So...how did it go?

Hello, my dear Thrillerati!

Well, I'm happy. The sun is shining, I am drinking coffee out of my fox mug with the puppies and the kitties all around me, and my first Young Artists Collaboration was a success. The venue was perfect ( it was in the birthday party room of the local, independent movie theater). I had more than enough materials, the young geniuses were really engaged and polite, and I had a lot of fun.

Would you like to see some of the Celebrity Homage Photography? Oh, these are so good. The girls really brought their game!

Abby Stumpf as Josh Dun

Hannah Houtz as Melanie Martinez

Lauryn Sigfreid as Lady Gaga

Sarah Kusmaul as Harry Potter

Sequoia Gawlik as Josh Dun

Ashley Stumpf as Hayley Williams

The only drawback that I can think of is the students all came from Sequoia's school, and none from the actual town that hosted us. I spoke to the art teachers and delivered flyers to three schools and that delivered zero return. ZERO. I think I will actually walk around with flyers and hand them to teenagers myself. It was also 60 degrees outside in the middle of February, and I think maybe some kids just wanted to be outside on a freaky day like that. Miserable weather is better for this business. Speaking of weather,  Lauryn is a spray paint artist, and she had a suggestion of doing spray paint on canvas during the warmer months...psyched to work out the details for that.

I have also learned that Instagram is a better way to communicate with teens than Facebook. Teens left Facebook in mass exodus once their parents became members.  Snapchat is really the place to be, but I haven't mastered that platform yet.

I am really looking forward to doing the next class in two weeks. It is an illustration class called "The CRAZIEST Thing That Ever Happened To Me." I am trying to figure a way to do it without having the kids sit in chairs. I want it to be un-school-like, active and energetic. I wish I had standing easels. I find a lot of kids to be really docile...they just politely wait to be told, and agreeably do it. The point of my class is to break out of that a little bit. On the spot, while giving my opening talk, I came up with my three main objectives:

1. Learn to think for yourself.
2. Learn to work together.
3. Learn to create something if you want it.

Maybe I'll just take away the chairs.

Love and light,

Your friend,

Hil

Two Years Ago: Winter 2015 Photography

Looking  back at my pictures, I think I was really on fire in the winter of 2015. We had just moved into our new home, and I was looking at it all with fresh eyes, with excitment. I've got to try to find that fresh gaze again, this year. Here are my favorite photos from winter 2015. All taken with my iphone, most near our home in Pennsylvania.

Ladybug, our dog, in a fort in the woods

Ladybug in the snow

agricultural burning

Sleepy Hollow Rd, always a good picture spot

not far from the asian pear orchard

Portrait of Bob, my husband

The Gunnery, a Prep School that my brother attended 

Bob, at work

hiking on a bitter cold day

Nevie on Hawk Mountain

Bob and Myself

ice on Hawk Mountain

fairy wing

Nevie studying

Sequoia's room

one of my all time favorites, geese in nothing

Nevie in the shirt they sent with her acceptance letter

My mom and our dog, Norman

I hope you enjoy my photos.

Love and Light,

Your friend,

Hil