The Present Will Eventually Become History: A Mosaic of Meaning in Istanbul

     As part of my Fund for Teachers Fellowship I have come to Istanbul, Turkey to learn about ancient mosaic making and the art of mosaic. Istanbul is where the east and the west literally meet; where Europe and Asia join borders. Part of Istanbul sits in Europe, part in Asia. It is also a city with a long and complicated, yet culturally colorful history.  While Istanbul is known for many things including Turkish tea, Turkish coffee, baklava, kebobs, kilim rugs, the evil eye, the hand of Fatima, beautiful ceramics, the Bosphorus Strait, and being the home of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires, it is also the home of what may be the worlds most famous mosaics.  As an educator, it is the perfect place for this professional development journey I am on this summer.

Above: This is our 2014 Sonia King Intensive Mosaic Workshop group at the Caferaga Medresesi,
which is a cultural arts school. Our mosaic workshop is being held in a studio at the school.

Above: Workshop in session in the 16th century studio. 

     We are now three days into the 2014 Istanbul Intensive Mosaic Workshop led by Sonia King.  Mosaicists have come from all over the world and their skill and talent is not only inspiring to me, but truly a completely new art experience for me. These women from Australia, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, and the United States are not only completely serious about mosaics, but their hands are some of the most skilled I have ever sat in one room with. I am often used to being one of the most skilled artists in the room and working with most artistic media comes easily for me. Being creative is second nature. Yet in this room of incredible mosaicists I am gaining not only a great understanding of the word "intensive," but I am clearly the "newbie" in the room and have much to learn. I went through a temporary phase of inner frustration the first morning as I felt all thumbs, even  though I had made mosaics before. Any mosaic I have made, however, is not even in the same league with the quality of mosaics being done by workshop attendees who are mosaic professionals and enthusiasts from around the world. Once I settled into a rhythm and relied on my own design skills, plus figured out how to use the grouty, sandy adhesive which is unlike the adhesives I had used for mosaic work, I began to feel that creative energy I am used to resurfacing. Additionally, I reminded myself that I am here to learn. If I were already a skilled mosaicist it wouldn't be necessary for me to travel halfway across the world to sit in this class. Yet just as good teachers are always learning, good mosaicists are always learning too.

Top photo:  Working on my mosaic.
Above: This is my mosaic after a couple of days of work.
It still needs a lot of work, but it's beginning to take shape.  

     The workshop is combining several aspects of mosaic technique and knowledge. We are learning technique from Sonia King, who is a lively, spirited mosaic genius. We are learning from other workshops attendees as we work side by side with each other. Interspersed with our own mosaic work and technique we are meeting before class begins or going at lunch or after class to view the historical mosaics that make Istanbul the perfect home for this workshop:
1)  The Great Palace Mosaic Museum is an incredible home to Roman mosaics, attributed to the possible reign of Justinian I from 527-565 A.D.. The mosaics were uncovered by Turkish archaeologists from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland during extensive excavations at the Arasta Bazaar in Sultan Ahmet Square beginning in 1934.
2)  The Hagia Sophia Museum (originally a church) is home to masterful Byzantine mosaics that have survived changes in religion and earthquakes, being plastered over and then uncovered, and the true test of time.  I first studied these mosaics at Kansas State University in 1980 in an art history course and seeing them in person was monumental to me, especially when you know their artistic and historic story.The art world might consider these the most famous mosaics on the planet earth. The Emperor Alexander, Empress Zoe, Comnenus, Virgin and Child, and Deesis mosaics are goldenly breathtaking. They are in fact, made from gold. Gold leaf in differing shades was placed under tiny glass tiles of differing shades to make the tiny tesserae. The fact that they have survived countless man-made tragedies and natural disasters is a credit to the artisans who made them.
3) The Church of the Holy Savior in Chora (a neighborhood of Istanbul) is considered one of the most beautiful surviving Byzantine churches. Again, it is filled with stunning mosaics from the the 11th century.

