Peters Valley

Across the Delaware, a right turn beyond the bridge,

is a special place that is closer to my home

than the grocery store is.

 

Peters Valley Craft Center

 

 

I made the page above in my Freedom Journal,

using words and pictures from an outdated workshop schedule I'd had in my collage collection.

Looking back on it now, I realize that making the page fueled my desire to take a class there, made me see that I really needed to do it as something to take care of me.

 

 

It is to the left of the page that reminds me

"you are free to soul nurture."

So, soul nurture I did.

 

 

Tomorrow, I will write a post about the workshop I took.



Honor Thy Self

These journal pages are two that I created from prompts shared on The Art Journaler, and the following words were written for an article, which is linked to and you may finish reading at the Whole Family NEPA blog.

Just this morning in my journal, I wrote: “My mind is spinning. I’m trying to do too much, be involved with too much. I need to pause, to remember to consider myself and my needs.”   
to finish reading, click here....

River Sanctuary

Nearby, there's a river, separating one state from another.

On a hot summer day we visited this place,

walked along the soft edges of its shore,

explored.

Took closer looks at what was

beneath the water's clear surface,

noting the presence of a tiny broken heart leaf,

and a teeny baby snail.

There was a band playing patriotic songs,

and we peeked from behind,

at this peaceful River Sanctuary,

a place to refresh our souls,

as we enjoy time

in God's creation.

Sharing my heart

with Clytie

@ Random Hearts

River Road Cleanup

This post is about something special that my family & I did together recently.  We had such a good time and took some nice pictures that will fit well into a blog memorabilia page.

We participated in a cleanup on one of the scenic roads that is part of the beautiful national forest region we live in.

As I post these pictures I smile, remembering what a good time we had together.  Who would have thought that collecting garbage off the sides of a road could be so much fun and carry such meaning?

Leave it to my insightful son to find significance in everything and share comments to express his thoughtful mind.  "Hey Mom," he says, "it's like, all these little things, people think they don't even matter, but they really do," as he picks up some small piece of trash to add to our garbage bag. 

It's the infinitesimal, speaking & calling, the truth that we need to look closely, pick up the tiny pieces that were tossed as if they didn't matter, and realize the impact of each and every stitch.  I know this, but I need to be constantly reminded.  Just last week on Jeopardy, I heard the word.  It was an answer to a $2,000 Double Jeopardy clue in the 13-letter word category.  The first contestant to answer got it wrong for leaving out a syllable.  The infinitesimal matters.

This is what we see when we look closely.  We find beauty in the small things, and we find hearts too.

Global Art Project - Sending & Receiving

We brought our banner to the local post office, where Miss Donna gave us a box to cut down to size.  Our banner was neatly folded to fit in, and we also shipped our photo collage and project description along with it.  Miss Donna is so kind, she even gave us a donation to help with the total cost for shipping this huge box to Australia.  Big props to Miss Donna, thank you!!!

It was sad to see our banner go;  I will miss it.  Part of the trip is passing the peace, the piece, around the world, and in turn, we receive.

In return, we received a banner from the group we were paired with in Australia.  It is amazing.  It is from a girls' school group, and it is seventeen feet long.  The banner is comprised of individual squares, eight inches wide each, that contain images created by each student.  They are all so different and so creative, using different materials to express their ideas. 

I will take more pictures and post again in a couple of weeks with details about the banner we received as well as photos from where we display it.

Global Art Project - Showing Our Piece

We displayed our banner at a local environmental center's Earth Day Festival.  We set up a table with all the necessary items to have visitors make their handprints for the Let's All Join Hands piece of the Global Art Project. Brochures about the Global Art Project were displayed, as well as a photo collage of our group creating the piece and close-up photos of our banner with the project description.  At first we had it hung behind our table, until a wonderful staff member intervened, declaring we needed our banner in a place where it could be better seen.

Four families who participated in the project were able to come and help out at the table, so we all had the opportunity to enjoy the festival as well as interact with visitors at our table.  We had so much fun explaining about our banner, sharing that we were exchanging it for art from a group in Australia, and telling participants that their hands would be going to Arizona to be displayed in an art gallery.

In total, we collected sixty-four hands to mail in for the ongoing Let's All Join Hands portion of the Global Art Project.  Children of all ages, including adults, decorated their handprints with designs and expressions of peace in the world.

We invited everyone to clip their handprints to our banner and to the tablecloth, and it was fun to see how their hands added an additional element to our banner, as it hung from a beam for all to see.

