CODE WHITE!!

 

That's right, it is code white in my house.  The most dreaded, horrifying code of all.  The code that drives me to the brink of insanity, changes my habits into an obsession of cleaning.  It's Spring and the dog is shedding.

Now you just chuckled to yourself thinking, " Sure, my dog is shedding too."  NO! You don't UNDERSTAND!  You have a normal, average dog.  The kind that drop some hairs when the weather warms.  The kind that after a few brushings return to their happy, wagging selves.

Ginzee walks around with a halo of white, shimmering in our brilliant, returning sun.  When she shakes in the sunlight you gasp at the cloud of dander and hair that shoot out of her body.  When she wakes up after a nap Steve and I jump up with excited voices convincing her she MUST go outside this minute. (Waking up always equals a good hardy shake.) She groggily stumbles out the door with wild eyes and lets out a full alert hound dog bay.  Sorry neighbors but this is an emergency, she's shedding!

Still not ready to give me the gold medal for shedding dogs?  Well hold on to your lint brush.  Treeing Walker Coon hounds have a double coat.  Yep, take your dogs fur and double it.  She has so many hair per square inch you can't separate her coat and see her skin.  Yes, I live with a 50 pound shedding sea otter.

My vacuum becomes my best friend, I convince the dog to spend her day on the deck.  I increase the budget to include a constant supply of sticky tape lint brushes.  When she starts to shake I block my wet paintings with my body. There is nothing to do but wait it out.  Clearly, Spring is in the hair.

Macaroni and Paper Mache

 

 

And now introducing.......MRS. EDWARDS!  The kids go wild!  They sit on the edge of their seats, they oooooo and ahhhhhhhh whenever I show a sample of my work.  They gaze up seeing me as a rock star of the art world.  I beam, basking in their appreciation.  And then...

If it had been a concert the lighters would have started to flicker off and the sing-a-long voices would have started to fade.  Even though I had planned well for my classroom visit in Wasilla the kids were struggling. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?  I had really made sure the project would match their age group ability and yet clearly they were struggling.

Every class I adjusted and even though things improved the big 'TA-DA look what you just created!' moment was missing.  I was relieved when lunch arrived.  I needed to new plan and FAST!  While munching and pondering I started chatting with a local teacher.  I expressed my frustration.  "We have no art classes here" she said. "The simplest concept of line and shape these kids don't get, they haven't been taught." Please insert your horrified gasp here. GASP! No art classes?  Are you serious?

I was a creative kid and having a brother 2 years older than me was beneficial.  I knew what big art projects were in my future classes. I couldn't WAIT for 4th grade where we got to design with markers a real, live plastic dinner plate.  You could even put it in the dishwasher!  Or the metal project where we got to tap in a design into tin.  ( I knew for a year mine was going to be Snoopy)  There was the wood shop project where we got be make a recipe card holder.  (To this day my mom is still using the holder my brother made). I can not imagine not having art in school.  Every year I looked forward to all the little and especially the big projects.

I quickly got busy.  These kids would have their TA-DA moment.  Poor art-less babies, what has this world come to?  Imagine if I had no Mrs. Roslanic to encourage, counsel and eye roll at me through my high school years.  Would I have pursued art?

Well, I did it.  I came up with a project that the last two classes loved.  The room became filled with, "Mrs. Edwards, look at mine!"  Ahhhhh, music to my ears.

I know money is tight and there are constant budget wars and conflicts.  But a world without macaroni art?  None of us want that to happen. 

When Pigs Fly

I love birds.  I grew up with parakeets and even had a lovebird named Spooner.  I love painting birds and watching birds.  And I love feeding birds.

I have a feeder that hangs outside my studio window.  Here I am working away and a whole other world of bird hierarchy, chirps and flapping goes on outside.  It's quite wonderful really until 'IT' happens.

When the feeder empties things get ugly.  The peeps take on a tone of " HEY lady....get out here!"  They stare at me through the glass.  They gather like some bizarre feathered gang on the spruce branches.  Occasionally one will thump the glass.  A  miscalculation of flight?  I don't think so!

Now understand these are flying pigs I am talking about.  They don't seem to be suffering from any leanness brought on from the long winter.  I have red polls that I think could take out a raven!  And look here BIRDS, your food costs money!  Not to mention the knee deep snow I need to tromp through to get to the feeder!

Yes, they always win.  The feeder will be restocked and a chickadee will flit to the feeder all adorable with a sweet little cock of it's black and white head and I am cooing my love all over again.

Bird feeding season is brief here in Alaska.  In one minute a bird feeder becomes a bear feeder.  In just a few weeks the feeders will be tucked away for the summer. No one wants a bear to see you as an outdoor café.  Can you imagine?  I can barely hold my own with a nuthatch!