Above: This is a 4th century Roman mosaic from the
Great Palace Mosaic Museum. There are
many mosaics positioned on the floor in their original
location and sectioned off as part of the museum.
 Some panels have been mounted on the walls as this one has been. 

Above: This is a picture I took in Hagia Sophia today. 

Above: In this photo I am looking at the
Hagia Sophia Deesis mosaic.
Below: A close up of Jesus' face
 in the Deesis mosaic. Read more
about the Hagia Sophia mosaics at
www.hagiasophia.com. 

     Pushing ourselves artistically, technically, and cognitively as we work on our mosaics, like artisans have done for thousands of years is rewarding. Those moments of life when we feel "all thumbs" as I did on the first morning of the mosaic workshop are the moments that we learn from. When we are challenged as human beings we learn.  While I am the only school teacher at this intensive mosaic workshop, I know that when I challenge myself as a teacher my pedagogy grows in ways I never thought possible. Complacency has no place in the classroom. I say often that when my classroom is an inventive learning lab of discovery, rather than an assembly line of production that my students lives will be changed. I know that this week in Istanbul is changing my life. I'm not exactly sure how it is changing yet and what exactly I will do with this new knowledge, but I'm certain it is. It will be changing my own students' lives and those students who may do class projects associated with the curriculum I will be writing based on the experience. The curriculum will be available through Skype in the Classroom and elsewhere. I'll wait to see how else this knowledge will be used and what it will grow into. This is education. We help guide our students through their education. They learn new things. They learn to think logically and sequentially, each thing building on the next. And then, somewhere along the way, something sparks in them that leads to another choice, another interest of study, a career, and their life taking shape.

Above: Surrounded by thousands
of tesserae, I'm deep in thought
 as I lay each tessera onto my mosaic. 

     When we explore the world, when we leave our own microsystems in pursuit of the macrosystem (Bronfenbrenner), or the globalsystem (me) we open our eyes as students and teachers, our world becomes smaller, and we become more of a human family. Just as myself and the others in the intensive mosaic workshop are piecing together small stones and tiles and other embellishments, when we piece together our lives as an intersection where differing ideas and ideals meet such as here in Istanbul where people of many ideals and beliefs live peacefully together, the mosaic of meaning will resemble the magnificence of the Hagia Sophia or Chora mosaics...more than my 9"x12" experiment in learning. We all know, however, that like us, one day, a very long time ago ancient artists were learning how to use adhesive and tiles to make mosaics and their talent grew to be that of the artists whose work is still seen on the magnificent walls of these Istanbul historical monuments. We don't know anything about the artists. Perhaps they were monks from a Constantinople monastery.  Maybe they were workers from an atelier in the city that was associated with the imperial court. Possibly they were artists that the patriarch brought from provincial cities in a distant part of the Empire. I think they never imagined that thousands of people a day would line up for hours and pay admission to see their glass tiles and gold leaf efforts nearly a thousand years after they were made. Life and education are, indeed, a mosaic of meaning where the present will eventually become history.

First Impressions of Istanbul-The Blue Mosque, The Hagia Sophia, The Suleymaniye Mosque, and the Yeni Camii

     Good morning from Istanbul, Turkey! What an adventure this has been. The first thing I want to say this morning is another THANK YOU to Fund for Teachers! I am so thankful for this great opportunity to explore a culture unlike any other I have visited in my entire life!

     We have been here two days. My daughter came with me. We have walked all over the historical area, seen so many historical sights, and experienced the food culture, the Grand Market, the Spice Market, and really just had a sensual experience with all of our five senses. I really had no idea what to expect, but can easily say that life inside the historical district is wonderful, full of color and zest, peaceful and friendly.  It seemed a bit different outside the historical district, actually quite a lot different. More about that later. Maybe when I get home!

