Light City is the nation's only large scale light and ideas festival and it's right here in Baltimore. Don't miss it! Color, lights, community, music, bands, floats! Experience Baltimore's Brilliance!
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Years ago I wrote and piloted a curriculum for middle school students in the Harrisburg School District. It began in 5 schools and I worked with 180 students for two years. It was later funded in all schools through out the district. 

When Christmas arrived, I wanted gifts for all of my students and hoped to find something  useful and meaningful. My budget was already strained and even at $1 a present, the cost would have been almost two hundred dollars. I had no idea how I'd ever afford anything worthy of such wonderful kids.

Then one December weekend I traveled to Upper Dauphin for a sale on fabric at an arctic wear store that was going out of business. They had a sign for free scarves!  Lots of free scarves! Enough for me to gather 180! II wish I had a photo of my car - there was barely room to sit! It is surprising the amount of space that many scarves will take up!

This photo inspires me to remember that thoughts become things. We can manifest from nothing if we have faith. At the time I didn't really understand manifesting, but wishing with all my heart for something special for these young people, and having it materialize, was a first step in understanding. And as I've learned over the years, the universe always gives me much more than I could ever imagine for myself. 

The scarves represented warm hugs! This photo also represents why I love working with kids! Each young person had a different creative interpretation for their scarves! Adults would have probably draped them predictable around their necks, but not these kids! Every day - every moment - we have opportunities to interpret things creatively and express our own unique point of view. Striving for new ways to use the things in our lives can create dramatic results. (Remember my story about the young person who changed the economy of an entire town in W.V. when he realized the temperature in a coal mine was the same as the temperature to raise fish?) We should never underestimate the power of creative thinking.

Oh, and years later, I occasionally get a call from a friend mentioning they have spotted one of the scarves on someone walking by! 

Two weeks ago I attended a lecture and exhibit at Towson University called 

from the

INSIDE OUT
​building the silhouette
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 I promised to add more information and post photos from the Inside Out exhibit, but chorus, creating curriculum, painting, trips, and  birthday celebrations got in the way. Better late than never. This is the description from the program overview. I'm still trying to identify the "morally uplifting " garments!
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"Clothing, and the silhouettes they created, changed at a dizzying pace during nineteenth century, emphasizing and drawing attention to different body parts by cinching here, pooling there, raising and lowering hens and necklines, and adding or removing bustles and decorative flairs. Although today we rely heavily on exercise and diet to create a pleasing armature, in the past it was the outfits themselves, and particularly the undergarments, that did the work, pushing, prodding, hiding and emphasizing the lines and curves of the body, providing clues to what was considered attractive, risqué, scandalous, pleasing, appropriate of even morally uplifting." 

Co-curated by the 
Erin Lehman, Director of the Department of Art and Design Gallery
and 
Julie Potter, Associate Professor of Theater

​The exhibit will be on display until March 17, 2018

Gallery Hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Center for the Arts
1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21252

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.​Dr. Frederisk Franck is an author, artist, and oral surgeon but even more notably, a spiritualist.  He sees the sacred in the everyday beatify of life, and uses seeing and drawing as meditation. ​He worked  with Dr. Albert Schweitzer in Africa to provide services to those in need.

Hiroshima - The Unkillable Human
This sculpture depicts a man's silhouette flashing against a wall when the nuclear bomb was dripped.
One of Dr. Frederick Franck's sculptures in the Peace Garden in Harrisburg, PA 
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First, we passed his sculptures at the Peace Garden in Harrisburg along the Susquehanna River several times when I visited Pennsylvania recently. I've painted his sculptures numerous times over the years - with vibrant spring and summer floral plantings, the earth tones of autumn, and stark black, grays and whites of winter. All were given as gifts over the years, but the photos above will give you an idea of the power of his work,  
The Peace Garden was created in 1990 by the Harrisburg/Hershey chapter  of the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). The garden was created in response to a speech given in Hiroshima by Dr. Bernard Lown, President of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which earned a Nobel Peace Prize. The garden features three sculptures that remind us of the devastating destruction, yet also acknowledge the continuation of life and the human spirit in spite of inhumane decisions. 

