Mom's Visit Continued

The rest of the week we took a little easier than Day 1. There were lots of people to visit!
On that Tuesday, I unfortunately had a dentist appointment that I had already rescheduled due to my Nantucket adventures, so I had to go. Trying to kill some time in the morning, I brought Mom to one my of favorite spots along the water. That's Mom's photo above. She also caught me, below.

Afterwards, I took this as an opportunity to go look at some of the real estate on that little peninsula to my right. Mom was an agent when we were kids and I grew up enjoying scoping out new listings and beautiful properties. Who better to go snooping with than my Mom?

After the ever exciting dentist visit, we drove to Plymouth to meet my Mom's oldest friend from high school. She lives on the Cape, so while we didn't visit the pilgrims or the disappointingly tiny rock, the Cabby Shack where we had lunch, was a nice half way point. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be by the water with clear skies and no humidity. We all caught up over fried seafood, clam chowder and drinks. On the way home, Mom and I did some shopping at our favorite, Christmas Tree Shoppe. We love a bargain!

Wednesday we slept in, grabbed some Dunkin Donuts and went back to the beach for some sunshine. Later in the day we had lunch with my boyfriend's parents and then hopped back on the train for free admission to the Museum of Fine Arts. (I hope to do a stand alone museum post at a later time, since I have visited a couple this summer. Stay tuned!)

When we returned from the museum, my brother had arrived at my apartment a day early to surprise my mom. It was awesome! We sat around my kitchen table, just like we would have at our old house, chatting until we were all too tired to talk anymore.

Thursday morning I brought my mom and brother to a breakfast spot I could walk to from my old apartment. It's across the street from the birth houses of John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Next time we will have to get a tour there, but a cheap, greasy breakfast was more important this time around! Check out all that bacon!
Instead, Mom and I were educated in the afternoon when we went to the John F. Kennedy Library.

 Not much had changed since I was there in middle school. I found it to be really well done and from a student's point of view, the exhibits peaked my interest just enough to want to know a little more.
When we were outside the building, we were back on the Harborwalk I mentioned in the previous post. Only this time we were on a different side.

 Afterwards we drove over to that sandy patch straight ahead, called Castle Island. It doesn't have a castle, nor is it an island anymore, but there is a cool fort and the parks department has done a nice job keeping up the walkways and playground. Lots of people were out and about, enjoying the weather and a nice, open place to play. Mom and I enjoyed some soft serve from Sully's. You know it is officially summer when this place opens, it's usually a story on the local news!

For dinner we went to Patriot's Place in Foxborough where the Patriot's play. Over the last few years stores and restaurants, even a hotel, have opened next to the stadium, right there in suburbia. We met Mom's girlfriend's from the church we grew up in, and caught up over bowls of pasta, salads and glasses of wine. It really felt like home being with those wonderful women, even though we were in the middle of the Olive Garden!

Friday was the big day! I had scoured the internet for weeks trying to find just the right Red Sox tickets. I had looked forward to this game before school was even out!

We headed into the city early, boarding a train for Harvard Square. Walking around Harvard on one of the first sunny days of spring is up there with showing off my city. We went to Charlie's Kitchen for lunch and sat in the beer garden. Its definitely a dive compared to other places in the area, but the prices are right and there is nothing better than drinking a beer outside and enjoying your company. I then successfully navigated the bus system, a first for me, over to Kenmore where the fun began.

We lost in the end. But what was more important is that we went to the game as a family. Each of us has had opportunities to go on our own over the years, but never together. We had some great fun!

I honestly do not remember what we did Saturday, other than sleep in! We must have gone souvenir shopping, we most likely got Dunkin Donuts and probably relaxed. It was Mom's birthday after all!

For dinner, my boyfriend graciously borrowed his parents mini van and chauffeured my aunt and uncle and the rest of us to one of my Mom's new favorite restaurants in the city, the Sunset Bar and Grill. Parking can usually be a pain, but the gods shone upon us with a spot right out front.
This is probably one of my most favorite photos from the whole week.

It was so nice to have a week full of family time. I was exhausted in the end, but as Nana always says, its important to make memories.