     This morning I’ll leave you with one of the most significant first impressions I have had. There are around 3,000 mosques in Istanbul, a city that is 90% Muslim.  Some of them are quite huge.
     Towering over our hotel is The Blue Mosque. It’s real name is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. It’s affectionately named The Blue Mosque because its ceilings and walls are filled with over 20,000 Turkish tiles which have a lot of blue coloring on them. It was built from 1609-1616, in only six years. Ahmet I commissioned the mosque to be built after having an unsuccessful war with Persia to "calm God down." Interestingly, the mosque was built on where the Grand Palace stood, the home of the Byzantine (Christian) palace and directly across from the Hagia Sophia Church (a Christian Church).  Because Ahmet I had been unsuccessful in war and had no spoils to pay for the building of the mosque, he had to borrow money from the Turkish treasury, which wasn't received very well by the Muslim jurists.  It has one main dome, 6 minarets, and 8 sub-domes.  It uniquely combines Islamic architecture with some Christian elements seen in the Hagia Sophia. It is still used as a mosque with people coming there to pray.  The men pray in the large main area of the mosque. Women pray in a small, back alcove. We toured it our first day here, having to don scarves on our head to enter. Such an incredible architectural wonder. I was especially interested in the Turkish tiles that fill the ceiling and walls and took probably one hundred pictures of them.
     We can also see the Hagia Sophia Church from our hotel. This church has an almost unbelievable history and its purpose has been redefined multiple times by whatever group fought and won Istanbul (or Constantinople as it was formerly called).  The emperor Justinian I ordered the building of the church on the site where two other churches had been built.  Building began on February 23, 532 and finished five years and ten months later. It looks very similar to The Blue Mosque, and it's easy to get them mixed up because they are not only so close to each other, but look so much alike. It was originally a Greek Orthodox Basilica (church) from 537-1453. It took a tiny detour from its Greek Orthodox purpose, when from 1204-1261 it was converted to a Roman Catholic Cathedral under the Latin Empire. The church was desecrated by the Latin Christians and relics from the church, said to be a rock from the tomb of Jesus and bones of the Saints, were sent to museums in the west. It was then recaptured by the Byzantines and Emperor Andronicus II ordered repairs using Irene, his deceased wife's,  inheritance. Then, on May 29, 1453-1931 it became a mosque after a gruesome three day pillaging by Ottoman invaders as they took Constantinople (now Istanbul). Sultan Mehmet II allowed the elderly, women and children hiding in the church during the sacking of Constantinople to be killed, tortured, and sold into slavery. He walked into the church after three days of pillaging it and declared it immediately a mosque.  Finally in 1935 it was secularized, after being closed for a few years and became a museum on February 1, 1935.
     This church is known for the beautiful mosaics that are on its walls. The most famous restoration of the Hagia Sophia (Also called the Aya Sofya) was ordered by Sultan Abdulmecid and completed between 1847 and 1849 by 800 workers and under the supervision of Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati, brothers who were Swiss-Italian. They consolidated the dome and vaults, straightened the columns, and revised the decoration of the exterior and the interior of the building.  The mosaics in the upper gallery were cleaned. Old chandeliers were replaced by new pendant ones. New huge medallions were hung on columns and inscribed with the names of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, the grandchildren of Mohammed (Hassan and Hussain), and the first four caliphs (Abue Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali). The minarets were altered so they were all the same height. The minarets are the "lighthouses" of these older churches and mosques.  The Islamic religion also uses them as the location for where the call to prayer is done five times a day. In the 1930's another team worked on Hagia Sophia restoration.  A team led by Thomas Whittemore of Harvard University in the United States and associated with the Byzantine Institute of America carefully uncovered a large number of Hagia Sophia's mosaics that had been plastered over by the Islamic leaders of the church. They left some cross images covered by the plaster, but uncovered all major mosaics found, including mosaics of Jesus and Mary.

