Sketches From a Band Concert

Last night, I attended a band concert at St. Francis. It was very good!  

 

Here is a sketch I attempted to make of the middle school musical at St. Francis, Finian's Rainbow. 

In doing these sketches, I learned that middle-schoolers generally move too fast to sketch.

Trip to Nashville

 

I had a really fun time on a trip to Nashville with Mary Jo Karimnia this weekend.  We ate at some amazing restaurants that we chose at random, which clearly means that every restaurant in Nashville serves delicious food, has great service, and is reasonably priced.

We saw some really weird awesome art in the Wedgewood Houston area of Nashville. 

But the best part was the tarot reading Mary Jo gave me on the steps of the Parthenon. It inspired me with the words "luminous anger."

Musical

I was commissioned to paint this poster for a great musical coming up.

A Man Called Destruction

This was a reading at storybooth last night.

That's the author, Holly George-Warren.

You can see me sketching in this photo! I'm the one with the braid.

 

I kind of felt bad about drawing unsuspecting people... Oh well. This lady kept turning her head to talk to the person she came with, so I decided to work on two sketches of her simultaneously. It was a challenge!

 

This woman had gray shoes to match her suit. She and her date were very well dressed.

 

I also had fun bicycling to this event and back. I went even though thunderstorms were predicted... It didn't storm! It's best not to take weather reports literally.

Reading Magic

I was sitting at Otherlands today, and this beautiful woman sat down in front of me, so of course I sketched her. I was looking right at her, and afterwards she told me she knew I was drawing her, but she was nice enough to stay relatively still.

One of the reasons I found her so captivating was her resemblance to the woman in this painting by Eldzier Cortor. This was recently in an exhibition at the Dixon, and I spent a long time looking at it. The painting was made in the 1940s. 

What the woman pictured above was discussing with two other people at Otherlands was literacy education, a topic I love and think about often. Here's a sketch I did of what I consider to be literacy education done right:

This was sketched during the last Urban Sketchers meeting at the Pop-White Station Library. (There's another sketch group this Saturday!) As I sketched it, someone sketched me!

The reason I love what the children's librarian, Michelle Allen, has done here is because it allows children to believe that the animals are reading. This element of play is not just a good thing to have when teaching children to read, I believe it is the most important thing in the education of young children. I have taught kindergarten and first grade, and some of the fondest memories I have of the school year are when I would give them all a puppet, and tell them they must "read" a book with or to their puppet (we would do this every day). This happened after I had just modeled this behavior to them by reading aloud a story to my own puppet, Esme, and asking her questions about it. 

Too often, the bureaucrats try to take this element of play out of the schools. When I hear them use the word "data," I cringe. Why is that word so often spoken by bureaucrats who are involved in schools, but rarely do we hear the words "play," "magic," or "childhood" in connection with teaching literacy? I have a challenge for non-teachers involved in schools: every time you hear yourself use the words "data," or "assessment," create an opportunity for using one of the following words: "joy," "play," "magic." That will go a long way towards making the public schools better.

/end public service announcement

Impossible Language was a Great Success!

This was an interdisciplinary show organized by Ashley Roach-Freiman. It involved poetry, visual art, and music.

 
 Here is the wonderful poet Jonathan Owen May in center, along with Erica Qualy, Clay Cantrell, and Laressa Dickey.

I was so happy to be able to display my work alongside the work of Mary Jo Karimnia.

 One of the reasons last night was fantastic is because the work on lightboxes doesn't really show up right in photos. It was great to have people look at it in person. Here is a photograph, anyway.

 The musician/writer Clay Cantrell is to the right. I don't think he noticed, but while he was playing one song on his electric guitar, my lightbox displaying Susanna and the Elders was flickering to the music. It was beautiful but nerve-wracking for me! Fortunately, the flickering stopped after the first song.

 Very delicious cookies and cheese wafers were served (made by my amazing mother-in-law, Phyllis Vaziri).

 My sister Halle Kiihnl curated my outfit for this event. Great job, Halle!

 The painter Adam Benet Shaw has been an inspiration to me.

 The Castle, Meghan, Mary Jo, and three of Mary Jo's loveliest seed bead mosaics.

 It was so exciting to be part of an event that got both artists and non-visual-art people out (writers). Ashley has some great ideas!

 I can't tell you how much I needed people to see my work in person so that I could get some real feedback. I also learned a lot about my own work last night. For instance, this work swayed with the winds made by the air-conditioner -- and I loved it!

 Some of the art folks I most respect in Memphis came out to see this show -- here's Sarah Knowles.

And Stephanie Cosby.

This really was a magical event, and I want to thank Ashley Roach-Freiman for putting it on.

Upcoming Art Show

 

One night only!