Mary Richmond Design

When I'm Not Blogging I'm Doing This

All week I've been writing about blogging but in my real life this week I've been in classrooms talking to kids about nature, decorating Easter eggs and having an all day Alternative Energy Day. I've also been working on some ceramic tiles but that's a different post.

These young men are first graders looking for signs of life in pond water. Of course it was a freezing cold day with sleet and wind and I got soaking wet collecting the pond samples. The kids had a blast, though, and found lots of isopods, damselfly larvae, blood worms and more.

In my after school group we talked about eggs this week. We looked at bird eggs and nests, turtle and snake eggs and talked about frog and fish eggs. Their favorite is always the enormous ostrich egg that they can hold and examine. It's so big some of them don't believe it's real.

I showed them how to blow the insides out of an egg so they could keep it for as long as they like. Most had never done this before and I have to say teaching a bunch of 6 and 7 year olds how to do this is pretty funny. They thought it was the best trick ever and I'm not sure any eggs will be safe around them over the next week or so. After the eggs were rinsed out and dried we decorated them.

I bought a bunch of Sharpie markers for this project and if you're working with kids you might try this. They're clean, they're permanent and they're easy to manage. The kids absolutely loved working with them. Painting eggs is very messy for young children. They don't have a lot of control, the eggs are small and they end up being very unhappy with what they've done. Markers for kids are washable which means they smudge and make a mess, too, so even though the Sharpies are permanent they are actually easier to use. I just tell the kids not to get any on their clothes and they don't.

Yesterday two of us held an Alternative Energy Day field trip at the nature center. We had a group of 18 fifth graders and it was an awesome day. We made solar cookers from pizza boxes, had a scavenger hunt for the green aspects of our very green building and ended our day with a challenge to make an invention that used alternative energy sources.

The kids took on the last challenge of the day and blew us away. They made very cool inventions, told us how they worked and were able to explain the various processes very well. These young gentlemen were building a solar powered wind turbine and for their presentation they used the air from other balloons to turn their turbine. As they themselves said, wicked cool awesome.

Today I have classes on migration with second graders. Can't wait.

What did you do this week?

Setting Goals, Artistic and Otherwise....

If you click on the picture to enlarge it you will see some of what I saw yesterday--part of a pod of at least 100 Atlantic white sided dolphins! We were out on the Naviator in Wellfleet Harbor with a group of high school marine biology students when we had this amazing sighting. In all the years I've done programs on this boat I've never seen anything like it. Dolphins are off the Cape in good numbers but they don't usually come into the harbor areas and when they do it is not always good news. We contacted the stranding network but fortunately the dolphins headed out to sea as the tide changed and all was well.

As I helped unload the nets and gear from the boat yesterday and prepared for my afternoon after school session with younger kids I realized my goals are becoming much clearer. I love being outside and I love being with kids, answering their questions, showing them things they've never seen before.

My problem has always been I seem to have too many choices, not the opposite. There are always too many things I want to do. When I opened my studio/gallery a few years ago it was after working more than full time as a naturalist/educator and I missed my creative work. When I focused on my creative work and selling that work I lost touch with the part of me that thrives outdoors. The story in my life has always been about balance, or lack thereof.

I love to paint, I love to write, I love to wander around in nature and I love kids. Actually, I love grownups, too. I love people and I love to teach, to share my own wonder of the world around me, both through nature and through art. So how to combine all those without working 40 hours a day as I've sometimes been known to try and do?

It suddenly came to me on a recent early morning walk on the beach. I can do it all. My goal became crystal clear. It is to help people, children especially, understand how important nature and creativity are to their own personal survival as well as the survival of our culture and history. That may seem like a grand goal but the way I see it, every child that understands and accepts their role in the natural world will be more likely to be a humane and compassionate steward of that world. Creativity is part of our better nature, in my humble opinion, and can be nurtured in all environments and activities so is easily included in science and natural history curriculums. Each child that learns to love the natural world is one more citizen that will help keep the natural world diverse and in balance which in turn nurtures us.

  As many of you know I have been sorting through boxes and boxes of my family's memorabilia as well as my own paintings, tiles and supplies from the shop I recently closed. I am literally overwhelmed with STUFF. Then I go to galleries and am bored silly, not just with the work but with the whole idea that art should be this idealized special thing.