Hagia Sophia Museum (originally built as a church)

     Finally, in 1935 the first Turkish President and founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, ended the Hagia Sophia's uncomfortable history by turning it into a museum.  The carpets were removed and the marble floor decorations were seen for the first time in centuries and the mosaics were restored by Whittemore, as mentioned in the previous paragraph. The structure continued to deteriorate and in 1996 the World Monuments Fund placed Hagia Sophia on the 1996 World Monuments Watch and also again in 1998. With the help of the American Express Company, WMF received a series of grants from 1997-2002 for the restoration of the dome, which had cracked, and the Turkish Ministry of Culture participated. By 2006 the WMF project was complete. Although use of the complex as a place of worship (mosque or church) was prohibited, in 2006 the Turkish government allowed a small room to be used as a prayer room for Christian and Muslim staff.  The call to prayer has been sun twice a day, in the afternoon, from the minarets since 2013. The church continues to be the subject of much debate.  Since the early 2010's several campaigns and government officials have been demanding that Hagia Sophia be converted into a mosque again.  Others have created organizations championing the cause of returning it to its original function as a Christian Church. One things if for sure, if the building's walls, mosaics, and minarets could talk they would tell the tale of the tragedies that have occurred there. One would think a church would be immune to that kind of violence and tragedy, rather than the subject of it. (I'll post some pictures after we go there tomorrow and add them to this Blog post.)

My daughter and I at The Blue Mosque.

This is an example of the blue tiling seen all over inside
The Blue Mosque and responsible for its nickname. 

     Last night we went to a dinner with the mosaic group, across Istanbul from where we are staying. In front and back of our beautiful, scenic window view of the city there were two huge mosques.  I took many pictures of the mosques, but the pictures of the sun setting and its affects on the mosques was breath taking. As the sun set it beautifully shadowed one of the  mosques, the Suleymaniye Mosque, from behind. The golden hue glowing off the other one, the Yeni Camii,  the one with the sun shining on it, nearly took my breath away and made it look dramatically different than before the sun was setting.
     The Yeni Camii mosque was originally named the Valide Sultan Mosque. It was started in 1597 on the order of Sultana Safiye, wife of Sultan Murad III, and later Valide Sultan who was the Queen Mother of Sultan Mehmed III.  She ordered it after Mehmed III's ascension to the Ottoman throne. An interesting aspect of this mosque was it was built right in the middle of the Jewish quarter of Istanbul and in the hopes of broadening the scope of Islam. It took more than 50 years to build and its completion was hindered by political problems, discontent of the Jewish population, and monetary issues.  The mosque has 66 domes and semi-domes and two minarets.
     In contrast, the Suleymaniye Mosque was built in only eight years and was started in 1550.  It is the largest mosque in Istanbul. It was built on the orders of Sultan Suleyman, also known as Suleyman the Magnificient. An interesting fact about the mosque is it was built using both Byzantine and Islamic architectural styles and has four minarets. The number of minarets a mosque could have was determined by who ordered the mosque to be built. If a prince or princess ordered a mosque to be built it could have two minarets.

The Yeni Camii Mosque is known as the new mosque.
It was built in the 1600's.

This is the Yeni Camii Mosque in 1903.

This was one view from our restaurant. 
I took this picture as the sun was setting behind the Suleymaniye Mosque.  

Another view of the Suleymaniye Mosque. 

      It's nearly impossible to fathom how these huge buildings were built over five hundred years ago, before electricity and power tools, and are such ornate, gorgeous architectural wonders! They have such tales to tell. Tales of power and victory, God and Allah, good times and bad, and of the real rawness of being human.  They each have their own unique story to tell and I am sure there is triumph and tragedy each.  Yet, somehow the Hagia Sophia is a place that seems to have seen more than its fair share of what is not the best of humanity. Hopefully the Hagia Sophia, in its grandeur and majesty, can find some peace for the rest of its existence on this earth.

The day is finally here! Passport in hand, boarding for Istanbul to study 

mosaic making, history, and culture in the land of Romans, 

Byzantines, and Ottomans! 

Thanks for your patience!

Thanks for your patience while this Blog is updated. The project founder is transitioning from a position as a K-12 art educator to becoming the art education instructor at a major university. She has temporarily lost her website for this project and will be working on migrating lots of great project information to this blog as time allows in the next month that is packed full of traveling!  For now, you can also follow aspects related to this project at another blog by the project founder at www.eARTHshakingartteacher.blogspot.com.

