Morning.

From left to right in the background: The Black Cauldron, Science, RCM exams.

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  Draw you in a Broadway musical.  Add a thinking bubble.

4.  Title: “On Broadway!”

5.  Date it.

6.  Send it to me.

See you at 10:00!

Morning.

Words to live by.  Please.

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  If iconic BC artist Emily Carr isn’t on your radar yet, she probably should be.  Your job this morning is to copy this portrait of her monkey, Woo, with as much precision as possible while you listen to the rock-mod classic “Who Are You,” by The Who.  If you like, you can change the lyrics to “Woo Are You – Woo Woo, Woo Woo” in your head while you listen.  You’re welcome.

4.  Title: “‘Portrait of Woo,’ by Emily Carr.”

5.  Date it.

6.  File is somewhere safe so that we can look at it together during conferences.

See you at 10:00!  (Don’t you wish you had a monkey companion?  How cool would that be…)

Morning.

Sorry.

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  Draw you taking a ride in a beautiful balloon.

4.  Title: “Up, Up, and Away!”

5.  Date it.

6.  File it somewhere safe so we can look at it together during conferences.

For those who are interested, the NewsHour had a cool segment last night about the new NASA/Space X space launch, which happens today.  You can also watch the launch today at 1:33 p.m. on the NewsHour website.

See you at 10:00! (I have a meeting at 11:00, so today’s class meeting will be a quick one.)

Morning.

Yep.

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  Your job is to copy this small part of Gustav Klimt’s incredible “Tree of Life” painting in as much detail as possible, remembering Lynda Barry’s amazing advice about seeing images as maps.

Choose your music below (you can listen on a loop if you need/want more time to complete the drawing).

What are you in the mood for?

A gentle flute and piano bit of mystery by Debussy?

Or an up-beat 80’s pop hit?

4.  Title: “Inset from ‘Tree of Life’, by Klimt.”

5.  Date it.

6.  File it somewhere safe so we can look at it together during conferences.

See you at 10:00!

ps:  If you’ve never heard of Gustav Klimt, oh my goodness do yourself and favor and do a little exploring. It’s never to early to start buying posters for your college dorm walls!

Welcome back.

Sorry.

Steps (remember to try to take the time to do these for reals!):

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  What or who will you always be true to?  Draw it.  Go!

4.  Title: “I Will Never Betray [fill in the blank]!”

5.  Date it.

6.  Send it to me.

7.  Play the song again and dance around your room in celebration of the object of your fidelity.

See you at 10:00!

Morning.

Sorry.

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  Draw an image that has stayed with you from Richard Wagamese’s One Native Life.

4.  Look at your image – is there anything you need to add so that an outside observer would be able to experience this image as it exists inside your imagination? Would labels help?  Or thinking bubbles?  (Not required.)

5.  Give your image a title of your choice.

6.  Date it.

7.  Send it to me.

See you at 10:00!  To me, my cruciverbalists!

Morning.

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  Copy this (how do you capture the feeling of this place?)…

…while listening to this:

4.  Title: “The Photo Behind Prof. G.B.’s Sofa” (AKA Spring along the Catskill Scenic Trail, 2012)

5.  Date it.

6.  File it somewhere safe so that we can look at it together later.

Remember: no class meeting today; instead, Team 6-Square meets at 10:00 for our Wagamese discussion.

For everybody: use the gift of time today to sink into The Black Cauldron.  Take a pre-reflective moment before you begin.  Remind yourself of your purpose: to be a functioning cog in the big machine that is our class project.  This is your gift to us.  My challenge to you today is, can you enjoy the process rather than focus on perfection?  What happens if you actively take the time before you begin to get yourself into the non-thinking headspace we have been exploring all year?  What if you are the rock that sits still and notices?  What happens if you become calm and friendly before you begin?  What happens if you try it for reals?

ps: For those who are interested, the NewsHour had some interesting segments last night:

• A continuation of the reporting on child deportation in the US that we have explored in the past.
• The challenges of creating computer-based models to track Covid-19 data.

pps: “Joni Mitchell”

Morning.

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  Who is a friend from your childhood whom you have lost touch with?  Draw that person as they exist in your memory.

4.  Now, inside the frame, write something that you and this friend used to do together.

5.  Title: “[your friend’s name], Where Are You?”  (If you only remember their first name – or you can’t remember their name at all – that’s okay.)