I start to think maybe we should just all create just like we all eat and sleep and work. Maybe we should just integrate it into our daily lives like children do. I find I am no longer interested in creating paintings to frame and hang on a wall. At the moment I am much more interested in my art being functional, being used, whether as a tile installation or a book illustration. So much of what an artist saves (or what anyone saves) is worthless to anyone else. So much goes to waste. Something like 72 million Americans buy art supplies and aspire to be artists of one kind or another. And guess who buys art. Artists buy more art than any other group. We are selling our work to ourselves. So why not expand that thought and invite everyone to do it? Let's just enjoy the process and not worry about the bs that often attends the academic presentation of ART.

This girl knows what it's all about. She carries nothing, she spends nothing, she worries about nothing. For a while at least I'm going to take my cue from her.

My goal is to help nurture a love and understanding of nature and creativity, especially in children. This can be done in many ways; through teaching, walking outdoors, writing my columns, writing and illustrating small books about the world outside our doors.....

And it only took about a hundred walks on the beach and about 600 children to help me see the light....

One Perfect Day

The glitter off the water yesterday was so bright it just sparkled. I started my day taking some folks for a walk along the marsh and out onto the sand flats looking for moon snails, minnows and other signs of marine life.

The sun was shining, the grasses were waving shiny green in the breeze from the ocean and the temperature was a perfect warm, not too hot, not too cold.

From there I went to Wellfleet center where I interviewed artists Bob Henry and Selina Trieff who just curated a show of works by their friend and fellow artist, Lillian Orlowsky for the Cape Cod Museum of Art.

They were finishing their lunch when I got there and their house had that comfy feel of people who had been together a long time and enjoyed spreading out their food and things together. Their kitchen table was huge, inviting many to sit there and the shadows of hundreds of dinner conversations and stories hung in the air. The interview went great and I totally fell in love with these two spirited artists and all they accomplished for their dear friend. I will be going to see the show itself later today.

  After the interview was over I headed to Chatham where I was leading a family seal walk. We used to do our seal watches from the boat but South Beach in Chatham has now joined with South Monomoy Island and we must get out of the boat and hike across the new land bridge to get to where the seals are. It was a stunningly gorgeous afternoon. We didn't see any seals but no one cared. That's how nice an afternoon it was. This shot is of the lazy gulls watching the surf crash on the shore.

Their more industrious neighbors and cousins were out over the water grabbing a tasty fish snack or two. The dark patch you can see on the surface of the water is actually a huge school of striped bass. We know that from the fishermen who were casting into the areas and catching huge bass and we could also see them in the surf, there were so many. The larger fish were chasing a huge school of smaller fish, probably menhaden or pogies, and the smaller fish were literally jumping out of the water to escape the fish below. Of course many of them were unpleasantly surprised by the birds coming at them from above. And we think we have it tough in a summer traffic jam.....There were several large schools of bass in the area and eventually we did see one lone seal joining in the fishing action.

It was a perfect day.

How We Spend Our Time Matters

A few years ago a friend of mine told me I had a weird job. They couldn't understand how I went into classrooms every day with animals, animal skins, skulls, shells and feathers and talked about nature. They thought it must be boring. Actually, it's anything but boring.

I left that particular job for a number of different reasons but none of those reasons had anything to do with the kids or what I was teaching them.

I went on to open an art gallery/shop and if you've been reading here you know I closed it after 2 years. Not only was it financially unsuccessful but it was lacking in meaning for me as well. I love doing my art but running a store was never a dream of mine. I would rather be outside. I would rather be with kids or grown ups, talking about nature or art, or best, nature AND art....

I love being back with kids and talking about our connections to the world, to nature with them every day. It's important. So many kids are growing up indoors. So many kids are growing up thinking that the TV, video games and the computer are real. They are growing up confusing entertainment for relating, watching for doing. They are growing up passive. It's actually sort of scary in a really big way.

What I do gets kids outside. It gets kids dirty, wet, cold, hot, sticky, muddy and excited. Nature is always humming along right outside our doors and kids love it. They love bugs and birds, bunnies and frogs. They love butterflies and fish, frogs and slugs. Snails, crabs, clams and worms have special appeal as well. They love dirt and water and mud and....and did I mention dirt? They study stones and flowers, rings on fallen trees and what lives under logs. They swoon at the mention of death angel mushrooms and love to scare themselves silly with great big daddy long legs.

Today my co-teacher (that's her peeking around this young man's shoulder) and I brought in another teacher to give a morning lesson on snakes and to join us on our foray into the nearby swamp.

He brought his pet snake and had the kids enraptured with his humor and his knowledge. This young man would some day like to have his own show on Animal Planet and I, for one, think he has what it takes. The kids love him. We love him. Even his snake seems to love him.