All educators interested in this project should email worldwidecolorwheel@gmail.com, send their email address, and you will receive a Drop Box link PACKED FULL of curriculum materials, video clips, images, and other supplemental materials for the project!

It's a great project to work into your 2014-15 school plan!

Fund For Teachers: A remarkable organization!

I just want to take a minute and share how impressed I am with Fund for Teachers! What an incredible organization. They are literally sending K-12 teachers all over the globe this summer for professional learning experiences that these hundreds of teachers self-created. They have a lot to manage on their end at Fund for Teachers! They have a huge financial investment to manage, major reporting and document gathering to do, and they share and write about it on Facebook, Tumblr, and elsewhere. Their goal is to provide meaningful professional development for teachers who will then take this learning back to the classroom, engaging students in a more meaningful way! The world needs more organizations like Fund For Teachers! I am so proud to be a Fellow. It's truly one of the most exciting aspects of my life thus far. Read about Fund for Teachers at:

Tumblr:
http://fundforteachers.tumblr.com

Facebook:
Fund for Teachers

Twitter:
@fundforteachers

I'm about to leave for Istanbul, Turkey on my fellowship. Watch this blog for MANY posts, images, video clips, and lots of great information about the project, Istanbul: A Mosaic of Meaning.

Istanbul: A Mosaic of Meaning-Join the Skpye in the Classroom Project

Join the Skype in the Classroom project:  https://education.skype.com/projects/8485-istanbul-a-mosaic-of-meaning

Goal for Fund for Teacher's Fellowship: The Globalsystem.

     As I get ready to go to Istanbul on a Fund for Teachers Fellowship and professional learning experience, I am deep in thought about how I can use this experience to further the role of art education in our K-12 schools.  The project has been named Istanbul: A Mosaic of Meaning. I’ve been thinking about and preparing for this experience for months now and the creative side of my brain has thought of quite a few mosaic projects for elementary art students and also secondary students.

      I think the real meaning in this experience, however, is cultural.  How can students grow because of my experience? That’s the real question.  It’s a deep, thought provoking question.  It can be very complex, if I let it, or it can be fundamentally simple. Which approach is the correct one? Well, I don’t think anything simple really allows for a lot of growth.  We find growth in the moments, activities, events, and thoughts that challenge us. So, as a teacher this tells me that the curriculum I write and the activities that follow this trip need to be challenging.  But what are these challenges and how do I relate them to elementary art curriculum? To secondary art curriculum?

     In this blog post I am going to try to summarize the overall challenging points I will focus on post-fellowship:

1.  West Meets East:  The Internet, social media, all things technological have made our world so much smaller than it used to be.  The fact that logistically the east and the west are halfway across the world from each other are probably the most logical reason why our cultures are not as known to each other. One goal of this project will be to introduce western students to eastern, or middle-eastern, culture, history, geography, and the arts. This will be achieved through: a) Filming of videos and video clips.  b) Photography of both traditional tourist types of attractions and historical monuments, but also the every day life of the Turkish people of Istanbul and the “common things.”  3) Art curriculum written with a social studies, math, language arts, science, and technology integration, which has the goal of connecting Turkish art forms with a story, either historical of contemporary. Curriculum written will have the goal of introducing western students to eastern life.

2.  Sagacious Not Stereotypical: Higher-level thinking will be encouraged as students explore the similarities and differences of culture.  As often happens in any culture, the media influences opinion that develops between the east and west.  Students will be encouraged to examine their sense of self and place and how they coexist in the world with others who have differing religious, political, and moral or ethical views. This will be achieved by using the Twitter hashtag #sagaciousstudents; a social media forum where students and others can share hopefully positive information about the east and west; about middle-eastern culture and western culture. An example would be someone Tweeting a short description of a food or showing an image of public art, etc.

