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| Click Here To See Where Woody's Watercolors Are On Exhibit in 2008 | ||||
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November 2008 Blog:
I've been adding to this blog for over 20 months now. The subjects I write about will vary with the changing interests of
this old retired middle school art teacher. I hope you continue reading
my blog and will send me any comments
you have via e-mail to: woodyduncan@comcast.net
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Order Woody's Watercolors on Notecards |
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| Off To Kansas For Thanksgiving: My blog went on vacation to Kansas so we could eat turkey with the grandkids. To follow my blog go to my December Page. |
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| Sky Painting Demo (11/17): Tonight's watercolor society meeting was packed. Eighty people came to watch David Chavez show us how he paints his beautiful skys. He had two layers of wash on his paper before he came to the meeting. His first wash was yellow and the second one of lamp black. David ofter puts 12 to 15 layers of light washes in developing his skys.   |
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 a hot cup of coffee is the best way to start the morning off |
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 click on pastel to see examples from this years show |
Morning's Progress (11/15): I put the final touches on my watercolor of "Tiffanie Sleeping" this morning. Well almost, there are a couple of minor changes I may still make. I may mat it just a bit smaller so I can shift the center of interest to the right and cut down the size of that dark triangle in the upper right.  "Tiffanie Sleeping" Art Exhibits:
When I left this mornings painting group, at the La Mesa Church, I drove over to the NM State Fair Grounds to check out the New Mexico Pastel Societies exhibit. The quality of the pastels on exhibit were excellent. There was also an exhibition of art by New Mexico veterans. There is never a shortage of art in New Mexico. |
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New Toy (11/14): They say the only difference between men and boys are the price of their toys. Today I purchased and installed a back-up camera on my 1999 Olds minivan. The camera mounts on the license plate and the monitor is mounted on the dash. When I shift into reverse - I get a wide angle, full color, picture of what is behind my car. If I'm going to drive my Olds forever, I might as well have all the bells and whistles as a new car. It's a wireless system (well sort of wireless). I had to route the wire from the camera to a small transmitter which had to be connected to my backup light wires. The instructions were for a car with a trunk - not for a minivan with a hatch in the back. I just cut wires till I figured out which were which and then spliced everything back together.  Monitor on my Dash |
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| Cheap Gas: I filled up today at $198.9 per gallon. Whats this world coming to with gas prices this low. It won't last so perhaps I should buy several 5 gallon cans and fill them up for Christmas presents for my friends. |
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| Today's Tours: This morning I conducted two tours of 1st, 2nd an 3rd graders from a Montessori School. Their art teacher had prepared them well and the kids were extra sharp. It is really a joy to take a group of students through the museum that are as well prepared as these were. Todays groups came to see art. On Tuesday, we have a group of fifth graders coming to see history. |
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 Art Teacher Workshops |
Art Teacher Workshops (11/13): Yesterday, I created several pages for the New Mexico Art Education website. The pages show teachers in various workshops at our Fall Conference in Glorieta. My new pages cover four workshops. I plan to add more later. The home page for the New Mexico Art Education website is: http://www.newmexicoarted.com/ where a link takes you to the workshop page: http://newmexicoarted.com/2008/Workshops.html each photo links to a separate workshop. The workshops pages are as follows: http://newmexicoarted.com/2008/Bottles.html http://newmexicoarted.com/2008/Icoshaderon.html http://newmexicoarted.com/2008/Foil.html http://newmexicoarted.com/2008/Collage.html |
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Successful Workshops (11/9): I just returned from the NMAEA Fall Conference in Glorieta, New Mexico. I gave two hands-on workshops this year. One was on the five regular platonic solids. We build icoshedrons at my first workshop on Friday afternoon. On Saturday afternoon we created white-on-white collages of mountains. Then we finished them using liquid transparent watercolors. Later, I plan to post lots of photos from both of my workshops. Also, when I wasn't presenting, I went from room to room shooting pics of other workshops. I plan to post many of those photos as well. Sharing ideas is the best way to learn. <<< click on photos for larger images >>>
