Special people

Yesterday I drove to Rehobeth to visit with a friend who was visiting there. I still have a big smile on my face from the experience. 

I first met Dick about 15 years ago at an art/math conference which he attended with his friend Derwood, a musician. We sat together during lectures and wrote notes and behaved like middle school students and promised each other that we were "best friends". He showed me a flexible geometric construction he'd patented and told me of some museum exhibits he'd thought of.  I was enthused about the construction and was doubtful about the exhibits (which he later proved me wrong about). 

Months later he collaborated with me at making "holey-spheres", something I'd vainly hoped I could make money with, but found pleasure in nevertheless. Dick worked tirelessly to develop his "string thing" and eventually it evolved into a toy that sold well in the mass market.  After developing a few more toys, I guess he'd be described as a toy maker. But I think he's really an artist. 

When I have visited him and his wife at home it's always been a magical time. I've known him through three homes: an east village apartment, a country cottage in New York state, and a house in Pittsburg. His home is always filled with fascinating creations - art and toys, objects to explore and explore with. He has stuff hanging on trees in his yard.

I always enjoy being with his wife and he tells me that all his friends feel that way with her. She has a way of tuning into what's important to you and facilitating a lively conversation. She's a kind-hearted person and a superb hostess too.

Yesterday I got to see Derwood again who brought a neat lady friend and the bunch of us, along with Eileen's niece, lounged around Eileen's sister-in-law's house and just talked about anything. I can't remember all the topics, but the range was enormous, amusing, informative and interesting. Dick and Eileen don't have children of their own, but they seem to have a strong sense of family.  They are close to their blood relatives and they are loyal and caring with their diverse friends. I feel so lucky to be in that category.

Running the Numbers

"... looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. My underlying desire is to emphasize the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming. "

-Chris Jordan

Florence Christoplos

The previous post from Jo Ann reminds me of one of the best teachers I've had (I can't say EVER had because I had many many best teachers). I took as many of her courses for special education teachers as I could, and one was a course on teaching aesthetics. There's no special gimmic to teaching special ed, but Dr. Christoplos taught us many very basic things.

One involved teaching the elements of art using post cards. I used this with my inner city third graders and then took a few of them to the big art museum in D.C. They were able to wow surrounding strangers by walking into an exhibit and identifying the works with the artist's name. In some cases, they were able to describe which period the works were created. I had so much fun with this, that I brought my cards whenever I was visiting an art museum, even with adults. And a visit to the museum gift shop helped me expand my collection.

Here's a hint of what we did.

I'd start with very different works. Say, Audubon and Picasso. I'd say "Sort the cards into Audubon and Picasso. ... How did you know the difference?" Then I'd do the cards like flashcards which would give the kids practice saying the artists' names. Then I'd add another artist, say Rembrandt, and go through the process again. We would describe the differences ... subject matter, lighting, medium, perspective, choice of colors. Then I might introduce another work by one of the familiar artists and have the student guess who the artist might be.

Here is a work by Monet.



Can you find another painting by Monet?
(show the following post cards)






If the student chooses the wrong one, you might make a comment like "Oh that is a Matisse. I love the way its figures are kind of flat, and how there are fabric patterns and natural objects going this way and that in different directions and making your eye dance all round the picture." Such comments open the way to a later matching of Matisses.

What I like about this sort of teaching is that I didn't have to learn a whole lot of stuff before I started teaching. All I needed was the artist's name on the back of the post card, and maybe a date. The student can discover things that the teacher hasn't noticed, and each person can find his way through the art in a unique way.

Jo Ann elaborates

Oh yes, you fill in the blanks so very well! Would it be ok if I put this in my blog?

On May 17, 2007, at 1:50 PM, Jo Ann wrote:

Your blog mentions that we had some times together, but you couldn’t remember exactly what. This is my account of the story:

Early in 1992, we met in a Friday night OA meeting at Woods. You had come back after being away for some time. I added your number to my list of members, called you as good OA’ers do, and talked about what I was experiencing in OA. Of course that was all about my higher power, Who I had become friends with during my early OA years in the late 70’s. During that period in the 70’s through OA meetings, He had helped me to learn about Him and how much He loved me, and helped me to overcome drugs and alcohol. And then again in the early 90’s He had helped me to loose 86 pounds living a “fasted” life. We met at the Indian restaurant for lunch sometime around that time; you were working on a grant somewhere in the city around Baltimore Street. Later I met you when you were working at the Science Center, where you taught me about fractals.

That spring, at dinner after a Friday night meeting, you encouraged a few of our OA associates and me to go to DC to the Art Museum. You met us a Fuddruckers in Annapolis, and there taught us about art – by matching postcards. I was so excited and impressed, that I went to work and told Mark about how interesting you made art to be. Mark had taken an art course when he was in Loyola and got though it, but wasn’t too thrilled with it. So I talked him and you into meeting together; you doing the postcard thing (I love that). And off we three went to DC to the Art Museum. He still says to this day that you were responsible for his knowledge and appreciation of art (and mine).

Later, we three went to the Walter’s Art Gallery to see a Monet exhibit, and Mark brought his niece, Jessica (I think once again, you did the post card thing for Jess). Before the gallery, we went to the Indian restaurant for dinner. Unbeknownst to you, Jess was graduating from high school, and had been toying with the idea of becoming a teacher. Mark and his family were trying to talk her out of it, but after meeting you, she made her decision to become one, and has carried that out. She told Mark, “you have lived your life, Uncle Mark, and now I have to live mine.”

Before you moved to S__, you had a fancy for bluegrass, and first I, and then Mark and I, went to hear you and some others “pick and grin.” Around that same time, I met you and a friend at a “center for handicapped” one day, and tried to play the piano along with you. Later you moved to S__, and around 2001, you came and spent the night with me on your way to a bluegrass concert of some kind. Since you moved to S__, Mark and I had to do an audit there, and we were able to meet you for dinner at a great Mexican restaurant and have a wonderful evening together with you then. In 2002, God had me go into real estate so I could sell your condo. He must have, because that was the only sale I made.