Destruction by Oil

A little while ago I caught a glimpse of this art work as I was walking through the University.  It caught my eye, and so I took a closer look.  I think it is a representation of how big corporations of the oil industry are destroying the earth.  I tried to find out who the artist is in order to get the interpretation, but have not heard back as of yet.  Here are some photos I took and if you look closely you can see some inscription of what is happening..

Glass Artifacts with Wendy

On the weekend, Sunday November 16, we brought Faith and Josiah to see a local artist.  Wendy is a professional glass maker.  She makes all sorts of artifacts out of glass.  She does it by re-heating glass, molding it and cooling it.  She will add beads to the heated glass for color and fire the glass in a Kiln.  She also makes things by heating the glass and blowing through a tube to form her artifact.  Below are just a few of the pictures I took of their experience.

The kids made two different glass artifacts.  The first one was a Christmas tree.  They took a piece of glass shaped somewhat like a triangle and put dots of glue on the glass.  They then placed colored glass balls on the glue.  They then glued a brown piece of glass that was shaped like a rectangle and glued it to the base of the triangle for the trunk.

The second artifact was a square piece of glass that they applied glue to.  they then took very thin, multicolored pieces of glass or they could chose different colors of glitter to apply to the glass.  Faith and  Josiah both chose glitter, Josiah the multicolored glitter and Faith chose the color teal. 

Wendy then kept their artifacts while the glue dried and will fire them in the Kiln.  Once they have been fired, the kids will get them back.  Which should be today.

Breaking The Shell

I have become bored with my guitar skills and singing.  I am not by any means very good, but I do strive to be better.  I have improved a great deal over the years and am at a point where it is time to have someone teach me some skills.  This course has be good, because I have learned how to more efficiently record myself and my daughter.  I have then used these recordings to play back my songs.  This has allowed me to critique my voice, transitions in my voice, pitch, tone, volume, and cracks.  It has also allowed me to do the same with my guitar playing.  I can hear any misses of notes, patterns or unclear chords.  I have shared a video below of a song that requires many changes in voice that I am not used to.  I typically chose songs that are simple to sing.  This one was a challenge for me, and while it is not perfected, or to the point of which I am truly comfortable sharing it, I share it now for the sake of this course and the expectations.  Please enjoy and feel free to comment with any advice on how to improve.

Thank-you for listening.

DAY AT THE ART GALLERY - September

Front of houses




 

 I brought the kids to the art gallery a few weeks ago.  We have a family membership and they have family art time on Sunday afternoons.  I have been meaning to take them so many times but we finally made it.  We were given a piece of a 2x4 to paint our house.  I had Josiah, Faith and Levi with me and so all four of use painted a house.    The green on the outside is Levi's, next one is pink and is Faith's, orange with window belongs to Josiah, and the green with the three windows is mine.  We each painted the front and back of the house. 


    

Back of houses



Knight in Shining Armour

My daughter Faith asked her uncle Cameron to draw a picture of the two of them in a heart.  Faith drew the hearts and herself and her uncle was supposed to draw a picture of himself.  In the picture, Faith is looking up at her Uncle with a princess crown.  Uncle Cameron originally drew a picture of himself with no shirt on and a very muscular person.  Faith got upset with him and said he needed to wear a suit.  This is how she sees him, such a gentleman.  Well, Uncle Cameron then drew a closet with superhero suits in it, that is the brown spot in the background.  Each suit has the "S" symbol like Superman.  Faith was still upset and showed me the picture to tell me about her experience.  I then explained to her that she could draw or color over top of his picture to give him a suit. 

Faith drew the suit, but still wasn't happy with it, so she ripped it in half and threw it in the garbage.  When she told me this, I responded with "well that's too bad, I really liked that picture."  Well now she really broke down and cried, because she just ruined a picture that I like.  So Faith went to bed crying.  Her mom picked the picture out of the garbage and taped it back together for her.  When she saw it this morning, she gave me such a huge smile and said how much she loves her mom.  She then said I could take a picture of the picture for her Uncle Cameron and then I could keep the picture for my treasure box.

Caroline Anne

I was at College Heights Elementary School for my practicum this semester.  In this school, each morning they will play music over the PA system.  The music isn't loud, it is soft, a technique used to get the students to pay attention and begin to settle in.  During the morning announcements, they would always give a little talk about who the artist was and say something about the song that was played.  I really  enjoyed this part of the day because it helped me to further revisit the days when I would listen to classical music.  I never paid attention to who I would listen to, I just enjoy  it as I find it soothing.  I really enjoyed beginning each day listening to this music.

Each week the school would pick a composer for the week and one of the composers we listened to was Caroline Anne.  Caroline Anne's music is inspired largely by the Bronte's life and writing.  For inspiration for her music, Caroline would visit Howarth Parsonage where the Bronte's grew up

Caroline comes from a musical family, both parents graduated from  Birmingham Conservatoire.  Her grandfather was a composer.  Caroline began learning piano at age 4.  Caroline was asked to write the musical score for a theatre production of "The Ash Girl", by Timberlake Wertenbaker at De Aston College in Lincolnshire.

Caroline graduated form music college in Leeds and won the Classical Pianist of the Year Award.  She uses her piano talents to play recitals across Lincolnshire, raising money for church funds and children's' charities. 

 

 

 

Moose In Hiding

I have this print in my living room.  I love this print.  It reminds me of a wall picture that was in the basement of an old friend when I was in grades 4 -12.  The photo on her wall was birch trees in the fall with an old road through the middle.  This painting reminds me of hunting season.  This time of year for me is so relaxing, peaceful, filled with anticipation and excitement as I sit and wait for an animal to show itself that I have been tracking and observing all summer.  The colors of fall are so soothing and I find myself sitting for long periods of time just watching and admiring the environment.

In this painting, I really enjoy the  way the light breaks the canopy of the trees and glows in streaks across the trail. I also like to imagine that the brown spot in the bottom right corner is a moose laying in hiding, attempting to rest from a long night of escaping predators.  I often lay on the couch imagining different scenarios, and watching this moose is my favorite scenario to imagine.

Jealous

I have to redeem myself for butchering Sarah McLachlan's Angel.  So, here is one by David Crowder called, Jealous For Me.  I learned this one in the spring and Faith learned it with me.  It is one of Faith's favorite songs to sing with me.  I don't claim to be any good, but this is more or less to display the musical talent in the house.  Often Amy and I will disappear after supper, I to play my guitar or lay on the couch and Amy to either play the piano or lay on the couch.  All the while Faith, Josiah and Levi will clean the kitchen.  I think it is better than the last video I uploaded, and I have decided I probably won't be singing it any time soon.  So here it is....