Going to Austin...

For those of you who don't know, I teach Texas History in addition to art. Part of the Texas History teaching position is leading a trip to Austin. So today I embark on a great journey with 23 thirteen-year-olds in tow. We will go to...

1.) Health Camp in Waco. Get them super hyper with milk shakes for the last hour and half of the drive.
2.) The Capitol Building. I ran through the security measures with the tour coordinator on Friday and I'm terrified.
3.) Austin Park. Where I hope they will wear themselves out so much they will go to sleep right at 10:45 tonight... (Hey, a girl can dream.)
4.) The Bob Bullock State History museum where they will complete a Scavenger hunt and get sources for their 3 page (gasp) paper. I am their favorite teacher assigning that bad boy for sure.
5.) The Texas State Cemetary where we will see some famous dead Texans.

All joking aside I am incredibly excited about this trip. I love this group of kids, even though they are squirrely they bring joy to my day. I didnt have them this past week because they were in testing and I missed them. It was a strange realization. I found myself wanting to check in with them at lunch to see how their day was going. Weird I know but true.


I am sure I will have a post filled with some great stories for you in two days time.

Dove Painting

So the same pastor that asked me to do paintings for the church hallways asked me to complete a painting for his office.... Well he didn't really ask he just brought out a canvas that he had been working on at a worship Christmas Party, I looked at it, shook my head and took it home to fix it. Not because I think that the painting was terrible but because this pastor is a great guy. He has invested in the hubs, helped him become a better worship leader and is passionate about developing the "little church" aka the church at your home. Challenging men to lead their families in worship at home. He also is a really great hymn writer hence the pages from the hymnal.

Original Painting

The painting possessed great sources of inspiration a dove and hymnal pages. Luckily I have boxes of hymnals in my classroom that the teacher before me inherited. So I had the pastor look through and pick out the hymn that he liked the best. He chose Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.

Jesu, joy of man's desiring,

Holy wisdom, love most bright;

Drawn by Thee, our souls aspiring

Soar to uncreated light.

Word of God, our flesh that fashioned

With the fire of life impassioned,

Striving still to truth unknown,

Soaring, dying round Thy throne.

Through the way where hope is guiding

Hark, what peaceful music rings;

Where the flock, in Thee confiding,

Drink of joy from deathless springs.

Theirs is beauty's fairest pleasure;

Theirs is wisdom's holiest treasure.

Thou dost ever lead Thine own

In the love of joys unknown.

So I developed this sketch (see below). I knew that I wanted to layer hymnals on top of each other and carve into them. I knew I wanted the background to be the pages filled with the lyrics from Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. I also knew I wanted to scrap the old canvas entirely because I have a personal aversion to working on canvas. I much prefer boards, the harder surface is sturdier, which allows me to do things like carve a giant bird out of hymnals.

Sketch

So I cut a 4'x2' board and carved the first layer of the dove.

 

Board, Dove and mismatched socks

Then I dyed the hymnal pages a red-brown color, attached them to the board and stained the pages blue with an outdoor stain that I had left over from a different project. I sealed the board with shellac and attached the dove to the board.

Board with dyed pages and stain.

 

Board with dove and my freaky feet.

I then added two more layers to the dove and carved in wings. However, the painting looked a little boring so I added a landscape of olive trees. The landscape follows the wingspan of the dove and adds more visual interest.

Olive tree landscape

I'm still not finished I think I need to add another hill on the right and one more tree. Right now there are four trees and I can't handle it. I don't like even numbers in a painting. I need them to be odd. I also have a thing about the number 5, multiples of five etc. I hate it when things are not scheduled in increments of five or even timing things. If I am doing timed drawings with my students I have to time them in increments of five. Sometimes I will tip extra at a restaurant so I can get then total balance to a multiple of five. What can I say I'm weird... I can leave dirty dishes in the sink but I can't handle it if things aren't scheduled in increments of five.  

I post a picture when its done. I plan on finishing it next week so I can put it in an art show that I'm hosting my school featuring the work of my talented kiddos.

Show card.

New look

I changed the "look" of the blog. The banner is a new painting that I've been working on relating to the Spurgeon sermons. It is still in progress but I'm pleased with where its going. Again, more updates on those paintings later.

The painting is technically supposed to be an anchor underwater. I realize that the reflection off the water makes it look like it is the surface of the water not the surface of the ocean floor but I still enjoy it.

Also the peach, brown and blue combo was hurting my eyeballs. I like the gray and dark blue better.

That is all.

Happy Wednesday.

Crocs...

