Art Camp's Fall Party

Art campers got together for a painting party this Fall.  It was great to see everyone again and share stories of the start of school and new friends.

Fantastic ceramic monsters created this summer came alive with color!

Painting madness continued throughout the afternoon...

and ended with a communal paint extravaganza! Huzzah!

Tomegbe Well Photos

These recent photos are from the village of Tomegbe, just down the dirt road a mile or so from the village of Game, where I was a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Tomegbe is a village of approximate 200 people who traditionally get their water from a stream nearby.  The water is transported on foot, usually by women and girls, and is very labor intensive and time consuming. 

  

The village will greatly benefit from having this clean water source nearby.

The hard work of digging a well.

  

Digging was particularly difficult because of the hard laterite soil.

Diggers abandoned the first site to start over at a different location.

A meeting of the village management committee.

Many many thanks for your continued contributions to the Togo Well Project. 

Well building project starting in the village of Tomegbe!

The Harmattan winds are blowing down from the north and the dry season continues in Togo. This is the time of year to begin a new well and the people of Tomegbe have been busy the last few months collecting sand for the bricks that will line the walls.

Walking long distances with cuvettes of sand on their heads, a pile of sand is dumped near the well site.
With the gracious contributions of Art Camp parents, family, friends and collectors of my ceramic birds and bowls, we were able to wire $4,000 for the construction of this well. This is the 5th well funded by the Togo Well Project. Many thanks to all who are helping bring clean water to this village!

Inspiration

This is a painting I did of our recent trip to Mexico. We had an open air casa with this ridiculous view. Whales in the bay, frigate birds, horned cows, spectacular flowers, butterflies everywhere and blue footed boobies! I was so inspired when I returned that I painted for 3 days straight.

Holiday Market this weekend!

Come see me at the Capitol Hill Holiday Market Friday and Saturday. I'll have nesting bowls and little birdies as well as some paintings. A fund-raiser for the PTA, lots of artists and crafters will be there so come and get in some last minute shopping!

Mt. Adams Serenity

Early fall backpacking trip before the weather turns.

Lots of huckleberries, bears and mystical night skies.

Art and Writing Camp for Girls

I spent part of a week in August at the Art and Writing Camp for Girls in Cove, Oregon. It is sponsored by the Cove Ascension School and E.S.T.E.A.M. Many girls don't have an opportunity to work in clay at their schools so I was really happy to show them some techniques.

We made art in this beautiful old building that was actually rolled to Cove from La Grande on wooden logs many many moons ago.
It's filled with old wooden benches and an assortment of colorful supplies.
This is my 2nd summer teaching art in Cove and I'm already looking forward to next year. I hope to make it to the cherry festival!

Art Camp 2011

This year 19 young artists joined me for all or part of a sunny week in August making amazing creations in my studio garage. Art Camp is a fundraiser for the Togo Well Project, an effort started in 2005 to help bring clean drinking water to rural villages in Togo, West Africa. This year's camp raised just over $400 and plans for a well in the village of Tomegbe will begin this fall!

We would start each day with drawing in our sketchbooks,
or making fantastical creations out of recycled materials.
Mornings were also spent in the clay studio making pots, birds and masks.

We had fabulous lunchtime sing-alongs with Tristan who makes us new songbooks each year!
The afternoons were spent at the park or learning how to stilt walk...
and to double dutch! A HUGE thank you to Natalie and Kelsey, my amazing student volunteers!
We had some new campers this year,
and some very special out of town guests...
Lots of smiles, lots of new friends and lots of fun. Thanks everyone for such a great week!

beets & raspberries in raspberry vinaigrette

I just found this dee-lish recipe and had to share it. It is adapted from The Vegetarian Compass by Karen Hubert Allison. It's perfect for your summer bounty and has such a nice mixture of both sweet and tart.

Try it out!

1/4 c. raspberry vinegar or other fruit/white vinegar

1/2 t. sugar (optional)

1 small clove garlic, minced

salt & pepper to taste

2 T olive oil

2 T canola oil

1-2 medium beets, peeled & sliced as thin as possible (1.5 cups)

2 T Walla Walla onions, minced

1 1/2 -2 cups raspberries

salad greens

Begin by making the vinaigarette: Combine the vinegar, sugar, garlic, salt & pepper in a large mixing bowl. Add the oils and whisk with a fork until slightly thickened. Taste and adjust seasoning. Set aside.

Steam the sliced beets in a vegetable steamer basket over boiling water, covering tightly with lid. Steam beets until tender. Immediately place beets in the vinaigarette, stir and allow to cool.

Sprinkle the cooled beets with the minced onion and toss to combine. Gently fold in the raspberries. Cover and place in the fridge for an hour or until cooled. Spoon mixture onto plates lined with greens. YUM!

summer bounty!

I picked these raspberries out of my garden today and had to hide them from my cat Diego, who is bonkers for them. His little raspberry lips are always a give away that he's been underneath the bushes carefully picking berries.

Recent Painting

This is a painting of my mother who died a little over a year ago after battling cancer. I miss her very much. She is in the middle between her two siblings.

Art Camp '10

Our 2nd annual Art Camp was a success! In August, 13 young artists

filled the studio for a week of fun in the sun.

Art Camp is a fundraiser for the Togo Well Project.

Here's some of the week's highlights:

We drew self-portraits then created them in clay.

Two of my high school art students came to play with us.

They're fabulous!

We made body collages...

and learned how to mix colors.

Tristan, a local singer/songwriter and Art Camp mom,

was back by popular demand and played for us during lunch

and at the end of the week potluck.

She even put together a songbook just for Art Camp!

She's also pretty fabulous.

(Thanks to Jeff Cosloy for these two pics)

Lots of art was made and lots of friends were made, too.

Thanks to all for such a great week!

Zebe well photos

The well in Zebe is complete!

Many thanks to all the people who have helped fund this well: art camp families, people who have purchased my art and donations people have made.

Merci mille fois to the people of Zebe for their contributions and to DJINADJA C.U. Frederic of the NGO ADHD for the organization of this project and the supply of photos.

Below is a photo essay of this project.

The extremely hard work of digging this well by hand. It's 3 meters deep! Amazing.

The dirt road to Zebe is long, about 15 miles from the main route, and is usually either washed out or full of huge pot holes. Getting a large cement truck down this treacherous path is difficult and costly.

Many hands make light work.

The area around the well stays clean and the wall detours animals.

The women and children no longer have to walk long distances.

So many lives improve...

With access to CLEAN water!