The Appalachian Trail was right next door

To get in shape for the Proper Walk I needed lots of exercise.

Luckily the Appalachian Trail, which runs for 2000 miles from Georgia to Maine, passed right by Hollins.

I discovered a trailhead and met many interesting people who were doing the entire route in one summer.

Hollins University is a beautiful place

My particular corner may not be beautiful--my cottage was spartan but plenty roomy.
But the campus, which was only a short walk away, was rolling and lush and dotted with graceful brick and white wood buildings.

The school's motto, inscibed on a plaque on the chapel, is Levavi Oculos--roughly translated into lift up thine eyes to the hills.

The hills are the Appalachian Mountain range, range upon range, all running SW to NE on either side of campus.

Carvin Creek flows out of Carvin Reservoir and through campus.

Tinker Creek runs from Tinker Mountain and is the setting for A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, a Hollins alum. If you read it, my favorite essay is Present.

Sante Fe to Hollins University in Roanoke, VA

After a day spent visiting Santuario de Chimayo with Susan, Lucy and I got back on Rt. 40, headed for points East.

Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and on into Virginia. We arrived on June 16th and moved into the cottage in the far upper right corner.

San Francisco to Roanoke

San Francisco, CA to Roanoke, VA.
Roanoke, VA to Leicester, VT.
Leicester, VT to Nairobi, Kenya.
Proper Walk 2008 The Great Rift Valley, Kenya

My traveling summer of 2008 began on June 10th.

The 1st leg headed south through the Great Central valley of California on Rt. 5 and picked up 40 east in Bakersfield. Along the way fields of roses were in bloom in Wasco and Joshua Trees were blossoming on the Tehachapi Pass.

1st leg: crossing the US took 6 days. Five days of driving and one day spent visiting Susan Guevara in Sante Fe.

SF to Sante Fe in photos

Costa Rica is alive

Have you ever heard a troupe of Mantled Howler Monkeys hooting in the dusk? The sound is startling and a little scary at first but in only a week in Costa Rica I not only grew used to it, I began to find it comforting.
Comforting in the sense that Costa Rica is a place where primates other than ourselves live in the wild and appear to thrive. The monkey troupes are sometimes as small as 3-4 individuals and sometimes have dozens of members. The group at Playa Lancosta was at least 30 adult monkeys with a dozen infants clinging to the backs of their mothers. Their prehensile tails were marvelous 5th limbs, always wrapped around a branch as an extra anchor.

Cesar Chavez High

It is a rare treat for me to be invited to speak to high school students. My books would seem to place me squarely in front of the kindergarten/1st grade audience, but I love the older students. On Friday, February 22, I was lucky enough to visit three art classes at Cesar Chavez HS in Stockton, CA.
After presenting a slide show about my work, I demonstrated how to draw a face. I discussed symetry, proportion, some anatomy and light source/shading techniques. The students had only rudimentary tools but were game and did some extraordinary quick sketches.
Then Anthony asked if I would draw his portrait and soon after that I was happily transforming Victor into a bear in football shoulder pads!

These are the books that we built

I am always amazed at how children will dive right into a project and make it their own. The group that came to my Saturday morning art workshop at Treehouse Museum walked in rarin' to go. We made simple, 8-page versions of one of my new books: The Pen That Pa Built by David Edwards. They used model magic clay to make a baby, some felt for the blankets and the sheep's pasture, yarn, wool fiber, construction paper, markers, glue and LOTS of imagination.

Old MacDonald lives at Treehouse

I finished my Old MacDonald had a woodshop mural at 8 PM on Saturday, February 16.
Without the help of Michael Goodwin, "Mr Boss" and master of detail, I'd never have made my deadline.
I appreciate the opportunity to be part of an exemplary museum for children, run by an amazing crew of talents. THANK YOU, Lynne & Michael!




Here, Spencer Cobabe, director of early childhood education, reads Old Mac aloud to a Treehouse crowd.

Working just like Abraham Lincoln

Every day this week I worked with 3rd and 5th graders on short, 8-page books. We concentrated on character development, continuity and forward momentum.
We were in the middle of the lesson when the lights went out at Dee Elementary School in Ogden, Utah. Dee's cafeteria had no windows so out came the camping lanterns and flashlights and the class of 80 3rd graders, their teachers and I carried right on with our project. It was Valentine's Day and Abraham Lincoln's birthday, so we worked just like Abe did, by lantern light.

Old MacDonald Went to Utah-E*I*E*I*O

I arrived in Utah on February 11th and visited Lomond View Elementary School on Tuesday morning. In the afternoon I began painting the mural which will eventiually form one wall of a new exhibit being built at Treehouse Museum in Ogden Utah. It will be a small replica of the shop from the book Old MacDonald had a Woodshop by Lisa Schulman.
Treehouse's resident construction genies, Dave and Steve, built the wall and set it up in the main atrium, right next to the giant map of Utah.
I laid out a few perspective lines with blue tape and started painting. I roughed in the background and added the figures before I knocked off at 7:30. I will return to the mural tomorrow afternnon and see how far I get. I need to finish by Friday night or Saturday.