When I find myself becoming defensive about a 'weed', and if you've followed my blog, you know I do from time to time, it occurs to me that it's probably time to seek help! Hahahaha! This time the plant I'm defending is poke. My friend Carrie has no empathy for the stand I'm taking because it's taking over her garden and yard, but as always, she's patient with my idiosyncrasies. 

My expectation certainly isn't that people nurture and cultivate it. Actually, the plant has done well on its own for centuries without any coddling from gardeners. It's just that anytime the wrath directed at a plant eliminates the appreciation for its benefits - and it does have benefits - my first instinct is to guide them to look from another perspective. 
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Polk Salad Annie
Tony Joe White
If some of ya'll never been down south too much
I'm gonna tell you a little bit about this 
So that you'll understand what I'm talkin' about
Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods
And in the fields looks somethin' like a turnip green
And everybody calls it polk salad, polk salad
Used to know a girl lived down there 
And she'd go out in the evenings and pick her a mess of it
Carry it home and cook it for supper
'Cause thats about all they had to eat, but they did all right
Down in Louisiana, where the alligators grow so mean
There lived a girl, that I swear to the world
Made the alligators look tame
Polk salad Annie, polk salad Annie
Everybody said it was a shame
Cause her momma was a workin' on the chain gang
(A mean vicious woman)
Everyday ?for supper time, she'd go down by the truck patch
And pick her a mess of polk salad, and carry it home in a tow sack
Polk salad Annie, the gators got your granny
Everybody says it was a shame
Cause her momma was a workin' on the chain gang
(A wretched, spiteful, straight-razor totin' woman
Lord have Mercy, pick a mess of it)
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The berries above are colored with poke ink - beautiful variations from pinks to purples. 

​The last few weeks have been overflowing with color and kitsch, both here in Baltimore and on recent travels. Seeing so many vibrant creations - kinetic and still sculptures, statues. screens, jewelry and even menus was a whimsical delight. From now on, in addition to museums, natural and historic sites, and more typical tourist attractions, I plan to seek out whimsy when I'm touring!  I returned with my sketch book over flowing and numerous ideas for gifts, home and garden!

Baltimore, MD
Kinetic Sculpture Race 
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On Saturday, May 5, we headed to the harbor early to see the start of the kinetic sculpture race, followed by lunch at Marie Louise Bistro and a stroll through historic Mt. Vernon for their annual Flower Mart. 
Baltimore's Visionary Art Museum's annual kinetic sculpture race - "a race through Baltimore of wacky, imaginative, TOTALLY HUMAN-POWERED WORKS OF ART, DESIGNED TO TRAVEL ON LAND, THROUGH MUD, AND OVER DEEP BALTIMORE INNER HARBOR WATERS, constructed out of used bicycles, gears, and parts, created by a lunatic genius who tinkers around in the garage or backyard.

Jim Thorpe, PA
This is just a small sampling of the delights in Jim Thorpe. I've narrowed the number of photos down by focusing on all things Alice in Wonderful!

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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It's unsettling that there are such contrasting perceptions about Baltimore, a city I've grown to love. Yesterday I read a disturbing article detailing the police corruption through the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF). The article ended by saying "Baltimore can't run a school, a  police department or even a zoo". 

Admittedly, there is truth in that statement, and yet it disturbs me to see only one side of multifaceted city, so rich with warm and wonderful people, history, inventions, gardens and parks music and the arts . . . . It reminds me of a fable I read years ago. 
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It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all six of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

The First approached the Elephant, 
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
God bless me, but the Elephant
Is very like a wall.

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, "Ho! What have we here?
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​I'll ask the participants in the exploring rainbows course!

In celebration of my workshop on rainbows and St. Patrick's Day, I'm listing a few things I love that are green. Why don't you create your own before looking at mine so I won't influence your unique style! You can listen to Kermit while you write down your favorite greens and i'll see you at the end of the song! You may need to play it a few times so you'll have time to list them all! 

So, my list.
Well, Kermit! and
Oscar the Grouch! 
Labradorite.
Moldavite
Emeralds
The field at Camden Yards
The Green Doors at Monet's Giverny
Vineyards, fabrics, insects, herbs and gardens . . . 
I've pictured a few of my favorites below . .  .

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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