6.  Date it.

7.  Send it to me.

I’m thinking of Susie Herbert.  They lived three doors down from us on the crescent.  Susie and I used to play Marine Boy and Banana Splits – we assigned characters based on what matched our eye color.  When her family moved away, we each buried a blade of grass in the hole that the For Sale sign went in, to symbolize that our friendship would last forever.

Welcome back.

Oh, I know.  I know.

Steps:

1.  Outer space: take an extended moment to clear off your work space and remove distractions.

2.  Inner space: take an extended moment to find your alert but relaxed position and then breathe to remove inner distractions.

3.  When you are ready, press “Play” below to listen to Gil Shaham, Andre Previn, and the London Symphony Orchestra perform the 2nd Movement from Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto while you copy your choice of one of these two photos taken by Fergus Bourke in the Twelve Bens in Connemara.

(Remember Lynda Barry’s incredible advice: this is a map!)

If you’d like to be able to zoom in on these photos, right-click (or control-click) here to open the image in a separate tab or window and then come back to start the music.

4.  Title: “Storm Clouds Over the Bens,” by Fergus Bourke.

5.  Date it.

6.  File it somewhere safe so that we can look at it together later (this day will come!).

See you at 10:00!

ps: don’t forget: we will share our learning from being outside over the weekend (as much as I love to see you all squirm, if you didn’t do it, please just own your choice and spare us all – including you – the discomfort of watching someone wing it; share your thoughts another day).

pps: isn’t squirm a great word??

Mám Éan, Connemara

This weekend we’re going to spend a little time with an old friend, John O’Donohue – he of the”beautiful gaze” and the peaks and valleys.

For the last two terms, we have been exploring the work of Ojibway writer (and former Burnaby resident!) Richard Wagamese.  As you have discovered, one of the Big Ideas in Wagamese’s work is that of connecting to place: connecting to the land and the landscape; learning from the natural world.  This weekend you will step into another perspective on this idea – one that brings us full circle to the beginning of the school year and our research into ancient Celtic traditions.

Your work is to listen to this recording of John O’Donohue hiking up Mám Éan Mountain in Connemara, in western Ireland.  While you listen, you’ll record your thoughts and then share your ideas, but first, please read the below instructions carefully.

1. The recording is about 45 minutes long – depending on your capacity right now to listen for extended periods of time, you may want to divide the listening into two shorter sessions.  At just after the 24:00 mark, the audio repeats itself for about a minute (up to the 25:20 mark), so that might be a natural spot to take a break, if you find you need one.
2. While you listen, please use your comp book to draw and write as you go.  This can be like sketchnoting; it can also be like drawing images that come into your mind and writing down words or phrases that you like or that have meaning to you.  Basically, draw what you hear.
3. When you are done, please take a picture of one part of your drawing/notes that you like – not the whole thing; just one section that for whatever reason you like.  Send me that picture.
4. Then, take a moment to organize your thoughts into a comment, using “Leave a reply” at the end of this post (class names only, please!).That comment might be about something like:

• sharing an idea you liked and explaining why
• connecting O’Donohue’s ideas to Wagamese’s
• explaining how this changes the way you think about and/or experience the landscape around you
• explaining how this changes the way you think about the landscape within you
• explaining why – for you, or for the world – this way of thinking might be useful or meaningful

You’ll come across some of the vocab we explored the last time we listened to O’Donohue – but here are a few more bits that might be useful to know before you begin:

Nonchalant – having an air of easy unconcern or indifference

Zen – a state of calm attentiveness in which one’s actions are guided by intuition rather than by conscious effort (related to Zen Buddhism)

Bog – a poorly drained usually acid area rich in accumulated plant material

Cadence – a rhythmic sequence or flow of sounds

The Twelve Bens – a mountain range in Connemara

Pathos – an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion

Anonymous – of unknown authorship or origin; lacking individuality or distinction

Cutting turf – in the past, Irish people heated their homes and cooked their food using turf taken from from the bog as fuel. Turf was cut from the bog by hand, using a two-sided spade called a sleán.

Sod – the grass-covered surface ground layer

Karl Marx – a socialist revolutionary

Dialectic – discussion and reasoning by dialogue as a method of intellectual investigation

If you are able to, after you listen, go back outside and take a look around.  If you are able to go to a place where you can see the North Shore mountains, do that, too.

How has your perspective shifted?  What do you see now that you didn’t before?

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
Around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
Where I left them, asleep like cattle…

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
And the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.

~ Wendell Berry

The Mám Éan Pilgrimage Walk

“Moon Over Maam Valley,” by Fergus Bourke