This is not a great picture but it does tell the story. He let each and every child hold the snake. Some were ecstatic, others not so sure but by the time he finished each and every child had held the snake and was beaming with pride.

After the snake lesson we headed to the swamp where the ground was literally hopping with toads and tiny spring peepers. We captured a few to bring back to the classroom to watch for awhile before we release them tomorrow morning. The kids were totally enchanted.

Later we drew close ups of the various environments we've been looking at and some of the animals we've been finding. It was a busy and productive day.

No, it's not big, important work like keeping nations out of war, feeding the hungry or clothing the homeless after a catastrophe but it is important in other ways, in ways that quietly affect individual lives and the larger community.

Each child that holds a tiny spring peeper or looks into the eyes of a toad is learning that we are not all that matters. Every child that learns to respect bugs and worms, plants and ponds is learning that the ecology of a place is dependent on diversity and respect. Every child that gets over its fear to hold a snake is learning that fear is within us and is something we can deal with, that often what we fear is the feeling of fear itself, that the unknown can become known and the fear will subside.

And it all matters. It's all important. And the best part is it's fun, too.....

I think how we decide to spend our own time sets an example for the children around us. We are teaching them what we think is important with every action. They notice how we spend our time, even if we don't.

Fish Printing on a Beautiful Day

After a week of talking about fish and crabs, shells and crustaceans it seemed like a fun idea to print some fish on T-shirts for the kids to take home.

We used rubber fish, plain white t-shirts and fabric paint. All pretty cheap, all pretty simple.

The shirts came out great and the kids loved it.

A few people expressed surprise that the shirts came out as well as they did and that the kids really did them themselves.

Printing shirts is not difficult but it does take some attention to details.

It's very easy to make a mess in almost all parts of this process so my job as instructor and facilitator was to keep track of potential messes and help the kids avoid them.

This meant keeping the plastic tablecloth wiped and clean after every kid painted ink on their fish, keeping the shirts out of the way while all painting and cleaning was going on, making sure the kids kept their hands clean and making sure brushes stayed with one color throughout the process. It's harder than you might think to keep track of all that so I only let 2 or 3 kids print at a time.

It helps that I'm sort of a Brand A control freak when it comes to some of this stuff and it also helps that I've already made most of the messy mistakes but the kids had a great time and were thrilled with the results.

Directions for this process will be posted soon on my art lesson blog for kids.

Of Turtles and Kid's Art and Starting to Paint Again

Turtle time continues and this small diamondback terrapin is being weighed and measured before being marked and catalogued. She is about 5 years old and was found walking along the salt marsh by one of the groups of kids that uses the marsh trail every day. Our group was invited to watch her be marked and the kids had a great time. It's not what was on our docket at all but was such a perfect teachable moment, who would want to argue?

These beautiful and rare turtles are athletic and feisty and one can only hope they have a chance to bring their numbers back from the brink of disaster. One of the largest populations of these turtles happens to be on the sanctuary so the frequency with which we see them during egg laying season is actually misleading.

The researcher uses a file to mark individual outer scutes according to a number the turtle has been assigned. This turtle was given a 4 digit number and  4 scutes on different parts of her body were marked. The filing doesn't hurt but she could certainly feel the vibrations and was letting us all know she wasn't too happy about it. The process is brief and in the long run helps her species so her momentary discomfort seems to be worth it, even if she doesn't agree in the moment.

This is a much larger, older female that had been marked previously. Each time one of these marked turtles is found data is taken. Their size and weight, location and condition are all noted as well as whether or not eggs have been laid or are still being carried. If the turtle was observed laying eggs then the nest is marked and protected and that information is logged as well.

Also this week I did some lessons on scientific drawing and illustration and the kids did a great job. They are all between the ages of 9 and 11 but their attention to detail and their willingness to concentrate were great.

Our lessons were on animals of the ocean and we had brought back some shells and crabs as well as a very active clam worm.

This young man added lots of good field notes to his pretty accurate drawing. He got discouraged by the difficulty of painting in the details and we ended up smudging off the darker paint and ended up with this stained but effective watercolor instead.

This clam worm was used by several students for their drawing and this young lady just dove in with her paints to make this lovely rendition of its swirling body. From this picture you can't tell that the worm was very active, swimming up and down and all around in the jar, looking like a decorative, festive ribbon.

All in all a great week with many sightings, fun days with kids exploring and a renewed energy for my own work.

I am still sorting and putting things away but am getting closer to feeling inspired to do my own work once again.

By the way, I have just updated my Art For Kids site, something I've ignored for months. I will be updating it weekly from now on and will soon be working on my site for Teens and Adult Art Lessons, too.

