Fireplace Update: An Ambitious Task

I have to be one of the worst people at judging how long a project is going to take me.  When I go to glaze all my bisque ware I estimate it that it will take me three to four hours tops and usually I will be eight hours in and almost half way done.  Even when I decided to take our small kitchen table and refinish it one summer.  Ben, unknowingly said that a new look for the table would be wonderful, especially since I told him it would be a weekend project, three days max.  And nine days later, our table was returned to the kitchen.  Thankfully, I chose to do that in the summer so we were able to use our patio table to eat on instead.

Original fireplace.

So this time, I suggested we change the facade of our fireplace in our new home.  Now when I say fireplace, I really mean the whole wall.  We bought our home in July and this was one thing that I was eager to get done.  I truly thought it would take about two weekends to complete.  Well, we started this project in mid-October and so very close to finishing it now. Part of the reason it took us so long is that we only have a few tools and had to rely on family to borrow the ones we needed to complete this project.  As first time home buyers we're still trying to furnish our house (we have several empty rooms and rooms that need more purposeful furniture) and really didn't think much about buying and collecting tools the last few years. So we had to wait a week or so before we were able to borrow and buy all the materials.  This is where a lot of my time has been spent when not working on school stuff.

Demolish to current state.

So as you can see, our fireplace was pretty as it came with the house, however, I just felt it could be better.  Ben believed me and trusted me with my vision.  It took about two weeks to get the entire thing built and painted.  Which looking back at it, hasn't been so bad, just messy in the house.  The last few things we have left are tiling the fireplace, adding doors to the bottom half of the bookcases and touching up just a few areas with paint.  Ben and I are still collecting tile samples.  My first vision was to use a medium sized subway tile that was a dark matte gray, but after searching high and low and the few tile samples I had delivered, we've declared that that isn't the best option. Our current tile consideration is a rectangular soft,white and gray swirled marble. My current goal is to complete this project before Thanksgiving, but as I look at my calendar I think we'll be completing it on Thanksgiving break.  I just can't wait to decorate it for the Holidays!

Hopefully I'll be able to show you completed pictures soon!

Happy dabbling!

Artprize: 3rd & 4th Grade Field Trip

During October, I chaperoned one of the field trips for my third and fourth grade students.  We attended Artprize!  For those of you who don't know what Artprize is, it is an event held by the city of Grand Rapids where different businesses and their properties become art venues.  Both indoor and outdoor properties are transformed as artists from all over Michigan, the United States, and globe  apply to compete in this art competition.  Artists apply in the early spring and businesses choose the art they like best.  In past years, the winning artists and artwork have been solely chosen by public vote, however, Artprize has slowly gone away from just the public vote and has added a judging section by critics/artists in the field.  To learn more about Artprize, please follow the link attached.

Our Artprize bag and pages from the program.

It had been a number of years since I had been able to view and participate in the events of Artprize.  In fact, my first and last time time now had been the very first Artprize in 2008, 6 years ago.  Art prize has been great for the community of Grand Rapids and is huge aspect pride for the community.  This year was the first year, according to my docent, that Artprize had Educational Days where schools could sign up for a special arts activity.  This years activity was set at St. Cecilia, a music center with gorgeous architecture and stage. In addition to the activity, the students and teacher's each received a drawstring Artprize backpack, a color changing ruler, mini colored pencils, an Artprize bracelet, silly bands, and an activity drawing program that coincided with the performance the students witnessed. I copied a couple of the inserts from the program. The students used the whole thing, many having wonderfully creative starts to fantastic artwork.

One student drawing on stage to the music.

The artwork being presented at St. Cecilia was a music score composed by Chris R. Hansen accompanied by the painter Debbie Bell titled Moving Toward Joy.  The music was fun to listen to and Hansen did a wonderful job including the students with questions and information about the instruments.  While the music was playing, Bell painted a picture of what she thought a visual of the music would look like.  I truly enjoyed the idea of this entry and activity.  It helped introduce Expressionism to my students and making connections with art and sounds.  However, I was saddened to see that the painting Bell produced was the same one she had been producing for the past few weeks during their performance times.   I hear the same songs all repeatedly and each time I hear them I think of something different than before.  I think that letting the music speak to you on a daily basis would have been an interesting compare and contrast for my students to witness.  This performance was definitely unique and I think it could further develop future performances where multiple mediums are used to collaborate in order to create a finished product.

Lunch and art in Grand Rapids, MI.

After we finished the Hansen and Bell performance, we broke into small groups and walked around downtown Grand Rapids to view some of the art nearby.  Our docent was very friendly and helped us find artwork but we didn't gain any additional information about the artwork or artist like you would if you had a docent tour at an art institute or museum.  I was very thankful to have our docent and I look forward to participating an future Educational Days that Artprize puts on.  The next time I take my students through Artprize, I definitely think I will preview the docent routes and gather some information about the artwork and perhaps make a photo scavenger hunt prior to our trip so that there is more structure when viewing the art.

Happy dabbling!