Somehow I have had a quiet house. Well, that was this past weekend. Anyway, it was pretty enjoyable, visited at the National Gallery, and spent time w/friends. Have recently become interested in graphic novels...and have just started my own. I have one chapter finished! People in my household may want me to make some changes, but as Rigel says, 'its not like its going to be on the best seller list.' Well, I don't think he's seen it yet. I may consider posting it online. This time next week will be a school night. Ok, summer, enjoy it while you can.

The art program at the Elem School ended 8/1. Looking back, it seemed to go fast. The young children were pretty busy w/art for the entire four weeks- some pretty cool outcomes - especially with two girls collaborating on the toilet paper 'marble' maze- and worked to create a circle, (constructing w/the rolls, curving it around, w/paper mache, and acrylic paint. I re-stocked my tar paper here by going to Community Forklift last Fri. Also picked up a bunch of wallpaper rolls from their 'free friday' section. More cabinet doors and drawers to work on. Rigel and I also went to Mount Rainier for lunch at the Artmosphere Cafe http://www.artmospherecafe.com/



with a large variety of vegetarian items on the menu. We had a mini vacatation at Ohiopyle- natural waterslide, white water rafting. Enough excitement for me. I dragged a bunch of tar paper along, but only managed to use my sketchbook. (some painting w/oil pastels and then alittle acrylic.)



Well, i think we're taking a short hike at Great Falls today. Beautiful day.

"In the home stretch" with childrens art sessions at ELEM school. We are nearly finished the marble mazes, have painted and are now coating w/gloss medium. The kids have been enjoying making marblized paper w/shaving cream & using rubber stamps on the paper. Will do some paper weaving today. I am VERY fortunate to have wonderful volunteers in the classroom.

Rigel is nearly packed for his month long volunteer assignment in the Natl Park- leaving next week. I am going to miss him!

Have finished all of our paper mache work. Today we did some painting on tortillas and everyone seemed to be on board. More understanding about materials and what could be done. They were very interested in Joe Bravo's tortilla paintings. Also they enjoyed seeing the examples I had. Well, the kids love to play in the sink, so its easy to get volunteers to clean the brushes, and the palettes. I'm set now to have them start painting their marble mazes. Have to find  marbles....no toy store at Wheaton Plaza anymore.

I've been the the Science in the Cinema movies at NIH for the past two weeks, but getting the tickets (free, given away before the show) is problematic.

http://science.education.nih.gov/cinema

 Managed to see Away from Her, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Yesterday was much better. I changed my direction to align more w/pre-K.

I brought out the 'carpet' because the chairs were too much of a problem. Kids were 10X more manageable that way. I also had a volunteer w/the young ones- first period class...Today I'm bringing in a robins nest for drawing, my tar paper painting w/the robin in the nest on our porch, and we're going to keep building the maze. These are budding engineers I tell them.