New Orleans at NAEA Convention 2o15

What a whirlwind these past two weeks have been... Flew out to New Orleans via Columbus, Ohio on the 16th for the National Art Educators Association's Convention.  So exciting and of course EXHAUSTING...   Since landing in New Orelans it was non-stop whirl of checking into hotel, cab ride to convention hall to register then a mad dash up the moving stairs to make it to Tim Gunn's workshop session which was a ticketed event, FREE of course.  Just loved his take on things and Caroline Payson was fabulous as well.

We had a "Project Runaway" challenge competition in which the winners receive a copy of Tim Gunn's New book,  The Natty Professor.  A master Class on Mentoring, Motivating, and Making it Work!

Each table was split into two teams and each team would draw a slip of paper with our challenge.  Our team drew "Civilian to SuperHero".  On our tables were a pile of supplies ranging from coffee filters, paper tape, tissue paper, velcro dots, clothe pins and more.  As with any challenges a time limit was set and ours was a half hour... then a Runaway show with our model transition at the middle of the runaway from civilian to superhero! 

Results of the competition had yours truly own team winning with this look...sadly I've been remiss in writing down everyone's name so if you know anyone please pass it on to me.  There me in black top to the left of 'Model" and Elizabeth Freeman to the right of "Model"... Help me identify the other three members of our team.  AT the time of this posting, I'm out of the country and will not be able to check out Tim's Autographed book till August... mores the pity... I was really looking forward to reading his book.

Ahem... my contribution to this winning outfit is the skirt made with close to ten or so sheets of tissue paper folded to resemble the folds in a skirt and held together with paper tape and clothe pins.  Looks FABULOUS if i say so myself.  Love the colors.  Elizabeth Freeman came up with the collar/cape and flowers decoration for the shoes.  Coffee Filters made up the breastplate aka top, bangles/wrist hardware is made from bubble wrap held together with velcro and last our lovely nurse's hair piece is a coffee filter modified with velcro and eye holes cut out forming our "superhero's" mask.

Ohhh...

During the Convention, there's been two American Sign Language interpreters along with me each day.  Thanks goodness... I would've missed some very interesting tidbits and dialogue during the presentations.  As anyone who knows me, conversing with up to three people is doable but more than that gets a bit challenging especially when you add in the sounds formed within certain environment.  Rooms tend to echo and create static/feedback and tends to overpower people's voices.

This just makes the energy more upbeat and simulating... Wouldn't ya say?

One EXCITING person I was looking forward to meeting again and participating in her sessions is the FABULOUS Cassie Stephens of Nashville, TN.  So excited and happy for this gal who has had one ROCKIN year so far... She's my role model as she's so animated and colorful.  It helps that she's BIG into sewing up her own outfits.  I attended two of her 3 or 4 sessions... the "10 Exciting Ways to Teach Art Vocabulary they Won't Forget" and check out the happenings from her ticketed event "Design Your Own Curriculum Aligned Clothing Line" later in this post. 

George Szekely's " The Center for Creativity and Innovation" reads the banner at the art room entrance.  A fellow New Mexico Art Teacher friend of mine, Roni Rohr from Eldorado, NM just happened to attend the same session as yours truly... You may think I'm nuts but that's okay...  ANyways... George was very hands on and got us all on the floor with shoes off and relaxed and ready to go.  This is how he likes to run his art room back home.  The energy and enthusiasm radiating from George was so contagious as he shared his old favorites from his childhood, boardgames from the 50's and 60's, any old plastic containers or vessels that serve a different purpose in his art room for the children who become inventors, storytellers among others.  This brought back my own fond memories of inventing games and stories with my younger sister Kate... wow Kate we had quite an interesting childhood. 

 

Rosanne Somerson of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) presenting on "Critical Making: Making the Future"

Hello from New Orleans...

Riverfront in New Orleans... makes for a great walk

Lunch from Starbucks... a Ham and Swiss pastery with triple latte

A Selfie with an arty Lizard from SMART-FAB booth in the Exhibition Hall

Finally we are back at Cassie Stephens's ticketed event... "Design Your Own Curriculum Aligned Clothing Line" which was happening at the same time as the Convention Wrap Party: Handmade Masquerade.  

Here are some close-ups of some of her Art History outfits... Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night and a centric circle design inspired by Wassily Kandinsky!  I so adore her Kandinsky dress... its a piece of art.  It's a goal of mine to aspire to be as good as Cassie at needle felting as i just love the texture and the freedom needle felting provides.

close up of Cassie Stephens's take on Monet's water lily

Cassie Stephens's VanGogh  felted Starry Night

Cassie demoing the correct way of needle felting... ITS SO ADDICTING!!!

Cassie giving a short presentation on our "hands-on" activity... safety first people...

You can see my excellent interpreter "Nicky" in the blue shirt... great job Nicky!!!

Cassie has generously given away extra wool rovings so we may continue to experiment and practice our needle felting skills, which of course I've put to good use in the first week since arriving in Korea.  So zen and relaxing... of course my nieces are very curious and have asked to be taught the magic of Needle Felting... I'll hold off on teaching this medium till my skill level goes up a few notches.  Anyways.. you can see one of the interpreters hard at work. 

What can I say... I simply LOVE teaching ART and always feel the bug bite when a new technique or medium finds me.  I've been researching NUNO Felting the last few years which is Felting with water... no needles needed.  However, thanks to Cassie and this wonderful creative and fun group of fellow Artists/Educators, the needle doesn't pose a threat to my santity as I dreamt it did. 

Some tools of the trade... Needle felting pen, paintbrush, foam, template, wool rovings, felted sheet for palette and of course chocolate goodness! 

OUR Needle Felting Group Photograph... yay..

You can see I've gotten a nice start on my cloud design... inspired by Georgia O'Keefe.  I spy a few Kandinskys, which may explain why my current project is Kandinsky inspired Centric Cirlces... I'll be ready for September "International Dot Day".

It's a goal of mine to aspire to be as good as Cassie at needle felting as i just love the texture and the freedom needle felting provides.   Just as long as I remember to be aware of where my fingers are.  LOL...

So sad.. but hey next year is CHICAGO!  Means I better start planning my sewing agenda for the Artisan Galleria, which this year was a roaring success compared to last year!  (Having an extra years time to fine tune my MAD skills helped... Having Arty Reversible Aprons didn't hurt.)