Moving Friday

making scratchboard

two tips for the day:
#1- Stain busters for art teachers to keep on hand. "Lestoil"- for anything oil based, "Kiss Off"-  often gets paint out, "Borax"- great whitener and brightner, "WD40"- for oil based stains,
Yesterday I got paint on my gold purse, my white scarf, and my pants. I got it out of everything but my purse.
#2- Spend as much time as you can with family and girlfriends.  Protect time with them at all cost!  Life is short, Art is long- and love of family and friends is longer!
I had breakfast today with 3 of my teacher friends this morning- we meet once a week at a great local yocal place.  It's one of my favorite things to do! We all stay until the last second, and pull into our schools at the last second :)

This is the schedule at my second building of the day; every other day is different- and every Wednesday is different - The first class of the day is from 8:30- 9:05 at a Private School about 4 miles away.

When I got to my first building of the day my student teacher was there, and her supervising teacher was there with her! Next, the Principal of that building came in (a Private Christian school I teach at 1st hr), with the Superintendent of the Public School District I teach at!  I had no idea any of them were coming. It was quite a party!  It is a new thing this year that we are servicing this Private school for art class, so I guess they were checking on how things were going. My student teacher did great.  She didn't seem at all nervous to have all of those "bosses" there while she was teaching.  I was really proud of her!
 The first hr of the day I had 6th-8th graders at the Private school. Then I run over and teach 8 more classes at the Public school.  I have a 35 minute prep period every other day.  My student teacher and I have conquered 4 weeks of this!  On Friday I move to another building and teach 4 weeks there.  I'll have 9 classes a day, with a prep period every other day.  After 4 weeks at that school I'll move to a 3rd building  where I'll have only 8 classes a day! and I will actually have a prep period every day! wow! maybe I can actually have time to look at my email at work! I feel like I am running a rat race- but I am stain free, and I have friends I love!

Glitterama!

What would elementary art be without glitter? Today we covered macaroni noodles with glitter- I got covered in the process... one of the first graders thought I looked like I was turning into a robot :)

Art Prize starts this week!

Image via Wikipedia

Hi Art Friends!

ArtPrize: September 22 - October 10

Don't Miss it! It starts this week!

I'm an official artprize artist! Please vote for me!

look me up at 

http://www.artprize.org/

Julia Garnett's 

Text voting ID: 

Up: 44301 

or use this code to vote online

My painting "Farmscape" is showing at O'Tooles 

juliaspaintings.blogspot.com

Venue information

O'Tooles Public House

448 Bridge Street NW

Grand Rapids

Fine Art America

I just started posting on Fine Art America. I'm really enjoying looking through the artwork. There are amazing, inspiring artists on this site.

I love this painting by Ken Valastro, of course it reminds me of my daughters :) Yes, I am a sentimental sap.
I hope you'll check out my work on Fine Art America! I'll be putting more work on as I can!

How much do I really need...

My husband thinks he needs the whole house "right" before he can do any artwork.  He doesn't have a good place to work right now.  He's right, we really need to put some elbow grease into our house.  I've been satisfied to make do with it how it is- but it's time to rearrange things.  He's also right that it's much easier, and less stressful to work in a space that is clutter free and your materials are easily within reach.  We need a space that makes sense for our art.
We have been trying to weed, and purge anything in our house that we don't want anymore.  What a nightmare!  Have you seen those shows on tv about hoarders, or "buried alive"? Yikes! When we took everything out of the attic, that's what it looked like! I have been stuffing things in that attic for 17 years.  I really had no idea what was buried in there anymore.  I re-found some interesting things- arrowheads, antique jewelry, an old wedding dress. I've been sorting and sorting.  I took clothes to the "Hodge Podge" consignment shop yesterday in hopes of making a little cash.  Today I will tackle the basement.
My biggest collections are books, clothes, decorating stuff, art stuff... I don't have really valuable things, but I keep some strange things that I just find interesting.  I also keep little things that trigger fond memories, like tickets to shows, wedding programs, notes, etc. and I intentionally leave them in purses and pockets, because I love refinding them and remembering something sweet or fun.  I have accumulated a ridiculous amount of stuff!  I know I don't need it all, but I can't seem to make decisions about what to get rid of.  I always think I will make something out of it, or my students could use it, or my own children will want it when they have their own home.
One thing leads to another- we took everything out of the attic, and put things into the basement and garage, now they are a mess!  Somehow the basement being a mess led to the decision to move the vcr upstairs, which led to rearranging the upstairs tv hutch, which led to needing cords to connect the sound to the overhead speakers, which led to a new sound box, and so on...
Right now my husband is working on the technology dilemma, what do we need in each room, what wire and cord is best for which device...
I'll be really excited when we are done.  When the whole house has been sorted, fixed, redefined! Maybe then we can get back to our art!

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back from Chicago...

We just returned from a trip to Chicago. I'm so inspired by all the artwork! Everywhere you turn there is beautiful artwork!  Here are just a few examples...

at the train station

public art on the street

stained glass museum at Navy Pier

the wall outside of our hotel 

even the sink at the hotel was "artsy"

Art is everywhere you look in Chicago...

A2 Art Fair '10

me in my booth, ready to enjoy the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair '10

This was my 2nd time having my own booth at the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair.  The first booth experience I had was with 4 other Michigan Art Teachers.  We were selected through a jury process by The Guild.  They helped us to learn the process so that we could share with our students what it is like to be a professional artist selling at outdoor fairs.

almost 500,000 people attend this art fair

jammin' on the corner

My husband made an opening in the back of the booth to try to catch a breeze inside,
and so we could sit behind it and still see if someone was in the booth.  It was unbelievably hot!

The tax collectors taking a quick break-
this was such a hot tiring day for these hard working gals! 

a postcard of me!

and a postcard of me!

lots of doggie art critiques at the fair

a swim noodle in the corner to help keep the rain from puddling on the roof

view behind the booths

view from my booth

one man band at the corner (I'm sure he made more $ than I did!)

living statue at the corner

medics watching the one man band at the corner

My daughters- also artists, willing to do anything to help out!

My chosen sister, Mary, with her other family:)

Here's my best helper, critique, and all around good guy!