line would’ve found, from the angel to the earth
A trove of presents that fill you with mirth.

Though the tree will soon fill with wrapped boxes underneath
They can never surpass what I’ve already received.

-jpe

December 13, 2012

*I created the drawing in ONE LINE. Perhaps you can see the beginning of it up by the angel’s hair and follow it to the tree-skirt end. Sometimes I drew over and through things, sometimes I retraced my steps back to where I needed to go.  But one line it is, and only a splash of color.

**If you’d like to read more of my poetry from around Christmastime, click here. This is page 2 of the Poetry Category that you can always access from the category section in the right hand margin. Just  keep scrolling ’til you get to the section from last December.

***Also, I have a couple of poet friends who are marking their December days with a line of their own.  If you enjoy poetry, find Alice’s here, and Kevin’s here.

Maddie’s Menagerie

It’s been a while since I’ve shown you the menagerie that lives on Maddie’s bed.  The first drawings I made of the critters she houses were when she was in second grade, and then third grade, and fourth.  Now, as  a fifth grader with her double bed (we switched out rooms and furniture when our eldest went off to college:/) the arrangement is different.  She is much taller now, so the end-of-the-bed assortment gets in the way as she sleeps.

The way she arranges everything on her bed is so festive! The old bed which belonged to my grandmother Catherine, looks positively inviting  with it’s explosion of colorful pillows and plushies!  There’s “Lips”, the beanie baby fish, “Snippy” the small sea turtle, “Squirt” the large sea turtle, “Rainbow” the bear beanie baby (whose birth date on the inside of the little card attached is her diabetes anniversary, which was yesterday, btw!), and then, last but not least, “Isabella” the unicorn, or the pig, or a pig-unicorn??  This last addition to the menagerie occurred at Halloween of this year as Maddie chose to be Agnes from our favorite movie Despicable Me.  It’s a kid-size body pillow that she snuggles with all night! (I don’t think she would like me to write that bit…she is slowly growing into those “that’s not cool mom” years.

The following are my drawings of her menageries from years gone by.  She asked me the other day, “Is it too babyish that I love stuffed animals on my bed?”  My heartfelt response: “Not at all!!  I hope you have stuffed animals with you for as long as you want them!”  Thoughts of her college dorm single bed bursting with pillows and stuffed animals filled my vision!  Oh why do our dear children have to grow up?

Our cat, Lucy, loves to join them for her daily siesta!

Once Again…Winter Trees

 

As I walked this morning, I looked at the swept-clean world and thought of a favorite poem of mine. I thought I would repost it here for you.  My jaw just dropped on the floor as I looked at the date of this drawing and poem.  One year ago, to the day, exactly. Enjoy!

Winter Trees

Like hands raised in praise
they stand tall and freed
From the dripping colors
that bowed them in the breeze.

Unfettered now from leafy sails
Which bent them low in windy gales
Enabled more to endure the season
Unburdened by Beauty’s reason.

The cosmic broom has swept away
the fluff and fancies of an autumn day.
All that Beauty which weighed them down
Has been brushed clean…nary a leaf on the ground.

‘Tis Beauty too, these fingered wrists
which pierce the heavens and the mists.
And so I’ll stand among them now
with hands raised, though they bow…

In hopes the cosmic broom will sweep
away the follies that I keep,
The fluff that weighs my hands from raising
that I might freely stand, the heaven’s praising.

-jpe
11.28.2011
upon my walk…again

My Love

Something about this time of year. Maybe it’s that the fall leaves have just about done their leaving, leaving the world etched in line. Maybe it’s the extra time with family and seeing their faces. Maybe it’s just winter’s spartan season that makes me reach for Bic pen, black and white, and a desire to draw faces. I made this drawing of Maddie yesterday in my Book of Sanity.  I started this sketchbook back a couple of December’s ago.  I can vividly remember grabbing a few minutes to draw the mantel, a family member, a table top, then stealing away to draw dresser tops and such in upstairs rooms. It’s a great way to grab a little sanity in the frenzy of the holidays.

It’s a plain ole sketchbook with smooth white paper in it.  I really like it with pens as they glide across the silky, snowy paper. I’ve shared some of these drawings with you before, a couple of years ago. But here’s a slideshow compilation of nearly all I have thus far, many I’ve never shared before. And there are still more pages to fill.  I’ll share more as I continue to draw in this sketchbook.. I hope you enjoy the slideshow:

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Thoughts on Teaching

Some of you may not know that I teach Art part-time in a sweet little private school in Winston-Salem called Redeemer School. The emphasis and thrust of this school’s philosophy is based on Charlotte Mason’s work on education.  I won’t go into all of what that means other than to say that Charlotte Mason calls us as teachers (and parents) to “spread a feast” before the student, allowing them to take from it what they will.  I enjoy learning more and more about Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of learning and education as I endeavor to teach art.  The following is an essay that has been percolating for quite a while. I finally finished it today and I offer to any of you willing to sit with a cup of tea or coffee and have a gander at it.

