Awesome Opossums in Orono
Author Lyn Smith and I traveled north to Orono on Monday to visit the awesome Asa C. Adams Elementary School. What a warm and welcoming learning place filled with color and history! The knotty pine halls are lined with fantastic art by students from Pre K to 5th grade. Librarian Diana Smart and art teacher Nancy Fitch had prepared well for our visit, with an Arts and Literacy celebration prior to our arrival. We were tickled by this decorated door to the library! Lyn read aloud What Makes an Opossum Tick? to each of the 6 groups who gathered during the day. I detailed my process of making...
Read MoreArt Expedition
I followed my daughter, Daisy, last week to another World Languages Art Expedition Kick-off at King Middle School in Portland. I first participated as a visiting artist in 2009 when she was a sixth-grader there. It was like old times heading to the bus from the 7:15 ferry. The language arts project asks 8th grade students studying Spanish or French to choose a Spanish or French artist to research and then create written and visual work based on that artist. In 2011, Daisy did this animation inspired by the art of Marc Boutavant. She’s now a senior sculpture major at Maryland Institute...
Read MorePutting the A in STEM
I was invited to be a volunteer exhibitor at the 5th Annual STEM Expo sponsored by Portland Public Schools and Envirologix last Friday. Since many of my children’s books are nature-themed, I brought my collection of nature objects and some life-like toy models for nature studies with students. The event was held at USM’s Sullivan Gymnasium, and it was like a trade show for careers in science. Over 50 exhibitors, ranging from ecomaine to Maine Total Weather to Engineers Without Borders to IDEXX Labs to the Electro Toy Company drew busloads of local students along with displays...
Read MoreCharm City History
A week ago today we drove our island girl back to Baltimore. Last glimpse of Fort Gorges for awhile. After the traditional stop at Holy Donuts for road fuel, we made it to St. James Court in about 9.5 hours. Whew! It was looking very Ivy League outside her bedroom window. Marty and I checked in at Hotel Revival. We stayed here in it’s previous incarnation when we brought Daisy to begin freshman year. It seems like the blink of an eye, but this is SENIOR YEAR. Yup. The hotel had closed the last two years for a major facelift under new ownership. We delighted in the contemporary art...
Read MoreBaltimore beauty
We flew down to Baltimore last week for a delicious dose of our daughter and a shot in the arm of spring. We picked her up at Maryland Institute College of Art and caught up at Tapas Teatro. Our gregarious server, Seth, made us feel welcome and ready to roll. The magnolias are in bloom there! We make the Paper Moon Diner a regular stop, for the milkshakes and the ambiance of over-the-top assemblage. A tribe of sculptures protects the premises, adorned with cutlery, creamers, and coins. I sketched one of them after we got home. Next we went in search of Joyce Scott’s show, Still...
Read MorePub Day for Ana and the Sea Star!
Finally, today is THE DAY!!! My twelfth book is real. Ana and the Sea Star by R. Lynne Roelfs is published! It is a small miracle when ideas manifest into a real book. When I first read the manuscript in July of 2016, it felt authentic, the story of finding a starfish. My photo below is evidence of that time a sea star washed into a Peaks Island tide pool a summer ago, and was gently placed back in the ocean. First I sketched out a rough storyboard, deciding what to show, the flow of the visuals, and varying points of view. I contacted some island neighbors to model for me. The lovely Schuit...
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