Hello, Pup.

For some reason I forgot to go by the post office on my way home from work yesterday. I turned around and was driving downtown (where I rarely go) when this little golden wonder dog ran into the center of my lane. He had the shortest legs, but he was booking it. He was following a couple jogging, but when they would turn to him he became afraid and ran into the street. I stopped my car twice. Stopped a car belonging to someone else... and couldn't get him. 45 minutes later I had followed him into the park & he refused to let me near him.


I could not make myself give up. This was someone's dog that had obviously gotten out and was confused. If it were Jack I would hope someone would help get him back to me. I drove home, changed clothes and grabbed Jack, Dog Ambassador of Hope. The dog was following some ladies to their cars, but would not let them touch either. Jack had no problems he introduced himself, introduced me, and two shakes later and we were in the car.

Jack is on the left & the rescue (Lobster McNinnymuggins) on the right. I have no good pictures I snapped a few quick pics with my phone and was done with it. He has the most adorable under bite. And an amazing personality. I hope I'm able to find his parents soon. I can tell he misses them, he cried a bit last night.



I would like to give a few tips for anyone who thinks about carrying home stray animals. I tend to leap before looking as far as animals are concerned. I don't always think through the rescue effort. I know that I can offer them something if not just getting in touch with a rescue organization. My heart goes out to pets that are lost. My dogs are my children and I know how afraid they can be in a strange place without me. So there is no question in my mind when I see an animal in need, I'm going to help it.



Anyway. Tips! Right away...

• Try to let the animal come to you, gain a little bit of trust. In my case I used a pawn to show how trustworthy I am. Ha.
• If the animal acts aggressive, don't take any chances. Call animal control. (I hatehatehate to do this & almost never will unless it's just mean. Once an animal hits the pound, they usually do not return.)
• Now think, what can you offer this animal? Short term & Long term Immediately I think safety... long term I can foster until the owners or a forever home is found. You could contact a local rescue organization if you can't offer a temporary home. I love Almost Home Pet Foundation they helped me place a dog last spring in the perfect forever home.
• I think the thing the dog loves the most is something to eat & somewhere safe to sleep.
  
• I always take the animal to the vet to check for a chip and make sure there are no injuries.
• And be extra nice to your boyfriend for putting up with this foolishness.
  

And that's all I have for now.

Recycled Shopping Bags

I have been whipping up grocery bags like crazy lately. My first one was out of one of my favorite shirts that doesn't fit me anymore.

So all of these groceries:
Fits in this one bag:

The shirt reads, "I fed my cat lemons and now he's a sourpuss." Ha. I love it.

I have started adding handmade embellishments and braided handles to solid colored bags.

Waterfalls

Another great weekend. I wanted to share a couple pictures from hiking on the 14th.


We hiked out to Laurel Falls 80ft. Waterfall.


And then up to the top. The picture above is sitting with the waterfall. Yay!

We hiked a bit higher than the waterfall and on around the ridge for this view. I really love our hikes.

Wayne White

I've been terribly busy this week, but I wanted to do a quick share about the weekend. Saturday our gallery was lucky enough to have a visit from artist Wayne White. While you may not recognize the name you most definitely recognize his work. Wayne gave a presentation about his life growing up in Chattanooga and how it shaped the artist partially responsible for the award winning set & puppet design on Pee Wee’s Playhouse. He is also behind the videos for Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” and the Smashing Pumpkins “Tonight, Tonight.”

Wayne was also kind enough to sign Todd Oldham’s book: Wayne White Maybe Now I’ll Get the Respect I So Richly Deserve. I love this book. It’s full of art & comics Wayne has done through the years with its main focus on his “Word Paintings.” Esquire calls Wayne White, “One of the most exciting artists working in America.” And I don’t feel like that’s a stretch.

Group with Wayne White & Michael's Paul Reubens Painting

It was a great event as Wayne had everyone laughing through the presentation, even bringing out his banjo and playing at one point.

Wayne White, Coco, & Myself

I encourage you to check out this book and the work of Wayne White. He’s an amazing visionary and artist.

Big thanks to Michael for the images from Saturday.

Perfect Evening

Yesterday afternoon was amazing. After work Rob & I went hiking and he convinced me to jump in the creek for the first time this year. Can you say freezing?! I wish I would have had my camera; the spot we chose was beautiful. But I'm always afraid I'm going to break the camera while I'm climbing around. We were on a lot of smooth rocks with water running over them so I was able to run around bare foot which is always gratifying in my book.