Pearls Before Swine

Being a Living Teacher in a Charlotte Mason School

There are a few days out of every year of teaching where I leave my art classroom feeling like this:

Today my students engaged with gladness as I spread a feast of color, line, and shape, peppering it with connecting thoughts on the beauty of God, on our privilege to co-create with Him, and inspiration for a wonder-filled exploration in a particular medium.  I walk out to  my car with that good-kind-of-tired and a smile remembering the happy chatter over music in the background as they diligently worked on their art projects.

Unfortunately, this is not the case every day I teach. On more days than I would like to admit I close the door to my classroom with a pesky thought that has haunted me too many times: I’m throwing pearls before swine.

Now before you disgustedly turn away from the offending thought, I do ask that you stay with me, at least a bit more, to read what I think is a more common feeling among teachers than we may want to admit.  Many days it seems as if our students, or at least some of them, respond to the feast we’ve laid out before them with either mild indifference, feigned interest, or outright disgust as they roll their figurative eyes, choose talking to their neighbor rather than engaging in the art making, slap paint around on a piece of paper without thought, and leave the classroom without caring who has to clean up after them.

Many days, despite my thoughtful reminders, the encouragements to develop a habit of organization and cleanliness, and maybe the odd out-and-out threat, I survey the classroom as they exit and it truly appears as if a herd of swine came tearing through the delectable papers, paints, glue, glitter, etc. snorting and rooting through it all with nary a nod to any of its beauty, fun, or function.  The garden of art has been ransacked by a bunch of little (and big) piggies.

What I, as an art teacher, desire and diligently work toward in each class, is that my students will understand in growing measure that they ARE artists because of their Maker.  And that they can and do worship Him in all they create.  This is lofty, I know, in the face of glue bottles and watercolors.  Yet I passionately desire them to see that they can apply all of their creative energies to any subject no matter whether they “like” it or not: they can (and ARE able to be creative) in the face of math, social studies, science, physical education, etc.  And of course, in art class.  Of course.

To even hint at suggesting my students are swine is offensive, I grant you.  Yet the Scriptures call us sheep, an even less intelligent animal, who needs greater care, instruction and direction.  What I fail to realize, when this pearls-before-swine thought emerges in my weary head, is that I, the teacher, am the chief Swine.  How many times have I, as a child, a teenager, an ADULT, failed to engage in feasting on the pearls of wisdom and truth and beauty that my Father has spread before me! How many times have I feigned interest or shown mild enthusiasm or even outright rejected the feast He has provided for me.  And as the Chief Swine or Sheep, I am also called to be their shepherd, leading them in surveying, sampling, and partaking of the feast before us. Together.  Very much like Pigs in Slop, I am to show them first, that there really is a feast laid out before us, and second, how to dive in and enjoy, glean, and be nourished by that feast.

Perhaps on some days, the only thing that may be going on in my Pigs in Slop classroom, is that they are getting a mere taste or crumb of Beauty.  It may not bowl them over. It may not be exciting to them.  It may not even be fun.  Nor might it be the thing that makes them want to be an Artist as a profession.  But years down the road, as they are rooting and foraging through a High School or College garden, they may taste something that reminds them of our class.  Maybe they won’t even know where they have tasted it before, but the remembrance of it will enhance the current taste of the feast they are in and may, just may, cause them to want more.

Lest you think that I have completely forgotten Charlotte Mason’s emphasis on the child as a person, and not as a pig, I AM encouraged by such statements as this one:

“A child is a person in whom all possibilities are present – present now at this very moment.”  Charlotte Mason

We must uphold this truth about each and every one of our students, no matter how pig-headed or sheepish they may be behaving  at any given moment.  God Himself saw in us, despite our swineliness and sheepiness, His own beautiful image.  And He was moved to love, to enter in, to pursue, to lead, to Shepherd, to teach, and to die for the persons whom He had created.  The truth of Psalm 100:3 is not diminished if we change the type of animal:

“Know that the LORD is God.  It is He who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep (swine) of his pasture.”

And again in Psalm 95:7 “for He is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock (herd) under his care.”

 

-Jennifer Edwards

November 15, 2012

**the above drawing is BEFORE a day gets started in my classroom!

Dropping Down

 

This moment, right here,

is where i need to be.

Drinking in the lines & curves of the NOW life

which is SO unassuming,

SO simple,

perhaps not even note-worthy.

And yet…in drawing,

i find worth and value

in just BEING.

BEING still,

being focused on here

and not on there.

This dropping-down

of the straw-pen

into the milkshake of my life

is like placing the needle

of the record-player

onto the vinyl disc:

i begin to hear the music…

softly at first…

then stronger as the needle traces the lines

round and round my life

AS IT IS

right now,

in THIS moment.

-jpe

from my daily writing journal. 11.11.2012