It's flu season...ugh.

Communications breakdown due to the flu. After a beautiful Tuesday at the Garden watching our Goodwill participants work on new projects, the flu virus tackled me for the rest of that week and into the next. However, here's one of the pics from that day. The participants created these neat "sun" faces. I think these faces will eventually become part of the finished product.

Sooo, no pictures or updates for Wednesday, Oct. 14th. Also, am sorry to have missed the visit from Cathy McCann at ASC!

We will have at least one more class after Tom returns from Italy. (Lucky man!)

P.S. More pictures of mosaics and the garden here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/mcgillrosegarden/

Imperfection makes things interesting - 2nd day

Participants drew shapes - square, triangle, stars, flowers - and filled in the shapes with tumbled tiles.

Next, participants created shapes, but then used pieces of coal (gathered from McGill) as the center piece of the shape, filling in with multi-colored tiles. The biggest challenge was finding small pieces to fill in between the larger pieces. Some people finished very quickly, while others worked more slowly and intently, trying to find just the right pieces for their project. One participant worried that her work wasn't good enough, and Patrick reassured her that imperfection was quite alright.

Try it at home: Don't throw away your broken coffee cup or cracked plate! Break them into pieces safely by putting them into a pillow case first or by using nippers (and safety glasses). Draw a shape you like and glue your ceramic pieces onto the shape with white glue.

A great start after communications glitch

Although our project start date didn't hold, everyone showed up today, eager to learn and create. First exercise: create an "exquisite corpse." The students drew a picture of a person, then folded the paper so that only a bit showed. Tom collected the papers, and then asked each student to pick out a drawing that was not their own. The students then randomly selected a color, the names of which were written on folded bits of paper.

As Tom explained, the purposes of these exercises are to encourage students to "detach from their own aesthetic," to separate the student from what he/she automatically considers to be beautiful, and to also encourage collaboration.

The students then worked on creating mosaics by gluing irregular squares, rectangles, and triangles of paper in their designated hue onto their drawings.

Do it yourself:
1. Choose photos and advertisements from magazines in a particular color.
2. Cut magazine pages into irregular shapes.
3. Draw a person with full body - make it distinctive! Add a boa, witch boots, striped pants....
4. Fill in picture with magazine pieces by gluing individual pieces onto picture with white glue. Make sure you fill in the background, too.

More information on the "exquisite corpse" exercise: http://www.pbs.org/art21/education/labor/lesson1-3.html

a Tuesday in September

The bees were busy in the herb and perennial gardens yesterday. The air was filled with their buzzing and the chirp-chirping of birds. Volunteers from Goodwill and LifeSpan repaired pathways, cleaned away dead plants and leaves, and raked. Volunteers from Presbyterian Hospice worked to create simple bouquets for hospice patients from flowers donated by Trader Joe's. A beautiful place to be on an everyday Tuesday. Can't wait for Monday: the Master Gardeners visit and we start the art project.

Tom Thoune to lead art project "Coal Rainbow"

McGill's public art project "Coal Rainbow" starts October 5th. Participants from Goodwill Industries will create mosaic garden urns with the assistance of lead artists, Tom Thoune and Patrick Crawford. These garden urns will be created in the Dada style and will include found objects, such as the coal left behind from McGill's former life as a coal yard. Each garden urn will be in a different color and will be planted with scented geraniums. This project is partially funded by the Arts & Science Council.

Beginning October 5th, follow along as our artists begin their journey of creating these beautiful urns.