3.  Mosaic Mastery:  Through a variety of projects, inspired by the middle east and the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires in Istanbul, and also by contemporary, modern day Istanbul, students in K-12 will be explore a variety of mosaic projects through curriculum written as part of this fellowship.

4.  Encouraging Earthly Empathy:  Through efforts associated with West Meets East, Sagacious Not Stereotypical (#sagacious), and Mosaic Mastery, students will be encouraged to learn empathetic skills which recognize that each human being on our planet has purpose, has something to offer to the world, should be respected for similarities and differences, and is a product of their environment.  When students of any age and from any region, country, or continent learn to respect “life” the world will be a gentler place. Art offers a unique venue to explore thoughts and feelings in the educational setting.

     Research:

     Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005) was born in the Soviet Union, immigrated to the United States when he was six years old with his family, and was an American developmental psychologist. He is most known for his Ecological systems of theory regarding child development.  His research brought much attention to the environmental and societal influences on child development. His research on the microsystem and the macrosystem indicated that students may live in a microsystem, but they are greatly affected by the larger world around them in their classroom, their school, their community, their neighborhood, their country, their world, and so on, their macrosystem.  He felt that prior to his research developmental psychology mostly studied children in strange environments in strange studies by strangers.  His lifelong work focused on the student’s direct environment having the biggest affect on the child’s development.  Bronfenbrenner helped establish the Head Start Program for the federal government in the mid-1960’s.

Urie Bronfenbrenner

     Keeping Bronfenbrenner’s theory in mind, students that experience the curriculum and activities associated with Istanbul: A Mosaic of Meaning will have opportunity to broaden their microsystem, expand their own macrosystems, and grow in their knowledge and understanding of the globalsystem. I have spent a lot of time in my life with artists in every field of the fine arts-band, choir, theatre, dance, and the visual arts.  One commonality that I find among artists is a large percentage of us are soulful, heartful, caring people who respect the similarities and differences in others, and who are always challenging themselves to be better. The microsystem, macrosystem, and global system all directly influence art making.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Child Development System

     We’ve learned that art making is the perfect ecological system for expressing our humanity; we are not machines of science, technology, engineering, and math as the STEM movement would have us explore.  We are living, breathing, feeling, emoting individuals full of steam, STEAM, just add art to STEM.  It’s impossible to have any educational discipline without art. Think about that for awhile. Right now, where you are sitting reading this, you are surrounded by art of some kind. Maybe it is the industrial design of the computer you are using, maybe it is the architectural design of the building you are in, maybe it is the flora and fauna surrounding you as you read this and the landscape design, or maybe there is a painting hanging on the wall where you are working and reading. The list goes on. You get the point. Even today I read an article that reported on medical students being asked to draw the human body in an effort to more closely understand it. You get the point.

     Istanbul: A Mosaic of Meaning will connect the life of the student and educators participating in it with the globalsystem and how all of humanity fits into it. That may be a bit philosophical, but, oh yes, art and philosophy are also great partners.  Dr. Suess might have said it best in The Lorax, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”  There is always room for improvement, and globally that just couldn’t be more evident. We grow as human beings when we challenge ourselves. I’m definitely challenging myself on this Fund for Teachers Fellowship, simply because it is halfway around the world from home. As a teacher I know that if I don’t challenge myself, ultimately, I won’t be able to challenge my students.  When my classroom is an assembly line of production, rather than an inventive laboratory of learning the mosaic of meaning is pretty simple.  When the classroom challenges us, all of us, the mosaic becomes epic, much like the beautiful mosaics in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Epic education. That sounds like a great goal for a Fund for Teachers Fellowship. Art is much more than art. Art has a unique ability to give meaning to our global existence, celebrate our similarities, and unite our differences. And we end up with something beautiful (hopefully) to look at, too!

How to journey to Istanbul with me!

Here is a simple explanation of how to journey to Istanbul with me on the Fund For Teachers Fellowship:

1.  This blog, obviously.  www.eARThshakingartteacher.blogspot.com

2.  Twitter @worldwidecwp  (That would be the Worldwide Color Wheel Project, which is an art initiative I have developed for students all over the globe...and am still developing....it's in its infancy.)

