Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Hiking Again and etc.

Had another great weekend of hiking with a friend that will be traveling with me. Today was a superb work out day. Started the day at 6:30am with an hour and a half swim, then met a friend to walk for 45 minutes to the Big Red and commune with Lake Michigan for a few minutes (also on the hike was Tom who will be accompanying me on the TMB hike) then walked for 45 minutes with my dear friend who came home from the hospital a year ago today after a very serious life threatening  event.
Now watching The Black Swan and I'm so not impressed!!!!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Maggie and I hiked again today for about 4 hours with packs in North Ottawa Dunes  The weather was very pleasant but thunderstorms were predicted. As we were headed back to the trail head and the car we heard thunder. Now you know what they say about thunder, lightening and trees!  We wanted to get out of the woods as quickly as possible. About a mile from the car the rain came and it came down in buckets...we were soaked!  Lesson learned: If it's going to rain, put the 'raincoat' on the backpack. My backpack got soaked too. We are meeting Tom today for a short 2 hour hike through Saugatuck Dunes.

Friday, August 12, 2011

On line class evaluation

I couldn't fine a venu to post this evaluation for 'all' to see so it will just have to live here for now.

I’d just like to comment on an online class that I recently took with Jessica Wesolek titled ‘The Art of the Trip’. I must say that I was very disappointed in the class as Jessica failed to communicate with each student with any regularity. It was left up to us to comment on each other’s work, which is a very good technique, but the instructor should also comment on everyone’s work. ( I do speak from experience teaching several online classes for a major university in MI and am a 27 year veteran of the classroom.) The content of this class was mostly advertising her products and making collages rather than sketch book journaling by using sketches. One student recommended a video about using water color pencils that was found on you tube to answer a question asked by another student and the class was severely chastised for sharing the video as Jessica claimed that she had ‘invented’ the idea and the artist that was doing the video was a professional artist as well.


Here’s the thread of the post. I thought it was very unprofessional and childish as both artists are part of this site. 1st entry is at the end of the italics and then scroll upward.
“This video is a really good example of why it is a good idea to stick to our classroom and not treat this Group as if it were a free-form discussion Group. Actually, I invented this traveling palette idea using Sheer Heaven which is a much better surface for it, and I invented it seven years ago. It is a part of our workshop here, and the fact that we have now introduced a lesser version of the idea taught by another online teacher, and watered down through some demo somewhere, is just not productive. Understand that I know nobody meant any harm, and no apologies are necessary, but please, let's stick to the subjects at hand, and keep the other teachers out of this classroom. If this were a real world classroom, I know you would understand why I would not invite another teacher into the room to introduce a different version of what I planned to teach you - before I got to it. Thanks for understanding.

jessica

--- In attj1@yahoogroups.com, "cfriendhea" wrote: Thanks for sharing this Lorri! What a great idea! Clare
In attj1@yahoogroups.com, "(Name removed) wrote: here is a You Tube video of one way to use watercolor pencils when out and about. She starts off talking about her whole travel kit, then gets into the wc pencils about 3 minutes in. http://youtu.be/ecCahga1Kws
In attj1@yahoogroups.com, (name removed) wrote: Does anyone use watercolor pencils extensively? Anyone have a lot of experience with them? I am just beginning to play around with Caran d'Ache Supracolors and am liking them a lot. Here is my big new set of 80 next to my little sketchbook box of 14: http://bit.ly/pwRtMH If anyone has any advice or tips or pointers on how to best take advantage of/use wc pencils, in the context of a traveling sketchbook, I would be very grateful.
If you are interested in SKETCH BOOK/Watercolor journaling this is not the class for you. There are better classes out there. $70. lesson learned: Check out the class very carefully before you pay your hard earned money.
Clare Friend

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Where has the time gone?

I just don't know where the time has gone since my last post. Well, actually I do.  I have been getting ready for my trip both mentally and physically! I did get away from Holland for a couple of days with my friend Kristi. We took the 'bingo bus' to Petoskey and Manistee to do a little Casino Time! Across the road from Turtle Creek Casino there were fields of beautiful sunflowers.  We took a little break after lunch and walked over and of course I had to take a picture with my new smart-phone to post on FB. Not only were the sunflowers beautiful, the sky and clouds were incredibly beautiful.