Watercolor Shorebirds and Article Writing

More little bird paintings in my moleskine sketchbook today. Nice and wet watercolors for a wet, windy day. It's been nasty and cold most of the week and I, for one, am ready for some real spring....

I am disorganized this week and it's not a good week to be disorganized. I have my taxes to finish, my studio to pack up and clean out, several orders to pack and ship and one more interview to do for a magazine article I'm working on.

I've gotten lots done this week but mostly it's been writing and teaching so I'm behind in other areas. That's not exactly new but is difficult to balance, for me anyway. There's always something left just a bit out of the mix that keeps me from really being productive.

Today four publications came out carrying my writing. They are all small publications but it's still pretty cool, for me, anyway. There are two articles on local authors in the Cape Cod Times. You can read one of them here. There are my columns, "Weekly Nature Watch" in the Enterprise papers and "Nature's Ways" in the Cape Codder and then an article on home offices in a home and garden supplement for the Barnstable Patriot. I don't think any of them are online.

So back to balance.....my goal for the rest of the year really should be to find some with all the things I like to do, all the things I commit to do and all the things I want to do....as an artist, writer, naturalist, teacher.....and wife, mom, grandmom, sister, aunt, friend, mentor......busy days.

More Thoughts on Making a Living or a Life as an Artist

This- this sand, water and sky- this is what makes me happy. I love it in the winter, the spring, the summer and the fall. I love it in the rain, in the sun, in the fog and in the snow.

Today I sat here, looking at this cold, foggy view while eating my lunch and reading one of the books I'm writing about. An osprey flew over the dune from the marsh and seemed to just hang in the air for a minute or so, not far from my window, buoyed by the wind. It flew out over the water then back over the dune as if to say, "give me the marsh and the estuary any old time."

Later I spent most of my afternoon with these lovely young ladies. They are 6 years old and full of energy and curiosity and are part of an after school nature program. We were headed to the beach at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary but we had to stop and look in the pond first. After all, you never know what you might find there.

Over the last 10 years I have lead countless field trips and taken hundreds of children and adults through fields and dunes, beaches and forests, exploring the life and life cycles of the creatures and plants that live there. I am not an expert, just someone who loves the outdoors and has paid a lot of attention to what goes on and lives around me. I've also read a lot, followed really knowledgeable people around and taken some classes and workshops. I continue to learn each time I go out. Nature is a fine teacher that way; she is always offering up something new to discover and consider. And every time I take a group of kids out like these I have a great time.

By the time we finally hit the beach it was cold and raw and one little girl had a blister starting on her heel from her rubber boots. You can't see it  in this picture (except as a dark dot on the left) but out on the sandbar is a seal. As excited as they were to see the seal, they were were a bouncy sort of bunch. Soon they were running around looking for shells, mermaid's purses (skate egg cases) and whatever else they could find. I let the little girl with the blister take off her boots on the way back so it didn't get any worse.

The sea is always leaving things behind and taking things away. It's a great equalizer, I think. Reminding us constantly of our inconstancy, that the only thing that doesn't change is change itself.

Spending an afternoon with little girls was just what the doctor ordered. You can't spend a couple hours with a group like this and not laugh and smile and giggle as you draw scallop shells, sand dollars and starfish to get to know them better....kids notice all sorts of stuff, keep us honest, keep us wondering what happens if the questions ever end?

Even later I interviewed this lovely young lady for my young artists article. She is Alla Chekhova, originally from Uzbekistan and now living in Wellfleet. She has recently been accepted into a major gallery here and has captured the attention of many artists and mentors and after spending some time with her it is not hard to see why. She is utterly charming, as is her work. She is also modest and thrilled to be included in the article. She is working mostly in watercolor, and very small watercolors at that, which makes it especially interesting that she is gathering so much gallery interest. The oil painting behind her is one of her "older" works (she's all of 27). You can see some of her little watercolors spread out on the table.

As I wandered through my day today I just felt lucky. I wrote and illustrated a column, spent time with  my daughter and grandsons and then had this class and interview. This is a good life, really, it is.

I keep reading that I would be more successful if I focused on one thing and developed it. That doesn't work for me, focusing on one thing. I have too many interests. I like having a chance to write, to meet wonderful, interesting people, to teach, to paint, to muck around in nature. It's all starting to pull together, I think. For now, I know closing my shop and getting back out into the world, back into nature is the right move. The rest will come.