Mom's Visit Day 1

One of my favorite things is playing tourist in my own city. I love when people visit from out of state because it gives me an excuse to go to the attractions and show off my knowledge of Boston. Plus, I didn't grow up here, so I am particularly proud of being able to navigate the subways, how to drive on the roadways, and how to walk from place to place. As much as my New York family may tease, I really don't have an accent though!

For the third summer in a row, my mom has taken a trip up from Florida and stayed with me. This year we crammed in a bunch of of sight seeing, visits with friends and family, some quality talk time by the beach and even a Red Sox game. 

We started the week with one of my more crazy ideas. I would have never followed through with it on my own, so I was happy to share the experience with my mom!
Here was the crazy idea: Our local independent record shop, Newbury Comics, was hosting a free performance by Frank Turner. I actually won tickets to his show at the Museum of Fine Arts the last time he was here, but I couldn't go (because it was during the school day). So I really wanted to go to this one. In order to go, you needed a wristband. The store opened at 10 am. Mom and I were on the train around 8 in the morning and were in line for wristbands, eating our bagels from home, by 9 am.

Check out the line!
Only 100 wristbands were given out and Mom and I were #56 and #57.
Only slight problem was that the show didn't start until about 5:30 and we were expected to line up, back in number order, around 5pm.
We knew this, so we had planned to walk around and my goodness, we were all over Boston.

The Newbury Comics we were at was in Faneuil Hall. There are shops on both sides of Quincy Market, so we started there.

Who knew there was so much Ben Franklin beer paraphernalia! Upon further research, Ben Franklin did not say that quote, but that's your tourist store for you.

Outside the Marriot on Rowes Warf

The Courthouse from the water. The side the news usually casts from is not as pretty.

After shopping, we ventured to Harborwalk. I had heard of it, from having been in the area, but had never taken it before. The walk way literally goes around the harbor. We were later in other areas of the city and could pick up the trail. It was a beautiful day, with gorgeous views. And at the end, there was beer.

A mile and a half into the walk, past the Institute of Contemporary Art, the fish piers and the Bank of America Pavilion, was the Boston location of the Harpoon Brewery. They must have become really popular because since the last time I was there, maybe a year ago, there is now a new entrance and contemporary beer hall (which I was too distracted to remember to take a picture of, but you can see it here). Mom and I had pretzels made with spent grain from the beer brewing process and an amazing, spicy mustard also made from beer. Mom had her first flight of beer too, tasting a variety of IPAs. The tour wasn't as awesome as it was in the past, but still great to have the freedom to try as many of their beers as you can in about fifteen minutes, in what is now the old tasting room.

The mile and a half walk back was not going to happen! We boarded the bus that stops right outside the brewery, and although we got off onc stop too early initially, we had a nice walk from Downtown Crossing, through Government Center, back to Faneuil Hall. As we walked out of the subway, we were confronted with the demolition of Filene's Basement which was a Boston landmark.

We were in line for the show in time, but the weather decided not to cooperate with us. A little after 5, it didn't just rain, the heavens opened up and pour on us. I was so thankful to have bought a raincoat the week before and stayed dry expect for my feet. Mom had her umbrella so I passed mine to the poor folks in front of us with nothing.

Thankfully, the store took pity on us and started to load us into this small section of the store. 100 wet, smelly people, packed in by number order! I thought Frank would be done after four songs tops, but he kept on playing. I loved every second.

This is one of the first songs he played that day, and one of my favorites off the new record.
The rain had stopped after the show and Mom and I walked back to the train, exhausted. We had a very full first day!

T-Shirts

This is not a lesson plan... yet.
Over the last few months, I have acquired a good handful of band t-shirts, but I have not gone to see a single one perform!
My boyfriend is in a local band and frequently purchases records online from other bands and various artists. He recently returned from a few shows in the mid- Atlantic and came back with a bunch of shirts from a swap. Sometimes the bands that send records will send some merch as a bonus. That's how I got the two white shirts. I also inherited the top left shirt from the swap since it shrunk. Plus, who can resit Grumpy Cat? I got some bonus points for knowing that the image references another album cover too. I hardly have the encyclopedia brain my boyfriend has for music, books and movies. That was a huge score on my part!
The Mean Jeans shirt at the top right very much reminds me of one of my students' style and got me thinking. I wonder if somehow I could turn this into a long term sketch book assignment or lesson about illustration and marketing. I am sure my high school kids would be totally into it.
To be fair, the Wolves and the Radio shirt at the bottom right is mine. However, it doesn't fit,  I just wanted to support the band. Since I bought it, the guys have gone their separate ways, but are playing a show together next weekend and I am super excited.

