Family Arts Festival

I have been helping out at Five Rivers Arts Alliance (www.fiveriversartsalliance.org) and the month culminated in the Family Arts Festival last weekend. There was a good turnout and we had a narrative stage talking about the life and times of Maine, a musical stage which changed acts all day and tents of workshops and activities. One of the most popular events was a guy named Blake Hendrickson who had a set up of wood scraps from a turning factory and discarded shingles and people were creating mini sculptures. Young and old were intrigued with the wood “buffet”. I even did one myself. I helped a little girl named Mildred make a hat at another workshop and was rewarded with this smile. I wish I knew who she was so I could send it to her mother who had to work. She said, “I just love this place!” It made the weeks of preparation so worth it. I did an oil pastel workshop in the afternoon that I designed for grown ups but quite a few kids came. It worked out fine. It was a beautiful day and Will, Mark and my Mom came and seemed to enjoy the weather although they did not partake of the activity. I don’t know about the Board of Five Rivers but I looked at the whole thing as a great success!

Catch up

I had taken such pride in keeping up with my blog until I got a life, such as it is. I have decided to increase my knowledge of the wide wide world by auditing an Italian class at Bowdoin. Good stuff but big commitment and I am already behind in my homework. It is good as the Professoressa does not feel inclined to call on auditors. I am trying to be a better studentessa but it is difficult when I have Spanish and French coming unannounced into my head. Practice practice

I have been volunteering at Five Rivers Arts Alliance. It is a central location for artists in the area to pool their resources. We have members and do publicity and events based on the season and the inclination. You can see some of the things they do at www.fiveriversartsalliance.org. I am there anywhere from 8-15 hours a week and that sure fills up a schedule. I enjoy it and my “boss” seems to appreciate the work I do, a little bit of everything at this point. We are preparing for a festival where I am doing a workshop with oil pastels, yes, students, you know the Impressionism project. I am looking forward to it and have been presenting a crash course of materials to provide.

The other iron in the fire of my teaching passion is hooking up with a group called Art, Mind and Soul Studio which intends to offer studio space, classes and activities and work areas for all ages. It is an interesting concept and I hope they get the word out so they can keep their wheels rolling. There is a lot of competition for the arts here. If you are not an artist yourself you have dozens of choices every weekend of art things to do. This weekend I am going to the carving convention in Augusta to see the decoys and such. Perhaps it will get me fired up to take up the knife again.

 Other than that I am doing the homemaker thing, walking the dogs, doing my yoga, getting little projects done around the house. I will keep up better, cross my heart. Also am thinking of more direction for this blog than me. We’ll see.... Suggestions accepted.