In the next post, we mail our banner to Australia and give a sneak peek of what we received!

Global Art Project - Piecing Peace Together

Global Art Project for Peace –

a banner created by a group

of local home educators

This post includes photos of our final piece,

and words from the project description

typed up to describe its creation.

How do we perceive peace?  This was the question we pondered during a gathering to come up with an idea for our group’s project.  We all agreed that we do not believe in an outer force that will change things in the world.  Rather, we believe that peace is a force that comes from within, a force that we have to desire, pursue, and cultivate for ourselves.  Peace starts with us, as individuals, and peace begins at home.  To be at peace in the outer world, we must be at peace with ourselves and in our homes.  We each have the responsibility to “do our piece,” which is our part in creating, establishing, and making peace a steady part of our lives, cemented into our being. 

We had a general idea of what we would do for our project, but we left a lot of room for creativity.  As participant Kiele Hunter shared, “My experience with the Global Art Project was so much fun! It was just a blast when you really just got to do whatever you like because it was your own art, no one told you how to do it or how they would like you to have it. You could just put your own personality into your art. It was also really fun when we got to finger paint the table cloth. I’m hoping we can do it again real soon, I’m also really excited that the art is going to Australia.”  Making peace through our piece together was a fun experience for everyone.  Everyone’s individual personalities went into its creation, yet it comes together into a pleasing, cohesive whole.  Then, our peace, through our piece, will travel the world.

To create what has become our Banner, we began with a fabric shower curtain.  Everyone pressed their handprints onto it, using poster paint, and some of the teenagers put their footprints on the fabric.  Part of the world was drawn on a piece of fabric and attached to the curtain.  The letters “P-E-A-C-E” were cut from cardboard in uniform size.  The Logans collaged words and images representing their ideas of peace onto the “P”.  Abriel decorated the “E” with fabric and foam paper.  Kiele and Ione decorated the “A” with felt and paint.  The Chamorro family created a mosaic on the letter “C” with foam paper and marker.  The “E” was decorated by four different families, with words and images they felt represented “peace.”  To attach all the pieces together, colorful string was used to hang the letters from the dowel rod.  Thirty-seven beads were attached, represented the thirty-seven participants of this project.  Buttons were attached to represent how peace must be fastened to ourselves before we can experience it in the world.  The words “DO YOUR PIECE” were added by using letter beads, and additional elements of a friendship bracelet, copper wire twisted together, and pipe cleaners were used to attach them.  The final touch of a safety pin holding a heart was fastened below the words.

Our statement of peace here in our project represents our belief that we all belong to the establishment of peace in our land and that it is up to us to realize our individual responsibility to peace, as we create it with our own hands.

The next post will feature the display of our banner at a local Earth day festival.

Global Art Project - Creation

The Global Art Project for Peace is an international endeavor in which participants create works of art expressing a vision of global peace and goodwill to exchange with a another person or group.  I've been receiving brochures from the Global Art Project for about a decade, every two years to help spread the word about this biannual project.  This year, I decided to see if a group of us in my area who home educate our children might want to get together to participate in the Global Art Project.  After posting in an online forum and speaking with friends to gather interest, responses showed that it was worth pursuing a group collaboration.

First, a group of us got together to discuss ideas for the project.  Our greatest emphasis was that we did not believe that peace would ever come to our world through any outer force.  Rather, we all condeded that peace must come from within.  Peace in the world starts only with peace in ourselves individually, and in our homes.

Knowing we would have a large group of participants and youth of all ages, we came up with the idea to create a banner that represented our idea of peace.  On a subsequent gathering, we placed our handprints onto a fabric shower curtain.  This was our background. 

Some of the older youth had fun painting their feet and adding footprints to the curtain after all the handprints were done. 

The letters "P-E-A-C-E" had been cut out of cardboard in a uniform size.  Some families brought images from magazines to glue on to the letters, and others decorated them with materials such as foam paper, fabric, felt, and paint.

The "P" was collaged by one family with all their images.  The "E" was decorated with fabric and foam paper by one of the teens.  The "A" was covered in felt and splashed with paint colors by a few of the girls.  The "C" was decorated as a mosiac with foam paper and marker by one of the families.  The final "E" was collaged by four different families.

In total there were 37 of us from 9 families who came together to create our piece for peace that day.  In the next post, you will see how our pieces came together....
(click on "Newer Post" to continue reading)

Thanks, Kris, from Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for featuring this on Homeschool Showcase #94!  This post shows just how weird & unsocialized WE are, doesn't it!?