New Watercolor Sketches and Random Thoughts

I've been doing a lot of what I call watercolor sketches in my moleskine lately. It should tell you a lot about my frame of mind and attention span. I always joke that I must have a bit of ADD and seriously, I have not been able to sit still for more than about 5 minutes over the last few days. I'm figuring things out and somehow that means I have to be moving. Does being in motion somehow help the flow of my thoughts? Perhaps.

It looks like I will be giving up my retail space within the year. Most of my business is coming from wholesale accounts, designer referrals or from my website as well as this blog. Last month only 10% of my sales came from my shop. As you might imagine I have a fair amount of overhead and I'm thinking I should reconsider keeping this space.

The truth is I really hate being tied down in the shop. I would like to have a studio where clients could come and where I might have an occasional show but really I just like the work space.

I miss my work as a naturalist and I miss my freedom to be able to go out and paint when the weather is fine and the mood is better....

My landlords have been very patient with me but I don't think they'll be heartbroken to see me go. I need to stay in the residential space for now but if they have someone interested in the space I would be willing to let it go. I would like to stay another month so I can have a big sale but I will do what works for them. If they don't have a tenant in mind and would like me to stay through the summer I will try and find another artist to share the space, cost and responsibility with. In the meantime I am hoping to secure some seasonal naturalist work to get myself back outside for the spring, summer and fall.

I've been feeling pretty discouraged this past week. I'm in debt, I'm not happy with my painting or my apparent lack of abilities and I've just been feeling overwhelmed. It's only a temporary thought and today I'm feeling much better. Part of that is feeling like I'm starting to make decisions that are once again in alignment with my goal of wanting to be a better artist living in harmony with my integrity.

If you're a fellow artist reading this, how do you deal with these setbacks in creative input and output? How do you deal with your financial life? I've always supported myself as an artist but it's also been a pretty hand to mouth existence. Right now it's below that. Trying to maintain the retail space has put me in pretty substantial debt and I am now at the threshold of my comfort zone. I can't and won't accumulate any more. I'm not giving up on my business, just the place where I do it. I will go back to wholesaling my work, which actually gives me much more freedom.

These little sketches are fun to do. They are quick but very concentrated. They may look very loose but it takes a fair amount of energy to keep all that free flowing water where I want it. There's much more control in these than you may want to believe. Many of my students bemoan the fact that their attempts at being "loose" fall apart. And yes, that is what happens if I don't pay attention to all the running water and color. Experience has taught me where and when to push and pull the color, when to add more, when to be patient and let it dry just a bit.

That's true of so much, isn't it? What looks easy and simple is actually often the result of much practice and attention. We have to bring our patience as well as our willingness to be spontaneous to whatever we do. It is good to have an idea of what may happen next but also to be open to the adventure that awaits us in every moment. I think this robin agrees with that thought...

A Day in the Studio

The morning started with lots of rain here. Every few months or so one of my editors and I make a date to take a walk, do a little birding and then have leisurely breakfast and catch up with each other a bit. A long time ago, maybe a year or more ago, we actually got a walk in. It always seems to rain on the days we plan to go out. And I mean rain, like pouring rain, often accompanied by gale winds. This morning was yet another such morning though by the time we finished breakfast the sky had begun to lighten.

We drove around the shore front in Falmouth and saw a few ducks and gulls. This immature greater black backed gull is looking right at me while I take its picture. Other than a few immature black backs and a handful of ring-billed gulls (like the ones in the background) there wasn't much exciting to see in the bird world. Most smart birds were home trying to stay warm and dry. You can't see the rain here but I took this from the open car window because it was raining pretty steadily. The gull was unimpressed. 

Back in the studio I came across these tiny horseshoe crab moults I had picked up this summer out on Monomoy Island. I decided to paint them. The phone rang, friends stopped in, the phone rang again....I remembered I needed to interview some people for an article I'm working in so stopped to do that for awhile. I talked to a guy at Mass Fish and Wildlife for about an hour. I don't think he had talked to a real live human in awhile because he was sure happy to chat and told me a lot of great stories. I tried to remind him I only had 1000 words (which seems like an awful lot to a high school kid with an essay due but which isn't really very much!) Anyway, my point in all this is I was......distracted today.....

I prepared a piece for shipping and took it to the post office, had lunch with a friend at the shop, met with a client and did a second interview. No focus at all in the studio. I did get these clay hearts stained pink and clear glazed. They are firing now and will be hung in my studio window tomorrow. Some will be boxed as gifts. If you look closely at this picture you can see I impressed the wet clay with lace. I am hoping they look pretty when hung with pink and white ribbon. All in all, not a very productive day, considering the work that went undone!