3.  You can email me at eARTshakingT@gmail.com

4.  I'm on Facebook. Some posts will be public at Trina Cole Harlow. Others are set to be for Friends Only.

5.  I'm also on Facebook at Worldwide Color Wheel Project.

Social Media is definitely time consuming, but it's a great way to connect.  Join the journey!

Follow Istanbul Fellowship @worldwidecwp

You can follow the Fund For Teachers Fellowship I'll be going on in four days on Twitter at @worldwidecwp.  Also, for those of you have asked....I did not apply to go to a workshop in Istanbul that a "lot of other art teachers" are going to.  Instead, Fund For Teachers allows K-12 teachers to write grant proposals for areas of the United States or the entire rest of the world where they feel like they can do important professional development. I had heard about this mosaic workshop in Istanbul and chose to write about it for my grant proposal. It looks like I'll be participating with seven mosaic artists from the United States, one from Turkey, one from Tunisia, one from Australia, and a couple from Sweden. As far as I can tell I am the only school teacher participating. It's going to be exciting to explore the Byzantine and Ottoman mosaics of Istanbul as we work in a 16th century building to create our own. I'm pretty sure I'm going to turn into a mosaic making machine after this. I've always loved doing mosaic, have done several over the years, and have taught many a school mosaic making project. As a painter, it easily makes sense. It's just a bit more messy and requires a whole lot more muscle!

This is a mosaic from Musiwa 2013 in Florence, Italy. This is a link to the website showing beautiful contemporary mosaics: http://www.mosaicartnow.com/2013/08/contemporary-mosaic-flourishes-in-florence-musiwa-2013/

Countdown to Istanbul!

Four days and Turkish coffee here I come!

Whew! What a month!

I often think my life is going to slow down and instead, it continues to run faster than California Chrome did in the Belmont! The last month has been full of a lot of writing and planning and a significant professional change.  I'll be joining Kansas State University as the Art Education Instructor.  Right now, plans are to commute back and forth to Kansas State from Texas as I will be working on an annual nine month contract. It's going to take some effort to make the commute, but I am very excited about joining Kansas State University.  I'll be teaching all students in the elementary general education program and I'll also be teaching all of those students who want to be elementary or secondary art teachers. This is going to be an exciting time of passing on these last 24 years of fine arts teaching, as well as a lifetime of my own experience in band, choir, dance, theatre, and the visual arts.  I find myself at a point in life where I just want to give back. Leaving a legacy is something I guess we all begin to think about as we get older.  So the last two months have been filled with the application and interview process for KSU.  That included preparing and teaching a lesson to a room full of college PhD professors and I loved it! It included traveling back and forth to Manhattan (Kansas, not New York).  It also included saying "til we meet again" to a lot of people I really care about in Texas in PISD. It included the difficult task of saying goodbye to a lot of precious students and their parents.  And, it included packing up the hoards of "things" I tend to fill my classroom with. The last week I've been voraciously writing curriculum for KSU. I simply love writing and there is nothing better than writing creatively and that is what writing art curriculum . . .  and arts integration curriculum is to me. And, I was able to do this while sitting at the beach in Florida on a beautiful deck overlooking the white sands and emerald coast. I'm pretty sure that is some pretty amazing curriculum!

This week finds me focusing on going to Istanbul again. We leave this weekend. There is an incredible adventure awaiting next week as I complete the Fund for Teachers Fellowship I was awarded to go to Istanbul to a mosaic workshop. This gal that grew up in a town of 54 people fell in love with the great, big, colorful globe many, many, many years ago.  Next week will be an adventure like no other. I'll be blogging a lot or at least as Wifi will allow. Hopefully I won't have to wait until I get home to do that. Art stirs a passion in me that makes life make sense. It always has. All of the arts. I hope you'll follow the journey....and get out a paintbrush and see what you can do occasionally....or play some music and just dance. Getting in touch with our creative side is what makes this big, crazy world more loving!