We made homemade pizza when we got home. Delicious.


My side included spinach, feta, black olives, and plain chicken. Rob's side had pepperoni, pepperoncinis, feta, a little spinach, and marinated chicken. Oh dear, it was amazing! Unfortunately, I only have the before picture.. I was so excited I ate up as it was coming out of the oven. It ended the perfect evening.

We make good use of our food I think. We'll have gotten 3 meals out of that chicken after tonight. We had some sort of Mediterranean chicken & couscous, pizza, and we're going to eat some chicken, spinach, & feta wraps later.

Now I'm hungry!

Creativity in Schools

I was recently speaking with a gentleman I work with about the mindset of schools today. It made me think about a lecture I had heard on TED. The speaker Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity. I thought he had such valid points that I have to share.

Now I believe education is important… very important. Is the same education meant for everyone? I don’t think so. Certain people have talents outside of math & science & English. While I believe education is very important so are the natural talents that are overlooked. Mr. Robinson says “..my contention is, all kids have tremendous talents. And we squander them, pretty ruthlessly. … My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.” I have never heard truer words spoken. We should nurture the individual talents children possess.

He goes on to point out that there is a hierarchy in the school system with the most important subjects being the top priority because they are most useful and then art, music, dance, and drama sort of falling to the wayside. Now I understand that there are budget cuts. Just this morning I was reading that a local school didn’t have money for text books. They have been supplementing with online materials. The children actually didn’t get science books until April this year. School lets out in May, you can see the dilemma. Obviously, when budget cuts are so drastic those subjects deemed less important tend to disappear completely. If you don’t cut one thing you have to cut another. I feel like they’re all instrumental to our youth. Maybe I don’t have the answer; I have an idea, a theory that I won’t go into today… but I would love to discuss it if anyone is interested.

Mr. Robinson says something else that really struck a cord with me. It pertains to the most important subjects being useful. “So you were probably steered benignly away from things at school when you were a kid, things you like, on the ground that you would never get a job doing that. … Don’t do music, you’re not going to be a musician; don’t do art, you won’t be an artist.” He goes on to say that public schools are designed to prepare you for universities. “And the consequence is that many highly talented, brilliant creative people think they’re not, because the thing they were good at at school wasn’t valued or was actually stigmatized. And I think we can’t afford to go on that way.”

Oh my dear! I live this! Through the week I work for a construction company doing finance. I am very good at math and problem solving, but, oh my, it is not my passion. I love art. I live and breathe it. Every other weekend I work for a folk art gallery and I am so happy when I’m there. I am faced with paying my bills & having money or doing something I enjoy and struggling. So I do this for now until I can put together a plan to do what I enjoy FULL time. I feel like if I had spent more time in school realizing that I can do something creative instead of preparing to do what I do now I could be making a difference.

Maybe you can’t be an artist, maybe you can’t be a musician… but you can do something you love. You can be involved in preserving the things you’re passionate about.

I urge you to listen to this lecture or read the transcript. The way we educate is so important. Cultivating the creativity in our youth now is important. This is the time period in life where these gifts are lost or begin to flourish.

“I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity. Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth: for a particular commodity. And for the future, it won’t serve us. We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we’re educating our children. There was a wonderful quote by Jonas Salk, who said ‘If all the insects were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years all life on Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the earth, within 50 years all forms of life would flourish.’ And he’s right.

What TED celebrates is the gift of the human imagination. We have to be careful now that we use this gift wisely, and that we avert some of the scenarios we’ve talked about. And the only way we’ll do it is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are, and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being, so they can face this future. By the way- we may not see this future, but they will. And our job is to help them make something of it.” – Ken Robinson, Schools Kill Creativity

Yee-Haw Industries

This morning a friend asked me to check out Yee-Haw Industries because they have an opening coming up this week in Chattanooga. I took some time looking around their website and etsy and now I feel like I must clear my calendar Thursday and catch the opening.

Formed in 1996, Yee-Haw Industries is made up of the creative partnership between Julie Belcher and Kevin Bradley. Specializing in “art-like products” such as letterpress and handmade woodcut prints Yee-Haw Industries has so many cool products. I was really impressed with their wood grain note cards hand printed from a piece of bass wood.

The posters are reminiscent of folk art great Howard Finster’s work. With a focus on folk art in my own home I know how well they would fit in on my walls!

Check them out and take a look at that list of clients on their website.

I think the item I covet the most is this backpacking bunny t-shirt. They have a nice apparel section on their etsy too.