I’M PICKIN’ UP GOOD VIBRATIONS! Yep! Summer’s here! The temps are hanging in the 90’s. The skies above are rich, rich blue, tufted with wee, white, wispy clouds. At Hyde House on the hill artCamp is happening, and we feel sweet breezes! We may not be surfin’ on the beach, but we’re sure having at least as much fun! This place is rockin’ with vibrant life and full-on creativity. |
Each artCamp day brings together a community of visionaries resonating with our good vibrations—skilled instructors, hard-working interns, artCamper aspiring-artists-in-the-making and their parents and grandparents and friends committed to collecting and depositing and end-of-class gathering up our daily population.
All this is happening now at artCentral’s eighteenth summer artCamp, because in years past and especially over the last several months, visionary members of our broader community have stepped up to give their support. They believe in the worth of artCentral’s one-of-a-kind learning experience that prepares our youth to be the culturally fluent future citizens and leaders of Carthage, greater Missouri and the world.
With our heartful, artful appreciation artCentral sends out a happy, happy “thank you” to each and every visionary artCamp donor and contributor: Helen S. Boylan Foundation, Carthage Community Foundation, Carthage Council on the Arts, Carthage Rotary Club, Crackpot Pottery and Art Studio, Ruth I. Kolpin Foundation, S&S Computers and Walmart, Store #13. These visionary, caring contributors are critical components to the success of artCamp 2018.
In today’s exciting classes artCampers are vibrating with enthusiasm and pulsing with discovery, expanding their horizons and exploring the depths of their new, hands-on art-making experiences.
Instructor Alexander Burnside is taking them out of our ordinary, everyday world, guiding them expertly while they travel together, equipped with paper and scissors, colored pencils and paints, through her “Outer Space Spectacular”.
Tom Jones, a favorite artCamp teaching veteran, has his artCampers wetting paper and splashing and blending watercolors. They’re painting images from our natural world—hummingbirds, goldfish, flowers and the other diverse inspirations that strike their fancies.
World class farrier, Chris Gregory, is here from his Heartland Horseshoeing School in Lamar. Coming to teach “Blacksmithing 101”, in the midst of his global travels, he’s brought a forge and anvils and apprentices, too. With them, safety-goggled artCampers are outside learning a brand new skill set, making their own lucky horseshoes. The music of their creative hammering is echoing off artCentral’s Great Wall, across our ridge and down the road!
Have you seen artCentral’s Great Wall? What a tribute to artCentral’s community of artists! Painted in 2015 by Andrew Batcheller, Cheryl Church, April Davis-Brunner, Annabelle Fuhr, Helen Kunze, Brenda Sageng and yours truly, the Great Wall still stands brightly beautiful—a must see destination thematically riffing on what it means to be an artist in a community of visionaries listening to one another's ideas, cooperating and collaborating. Over the entire length of the long wall, one portion flows into the next depicting and celebrating our friends in the natural world. At the very end, the wall makes the corner and leads to the well-house charmingly painted by my husband, David Greenwood-Mathé. In between the Great Wall and well house, a stretch of primed, unadorned wall awaits a new mural by artCampers.
The last two days of artCamp, Sandra Dawn Edds will be mentoring artCampers in the art of mural making. On Thursday, July 19th, they’ll learn mural-making basics as they conceive, design and sketch the new artCamp Wall. On Friday, July 20th, artCampers in Sandra’s class will learn mural painting techniques, while making a significant contribution to artCentral’s artistic legacy with their artCamper-made artCamp Wall.
Yet to be chosen are the images that will be painted. Perhaps they’ll include our resident hawks living high up in a nest beside the parking lot or the birds or squirrels or frogs or lizards living on the grounds of Hyde House hill. Perhaps they’ll celebrate the skunks and deer and wild turkeys that follow our eastern boundary fence, as they pass through on their wildlife thoroughfare. Maybe at the artCamper Wall we’ll easily feel and hear the good vibrations of the pounding hoofs of our imaginary brumbies—the wild Australian horses who’ve come from downunder to frolic on the grounds of artCentral.
There are still some artCamp class spaces open for the remainder of this week and the next through Friday, July 20, 2018. Registration forms are available in Carthage at artCentral, Carthage Public Library, Cherry’s, The Deli, KOKA Gallery and The Palms. In Joplin you’ll find registration forms at Spiva Center for the Arts, Cleo’s Picture Framing and Design and Crackpot Pottery and Art Studio. Also, you can download the registration forms from artCentral’s website: http://www.artcentralcarthage.org/artcamp-2018.html. Complete your artCamper’s registration, add your check for tuition, then bring them to Hyde House, 1110 East Thirteenth Street in Carthage. Come and share our good vibrations!