So what do you think?
Sketchbook assignment
Illustration lesson
Screen printing with an art two or art club level
Other ideas?

Summer Time Management

I feel very accomplished today.
As a teacher, do you ever feel like you leave everything you personally need to take care of until the summer?
This week alone I went to the dentist, ordered new contacts and refinanced my car loan.
Sometimes I wonder how I could take care of life if I worked a regular 9-5.

Painting at Home

So I live in an 800, maybe 900 square foot apartment. It's small. Our living room is long enough for a chair and a book case that acts as a tv stand and record player shelf/ storage. We opted to put our bed set in the smaller bedroom so that the second bedroom could be the "rumpus room," equip with guitars, amps, art supplies, desk and futon.
After having free reign of a field station (!) coming home from my Nantucket class was an adjustment as far as painting was concerned.
And it was a concern! I had another two weeks to complete my paintings. However, we had a lovely trip to the Philadelphia area, which I posted about previously, between my return and my due date. I had to figure out a way to paint in the short amount of time I had AND contend with the weather.

Pretty much as soon as I came home, I ordered an easel online. Jerrysartarama carried the one we had been using in class, and it was on sale! So I bought one for myself. In the mean time, I attempted working in the backyard. I set up the stool I bought for class, my Adirondack chair to hold brushes and a folding table for the canvas. It wasn't ideal, but it got the job done.

When we returned from Philly, it was rainy and humid, so I was forced to work indoors. This is a panoramic shot of our "rumpus room." I am standing in the doorway. To the left, there is another bookcase full of records that is also our bar. Followed by the amps and musical paraphernalia, window, desk, art stuff, bookcase and closet (the door is open). The futon has been covered in a black bed sheet as not to get paint on everything. I also have a 5' x 5' drop cloth on the floor. Since I am working with oils, I have both windows open and the one with the fan in it has the fan sucking out the air. There is another fan in the doorway. This helped with circulation. 

It was an intense couple of days.
The humidity made the paintings dry really slowly. I like to layer so this was an issue. Overall, I am happy with my four paintings, but want to work more on this first one... I wasn't happy with the layering and texture.

However, may I present to you, Elemental Nantucket:

Earth

Light

Water

Wind

Fortunately/Unfortunately, all of these images were captured on my iPhone in the corner of the rumpus room. The lighting is just ok. I hope to create a light box for my classroom this year, so this white corner was the best I could get for my own images.

Summer Travels Continue

I left Nantucket on a sad Saturday morning. Seriously. I was the last one to leave. I said my good byes to classmate after classmate and sat in my living room waiting for my taxi. Its been a month since I have been home and its like I am in withdrawal. I need to find a way back to the island and I need to reunite with my classmates. Its as simple as that.

The Saturday I returned, my boyfriend and I met with out of state friends for dinner in Cambridge. I ordered grass feed steak tips and it was like I had never had red meat before. It was so good, I ate everything on my plate including the homemade potato salad and perfectly cooked wax beans! I was exhausted but did the best I could to recount the many tales I had from painting and exploring the island, over dinner.

By that Friday, we were off again. This time to just outside Philadelphia to visit friends.

On that Saturday, we had tickets to see the Philadelphia Union play Seattle, Washington. This is the view outside the stadium of the Delaware River and the bridge that connects Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But don't quote me on that, as I am not 100% on my geography.

 The stadium was absolutely beautiful. My boyfriend's buddy works for the major football team down there and through that,  was hired to do the instant replay video on the big screen during the soccer game. Needless to say, we got great seats, thanks to his boss. Thank you! We also got there super early and took advantage of the free stuff outside. We got free samples of awesome Turkey Hill ice cream. I seriously think my new favorite is salted caramel, but we can't get it in MA. We also got hot dogs for a dollar! We should have taken advantage of the beer prices, but it was so hot that water was the ticket. Plus, inside we got souvenir cups with our one beer purchase.

The night we were there was also the night service members were honored. I had goosebumps during the opening ceremonies.

