Pandas Garden Mask

Yo.

During the winter break from teaching, I have had the fun of finishing a panda mask for the kids at Virginia Peterson School to use somehow in their outdoor classroom  garden project.

Of course the mascot animal of the school is the panda: Peterson Panda to be exact, so the mask will undoubtedly be used somehow.

And here it is:

 

Now, I ask you--Ain't that SOME panda?! 

And here I am. Mr. Wildflower himself!

See ya' around.

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Solstice Celebration

Yo.

You know, I have been interested in doing something masky and dancy on the solstices for some time now but have never gotten it together.

I have had the masks, but not the interested people--or the weather was too rainy  (Escondido)--or something else, but nothing much has ever happened!

But THIS winter solstice--almost exactly on December 21--my masks and interested people FINALLY came together--and I wasn't even there!

The location was The Panda's Garden, an outdoor classroom project at Virginia Peterson School in Paso Robles. CA.

Mr C., one of the good teachers of the Special Education classes at the elementary school, saw my masks and said he would be interested in doing something with them for the 2013 winter solstice with his students.

So here they are! (TAH-DAH!!).

 

Everybody likes the frog, and my portrait mask of Lauren Eisley?--well, wouldn't he be surprised!

And here is my "Grampus" mask which I modeled on the traditional
Grampus of the Bavarian Grampus and Nickolaus legend.



I was working in another classroom at the time these kids were in the garden, but I was told they had had a good time--so the celebration was a great success as far s I am concerned. And who knows--it may become an annual event!

Oh, and for your contemplation, here are photos my myself and Tanya (Mrs. Wold) posing recently by the scarecrow which we helped create in The Panda's Garden.

Best wishes, you-all, for a very happy and prosperous NEW YEAR!

 Tanya and Tom, 2014


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Paso Update

Yo.

We are still in Paso Robles, or El Paso de Robles, California. Halfway between L.A. and San Francisco

We are getting to know this nice little town better.

I have been spending some hours with Special Ed kids and their adult teachers and aides, fitting in some artwork as well as I can--sometimes with the kids and sometimes just doing what I like to do with sketching and modeling salt/flour clay. I am working as a teacher's aide so I don't have a lot of classroom responsibilities and I do get paid for my time which is nice.

Here is a sketch of one of my students: he is working out a math problem--poor kid!--But I guess we all have to suffer through this part of our "education"..

And, of course, I have been spending some time in the garden of the school where I have been working, Virginia Peterson Elementary School. (Its a quiet place to eat lunch and Tanya and I helped create the featured scarecrow..)

See ya around!

TW

Ramon and Calaveras

Yo.

I saved another tiny scrap from young Ramon:

He loves to draw this figure and does it again and again with minor differences. The pencil sketch is about the size of a postage stamp. I like it.

I personally have been up to my old tricks making papier mache calavera masks:

Both of these masks are adult sized and wired to be used as wall decorations, though they could be worn, of course.

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Goi Boy

Hello,

I have spent the first two weeks of the new school year as a substitute sixth grade teacher. The pay is good and it is something I like to do but I haven't had time to blog.

There was a 12 year-old student in one of my classes who must have been born with a pencil in his hand. His name was Ramon--bilingual English and Spanish as so many of the kids around here are.

Ramon would dash through his classwork as quickly as he could so he could get down to his real work--pencil sketching!

He carried a separate notebook for sketching and several ready pencils. He is simply a born artist.

The regular teacher is coming tomorrow to takeover the class so I said goodbye last Friday. As he left the classroom Ramon handed me a farewell sketch which I will show you here. He has a very unusual style which as rather Picassoesque and he only uses pencil--he is not at all interested in color at this time.

Aren't people of all ages interesting?

,,,

More Birds

Yo,

Well, the Paso Robles shop lady didn't think my bird masks were quite what her clients would buy so I have four new cool bird masks in my very own mask collection.

Here are the last two birds: one black-beaked one and one orange-beaked one. I had painted both of them but then got going with my torn magazine illustration colored papers and got carried away as usual--so they are almost entirely covered with magazine colored page bits! 

Just can't help it--I DO like the effect!

See? I told you so.  One has a black beak and one has an orange beak!

Visit again when you have the time.

Tomasito

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Vineyard One

Hey there,

I finished another wall decoration.

The weather here in Paso Robles is so good for the type of art I am doing--it dries the cardboard, paste, paper and paint so muy pronto.

So I am taking the pictorial and the color elements of the work farther than I ever have before in "pictures". There are so many watercolor and the usual medium artists cranking the same old landscapes with perhaps some minor departures like substituting a lavender tone for blue or a pale green (now called "apple green in the car sales brochures) for the deeper greens of nature.

Well!

I would far rather have fun with my art even if it be wild.

I call this work: "Vineyard One"

And I can hardly wait for "Vineyard Two"!

You too.

Tomasito

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