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| Political Labels (11/7): I've always been proud to be called a liberal or a progressive. Liberalism is identified with being open minded - willing to adjust one's view point based upon the data available. Many Republicans have tried for years to make the "L Word" a four letter word. I hope that concept is dying out. I know and respect true conservatives. By that, I mean economic conservatives or social conservatives who work from long held concerns. I could work with or carry on a reasonable discussion with those true conservatives. What bothers me are the fringes of any type of belief group. The bomb throwers who claim to be leftists or the right wing fanatics who bunker down for the race wars. This morning's Albuquerque Journal carried a front page (with color photo) story about a self claimed conservative buying an AK 47. He said he was concerned that Obama would take away his right to own these guns. He needed the weapon because the "Rapture" was coming. He failed to explain who he would need to shoot at the second coming of Christ. This I find as a very scary kind of conservative. Is he worried about an armed conflict in America - if so how soon. In the late 60's, I was politically involved. There were concerns back then that civil unrest might irrupt into major inner city wars. I remember we invited Julian Bond to speak at Park College. He joined our committee for breakfast and the concerns of possible civil unrest came up. Julian said that it was groups like ours responsibility to stay together - not to take sides - but to be around to put things back together after the crazies killed each other off. Julian will, I'm sure, forgive me if I don't remember his words exactly. By 1972, I became a delegate for George McGovern. We were all much younger back then. Back there, I learned the value of working with people of all sorts of political leanings. The McGovern forces had a majority of the Kansas delegation to Miami. But it was very important to be able to work together in the upcoming general election. To quote Governor Docking, "We would just have to agree to disagree, without being disagreeable". It was wise advice then and it is even more important advice to be followed today. Just watch how President Barack Obama proceeds. He will place strong people around him. But, he will make sure they are able to work with others who do not agree with him on everything. Time will tell. Yet I can look back and see if my words held up. |
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 First Family |
First Family (11/6): What a beautiful "First Family" we saw in Chicago on Tuesday night in front of a quarter of a million people. I read an e-mail from an art teacher in Australia saying how excited she was, for us, about the election outcome. Another friend teaching in Ecuador wrote how all the teachers and students in her school stopped to congratulate her. It is a beautiful change.  Crowd in Chicago's Grant Park
What a change from the Grant Park of 1968 - I have vivid
memories of the Chicago police shooting tear gas into the crowds back
then.
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 Down Under |
Around the World: In the middle of the night, (3:39 AM, Mountain Time) I received another e-mail from the same teacher in Australia. Many art teachers on our list serve had been responding to Rosemary's earlier message labeled "Congratulations America". This latest message was only sent to the dozen or so teachers who responded to her earlier message of congratulations. I suspect this was because "one list subscriber" had objected to the political content of her first message. So, I decided to quote her newest message below: "It is me again, you are all probably in bed asleep. I just wanted to thank you for sharing all of your thoughts with me (and the rest of the list)... Australia like the rest of the world has followed this campaign very closely. I have been in America twice this year, once in March (while the Hilary Obama competition was on) and the other just recently so we feel part of it even though we are at the other end of the earth. I also wanted to tell you a story... I had the radio on in the art room yesterday so my year 8 boys could listen to the results as they came in.... (actually to be honest they weren't that interested but then they are 14) and during all of the fill in time the reporters interviewed a truck driver from Australia who said that he had made a donation to Obama's campaign... and I thought to myself I wish I had done the same.... It is amazing how positive everyone is feeling over here at the moment about America. I even went out and bought some American flags for prizes for my daughter's birthday party tomorrow - something I wouldn't have dreamed of doing if anyone else had won the election. The kids at my daughter's school all had Obama written on their arms and legs when they came home yesterday ( they are 12 year olds!). Everyone is just so relieved, we were so over the Bush administration and so frightened that it would be more of the same if McCain had won. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to get Obama elected. My sister is about to arrive in New York for a short stay with a friend, she is so lucky to be there to soak up some of the euphoria. Enjoy your new president just as the rest of the world is (I do hope you are seeing some of the newspapers from around the world... we can't get enough of Obama here)." Best wishes to you all, Rosemary I believe it is so important for us, here in the US, to understand how widespread this election is followed. Not just followed, but looked up to with hope for real lasting change. But as Obama pointed out - the road will be hard and long - but it can be done if we pitch in and help. |
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 President Elect |