Clouds rolled in during the game. At one point we were asked to retreat to the concourse due to thunderstorms! Thankfully it wasn't that bad. In fact, after the storms came through, the air was much lighter and much more pleasant.
I had never been to any kind of Philadelphia sports game, let alone soccer, but I was thankful that our experience was rather tame and enjoyable. I might even go to another soccer game, it was that much fun!

I thought I rotated this but Picasa is not working with me this evening.

After the game we went to a super small brewery, Tired Hands. Granted it was just after midnight, but the kitchen was closed. They had done so much business during the day that they ran out of food. Good for them! The bar back took pity on us and got approval to bring us a pickle plate. I love pickles! There were two kinds of pickles, sweet and almost hot, not sour. And pickle beets plus bread. I needed more food, but considering, I was thankful. And darn, it was good! The bread was made fresh that morning. The pickled beets were spicy and awesome. Plus, the beer was fantastic.  My favorite was called We Are All Infinite Energy Vibrating at the Same Frequency. Crazy name but it was delicious! 

Sunday was a nice, family like day. My boyfriend's college friends, their wives and children came over for some lunch and snacks. Aside from weddings, we hardly get to see each other as a group. Unfortunately one of the little ones hadn't been feeling too well, and as his folks were hosting, they were in and out with him. It was a nice chance to catch up though. It reminded me of the big Sunday afternoons my Nana always had when I was a kid.

Monday was our last day and we were really happy that the little guy was feeling better. We hung out all morning, playing with blocks, trying to go up the stairs and sneaking to the kitchen to steal some dog food. At one point I was under the kitchen table with him playing with cars. But shhh, don't tell mom! I even sneaked a picture of my boyfriend playing blocks, but I am going to save it for myself. Sorry!

We left super early Tuesday morning and it was a thankfully uneventful drive home.
I had Wednesday to Friday to finish my paintings for class and until Sunday afternoon to get my house ready for my mom's week long visit! Look for a post about our Boston extravaganza soon.

High School Art Final Exam

My first year teaching high school art wrapped up pretty quickly. I gave my last exam the morning of June 21st, and as I read many of my students' answers, particularly in the reflection section, I felt pretty satisfied with my performance as a teacher and very proud.

I really wasn't sure how this year would turn out. My style is very different from the other teachers, including the one I will be taking over for full time next year. I started the year just as nervous as the freshman! I also know that the majority of the kids I had this year, came from having art once a week and were thrown into having it three days in a four day rotating schedule. It was a lot for us all to get used to. (In fact, I don't think we hit our stride until March.)

We are required to give a final exam that takes place during a designated time. Each of the four teachers did something different, but I liked my exam for it's comprehensiveness and would only tweak a few things for next year.

It began with a vocabulary section, with a word bank, and students needed to fill in the correct term.
Next were two images where students were asked to identify and explain how two elements or principles of art were used. The E's and P's were listed on a bulletin board but students were reminded to back up statements with evidence from the images.
In the third section, students needed to properly shade a sphere with a light source, start to complete a drawing of a wolf (no more than 15 minutes) (I was looking more for measuring and proportion than anything else), and complete an analogous color fade with color pencils.
In the last section, students discussed their last assignment by addressing a series of questions, then wrote about their opinion of art and creativity and in conclusion, answered what they learned in art that they will use in their future art or work.

The last section made me feel proud and accomplished.
Some didn't answer. Some wrote bogus statements. But there were a bunch of others that thoughtfully took the time to consider the year and wrote accordingly. Many took note of how we always had a process: we were introduced to an idea, asked to reflect and sketch, revise and plan. THEN move on to a final. Many answered that through time and hard work, they would find results, and that is what they were taking with them beyond Art One.
To me, that is huge.
Only a handful of my students are moving on to Art Two. Students have the ability to "major" in an area of study, and unfortunately right now Art is not one of them. So many do not have the space in their schedule to move on. But for me to end the year knowing that many could recognize the value of dedication and hard work is amazing. 
Yes I am teaching basic art skills, but I was a first year teacher. I am only NOW revising and editing and focusing my curriculum. So for my students to recognize a process is awesome. For them to realize and see first hand the results of dedication, is even more amazing.

In the next few weeks, I plan to sit down and really attempt to hash out a new curriculum. I have the ability to focus on just five classes, instead of 17, this year, and I am beyond excited for my students and myself.

Look for some changes to Chucks and Crayons, for sure!