first two weeks of school at dilworth

Today marks the two week mark for my new job as the "Art Specialist" at Dilworth Elementary School in SLC. It has been absolutely exhausting and i love it. Being an art teacher is like being Santa Claus. Every single kid loves art, so I'm pretty popular around town. Last week I handed out 500 sketchbooks to every child and we worked on Self- Portraits. In class I introduced myself and told them about how important imagination is. I even got them all to do a short meditation (closing their eyes, focusing upon their breathe, and listening deeply for their own heartbeat) as I told them an East African story I got from Laura Simms about buffalo robes, children turning into buffalo, a hunter, and a baby boy who choses to live with the buffalo. They loved it. I even had a student proclaim "There's a buffalo in my head!" when she opened her eyes again.

This week, we learned about Tibet and prayer flags (Lung-Tu = "wind horse") and talked a lot about peace. We all made our own prayer flags that we will hang in the school next week. The sixth graders made prayer flags that will be included in an installation by local artist Trent Alvey at Neighborhood House in SLC.

I've been wanting to include some photos, but because of liability issues, I can't show any children's faces. So, I took some photos and then cropped them just so. It barely hints at the exciting times we've had in school, but use your imagination.

Shiloh at her Aunt Hayley's Wedding

Our family went to my littlest sister's wedding weekend extravaganza in Utah Valley last week and got all dressed up. Some photos of the day turned out: Shiloh glowing like a cherub, Lisa and Shiloh mid-twirl, Shiloh and her cousing Grayson sharing a moment, Shiloh, Grayson and wild Mattson checking out the cows and hayslingin cowboys in a neighboring field, and Shiloh posing with her aunt Hayley in full regalia.




I also thought I'd throw this one of Shiloh's skiwampus teeth: Shiloh with her uncle Brad on an afternoon hike to visit Jerry's grave in Provo Canyon.

Lisa breaks into the modeling world

Check out the new FranklinCovey website for a sneak peek at Lisa Peterson's photo shoot:

Caption: "Oh really? I'm only mildly amused."

Recent expedition to Castle Valley

A few weeks ago, I went to Castle Valley to do some painting, biking, hiking, and swimming in the Colorado River (which was flooding at the time). Anyway, I had a great time with my friends Brooke and Jenny and wanted to show some photos from the trip I just found.

Last Child in the Woods

Shiloh and I rode bikes to the park today and after a short time sliding on the plastic slides, we decided to head over to the creek to check it out. She loved it and was mad when I made her leave after she had basically ran into the creek laughing as she fell down drenching herself.

I've been thinking a lot about Richard Louv's book, Last Child in the Woods and ways to make sure that plenty of time is spent out in natural areas. If you aren't familiar with the book and "Nature deficit disorder", you can check out a couple of good articles here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4665933

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_deficit_disorder

http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2005/06/02/Louv/

I'm beginning work on a public sculpture that ties together many of the areas discussed in this book. Stay tuned for more about this.

Keepin' it COUNTRY, Keepin' it Green!

My good friend Callie from Cora, Wyoming just sent me a copy of a poster she knew I would love. Thought I would post it here for your enjoyment. (Notice Smokey's furry paw resting casually on the Hag's knee. Precious.)