Second, I'm including several of his quotes in my overview of my course on Exploring Rainbows this spring. He makes a differential between looking and seeing, and notes that we would fall to our knees in horror if we really saw what was on the evening news.
​We have become desensitized, but that's another post. ​

Third, his book practically fell off the shelf when i was in my office today. Books have frequently jumped off shelves to get my attention - in bookstores, libraries, my own book shelves. One even saved my life and that is not an exaggeration. When books jump,, I pay attention. So for today's treasure, I am sharing my long time love affair with the work of Frederick Franck. 

If you aren't familiar with his work, I suggest you consider looking him up. And if you really see his messages, instead or merely looking at his words, you'll see life in a whole new way. 

The snow has melted but yesterday's snowmen parade is still on my mind. Creativity changes everything.
We have had a series of car break-ins in our neighborhood and a few more disturbing incidents. The neighbors have rallied and there have been no further incidents for several weeks. Community camaraderie and yesterday morning's surprise have given me renewed hope. 

Yesterday's gift has prompted me to repost a section of something I wrote previously about creativity.

My most valuable aha in regard to the power of creative thinking occurred in Washington D.C. when we attended Colin Powell's celebration of the 100 Best Communities to raise young people in the country. Harrisburg, PA was proud to be included - we won twice - and the highlight of one trip was listening to the stories about other winning communities across the nation. 

The one that most impressed me was a group of young people from a  town in West Virginia in economic decline. Coal mining had been their main source of revenue, but it was no longer lucrative and the young people were leaving their families and friends to find work in other areas. There was a sense of hopelessness as more and more people left, having given up on revitalizing the town. Their paradigm was the only way to make a living there was through coal mining.

Could anything be done in a coal mine other than mining coal? They began to consider the characteristics of the mines and a young man in junior high discovered that the temperature in a coal mine was ideal for raising fish. A new industry was born and the town began to thrive. Families were able to stay together and the quality of life improved by quantum leaps. 

We underestimate the value. Had you considered one creative thought from a middle school student could have the capacity to impact the economy of an entire town for generations to come? I hadn't, until I heard their story. 

Creativity goes far beyond arts and crafts, music, and our traditional limited associations. It can change economics, improve our perceptions about the value of a community, and guide us to health focused - iinstead of illness and medical focused - lives, We can learn to see the world and ourselves differently. And through those perceptions, if we take action, even in seemingly simple ways, we can make the world a better place. 

One of my favorite creative thinkers is Roger von Oech. His books have been around for decades but his suggestions have yet to be incorporated into most of our daily lives.  If you haven't had the pleasure, I think you'll be delighted. 

Preparing the layered metallic backgrounds and adding the gold trim can take longer than painting the roses!  These colors delight me but they don't always translate well through the camera. 

​Yesterday was delightful! We had planned to go to the parade in Philly but as it turned out, we watched in television and the internet, and undoubtedly had a much better view of the event in it's entirety. Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles for their first ever Super Bowl win and the incomparable follow up celebration. Watching the season was a gift!

​Last evening  we attended two events at Towson University. One was a lecture by an artist who is currently displaying her innovative creations at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The other was a reception for Inside Out, to open a new exhibit that will be on display until mid March. It is a perfect compliment to the Marc Jacob's course I'm taking where he gives an in-depth perspective on how undergarments impact fashion. 

Annet Couwenberg presented a lecture entitles Intimate Architecture at Towson University
Couwenberg's work reveals the intersection of science, art, technology, and history that makes textiles such a fascinating art form. A Fibers professor at MICA, the artist's most recent show is at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

https://artbma.org/exhibitions/berman-annet-couwenberg

​FROM THE INSIDE OUT: BUILDING THE SILHOUETTE
Tuesday, January 30-Saturday, March 17
Gallery Hours Tuesday-Saturday 11:00 a.m.-8 p.m.
 
OPENING RECEPTION FEBRUARY 8, 2018
This exhibition celebrates Towson’s extensive historical clothing collection, with a focus on the century betwen 1820-1920. Visitors get a behind the scenes look at the clothing we so often see in old photos and ads. From the most private of undergarments and hidden tricks of the trade to the outfits and accompanying outerwear, we answer the question, "How DID they wear that?"