Yes We Can (11/5): And - Yes We Did !! A big THANK YOU to everyone for all your efforts that helped make this happen. Also - one benefit of moving to New Mexico was to have my vote counted. The last time my vote counted was in 1964 (In Republican Kansas). The result of yesterday's election made this old Democrat very happy. Now we celebrate - tomorrow we need to get to work and begin to fix many of the things that need lots of hard work. True Blue New Mexico: While the final total electoral college count is still undecided, some states are too close to decide today. My adopted state of New Mexico went solid for the Democratic party. All three of New Mexico's seats in congress and both seats in the US Senate will be held by Democrats. Now, we can start answering our phone again - no more robo calls. |
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| Why Obama Wins (11/4): I'm listing the reasons I believe are major factors in Obama winning today:
In fact it is not Obama who wins today, it is America that wins with an calm, intelligent, level headed leader going to the white house. But we must understand that this new administration inherits a very troubled economy and a military stretched quite thin. It will not be an easy road and Obama and the Democrats will need a lot of support from all of us. This nasty campaign has helped fester hate in an already divided country. We all need to find ways to join together to solve the problems which lay ahead. |
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 Yum Yum Cookies |
Getting Ready (11/3): Frani and I are doing our best to get ready. She is baking cookies to be ready for the holidays. Her new pumpkin cookies are really yummy. They go great with a cup of coffee - I should know, I tested them. I'm getting ready by packing supplies for my art teacher workshops next weekend in Glorieta. Today I started on my examples for the Watercolor Collage/Landscape. I also created a powerpoint of mountains to show as motivation to start my workshop off with.  White on White Collage Ready to be Painted |
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 Sister Corita |
Sister Corita's Rules: Yesterday someone posted "Sister Corita's Rules" on one of the art teacher list serves. Sister Corita was a Catholic Nun and also a very inspirational artist and teacher. If you are not familiar with her work - click here to learn about Sister Corita.  click on rules to see a larger version >>> |
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 Frani Making Candy |
Sleeping Beauty (11/2): Finally - yesterday, I got back to working on my painting of Tiffanie sleeping. I started it a couple months ago. It was the face that frustrated me back then. I do believe this watercolor will work out. It's another blue and orange color scheme. If this one works out, I may enter it into the Western Federation of Watercolor Society juried exhibition in San Diego.  Sleeping Beauty |
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images with blue borders are linked to larger images |
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 Time Change |
Art Teacher Workshops: Next weekend, I get to pretend to be an art teacher again. I'm doing two hands on workshops for New Mexico art teachers at the New Mexico Art Education Association's Fall Conference in Glorieta. I'm spending time today getting all my supplies together for those workshops. Too bad I didn't have this luxury of time to prepare for each lesson when I was actually teaching. Well, today I get an extra hour to use as I see fit. I had better set my alarm so I can get up at 2:00 AM to set our clocks back one hour. |
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Three More Days Before The Votes Are Counted (11/1): It's been such a very long election, at least it seems that way. Even after Obama gets elected, we still have to wait till January 20th for him to take office. You can keep track of the days, minutes, etc. remaining by checking my countdown clock.  Here - I am, typing away on my little i-mac adding facts and nonsense to my blog. |
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Studio Thinking: That's the title of a book I learned about on an art teachers list serve last month. I checked it out on Amazon and then ordered a copy. "Studio Thinking, The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education" is a must read for new art teachers. I'd also recommend the book to principals and supervisors at all levels. It is the first "down to earth" description I've read of what should be going on in an art classroom. No new theories here - just clear descriptions of what good instruction in the visual arts looks like. Here is a link to a review on the book. I find it refreshing to find a book without statistics and graphs, without grand schemes to rework what already is successful. This book gives the reader a clear look into what several successful art instruction is all about. A New York Times article about Studio Thinking states, “Students who study the arts seriously are taught to see better, to envision, to persist, to be playful and learn from mistakes, to make critical judgments and justify such judgments.” This book has real meat as it's content. It is a book you should take the time to read and then pass it on a school board member. |
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| let me know what you think woodyduncan@comcast.net |
| <<< back to october | on to december >>> |
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