I just purchased a pair of Crocs because my classroom has concrete floors and I'm up on my feet all day. My feet hurt so bad at the end of the day, I feel like an 85 year old woman when I go home. I know what you're thinking... "Good Lord woman. How could you let yourself go like that?" You know I said that to myself the first time I considered it but Crocs have come a long way. Most of you when you hear the word Crocs you think of these beauties...

When I downloaded this file it was appropriately titled "Crocs+Horror" I don't think I need to make any changes.

No words.

Please still be my friend! Also, Bahahhahahah!

So because I enjoy getting a rise out of my students I told them I was getting a pair of Crocs and these were their responses...

"Why?"
"Ew."
"I will no longer listen to you when you give me instructions."
"Are you going to get some of those lame charms too?"

The best response was...
Me: "I'm going to go Croc shopping with Miss Soeder."
Student: "Crack shopping?"
Me: "No! Croc shopping. C-R-O-C."
Student: "Oh well buying both of those things would be a sin."

However, when I showed them a picture of the Crocs that I bought they were caught off guard. Because they are surprisingly cute.

Adrina Crocs in Brown. These are the ones I actually bought.

Adrina Crocs II in Black. I'm considering buying these...

Their little mouths would be wide open ready to say something about what a loser I am for buying a pair of crocs only to close that little mouth slowly and say, "Oh I guess those are alright." Crocs makes wedges and they are cute. I won't purchase them because I feel like I need training wheels when wearing shoes with a heel greater than one inch but still they're cute. If I didn't trip over flat surfaces to the point that it is almost a physical disability I would consider it. Also, I am a teacher. I am on my feet 95% of the day. What reality would I be living in wearing heels to my job? I might as well get on Amazon and see if there is a magic carpet that will allow me to float through the day (I think my chances would be pretty good. My friend told me she found a banana slicer on there the other day... Banana slicer. Really?)

Croc Wedges. (That I will never own.)

Banana Slicer that I will also never own. Strictly because I think its ridiculous that this is actually a thing.

In conclusion I will say... Hello my name is Katie Babb and I own a pair of Crocs.

Flirting: 8th Grade Edition

I feel like flirting as a shy and incredibly awkward 13/14 year old involves a lot of Legend of Zelda and anime. Or at least that's the case with my students. I watch and listen to them talk as they work on their projects and don't understand anything they are saying about Zelda being a princess and Link being the elf. (If you want to see a 14 year old Zelda nerd come unglued just ask "Is Zelda the princess or the elf?" I might know this from experience. I might also ask this question on purpose from time to time because their reaction is fantastic.)

But what I do understand is their intentions. So when my male student says to my female student "You know (           ) version of Zelda...? Yeah I have that knife." That is apparently meant to make the young ladies swoon. And when my female students starts "fangirling" over an episode of anime that is meant to make her seem cooler to the boys.

Strange breed these 14 year olds.

Fangirl Definition

Fangirling over One Direction

Fangirling over anime

Animes fangirling

Back from the dead

I have returned from the grave... not really... But if I had my tombstone would have read...

"Here lies Katie Babb

She was a good teacher 

and consequently had no life."

But seriously that is what this feels like. I feel like I have accomplished something if I can get my lesson plans posted, grades entered, work out, spend some time with the hubs and get to bed before midnight. However, on the weekends I pretend like I'm still in college and sleep in until noon.

Did I mention that I love my job? Because I do. I love my children they are incredibly obnoxious and call me Mama Babb, which I find incredibly endearing. I'm thrilled to say that my students are ripe with potential. All they need is me to ask them that time-honored question "I don't know what do you think?" Usually I tack on the phrase "this is your project." Sometimes that is all they need and sometimes they whine and need a little bit more help but either way I'm proud of them. I will post some of their work later... maybe... but that isn't really the point of my post. I'm posting to show what I have been working on. It's quite exciting actually. You see I haven't finished a painting since I graduated from college, tragic I know. I found that I couldn't develop an idea that I was pleased with enough to carry it to completion. 

Then suddenly inspiration struck from a not-so-unlikely source, the Lord. When my husband and I moved to Dallas we joined Providence Church in Frisco. We have since moved to Providence's church plant Imago Dei, which we both love (but my joy about how blessed we are to attend IDC could fill another post.) Anyways, the worship pastor at Providence asked me to do some art for the church lobby about the Trinity before we left. So I worked on a sketch and developed this... 

Holy Spirit Sketch

It's a representation of the Holy Spirit. You have the dove with three rings representing the three parts of the holy spirit. (I will explain the significance of the colors in a different post.) Ideally there would be three pieces and they would be HUGE. Dove for the holy spirit, lamb for the son and burning bush for the father. Great idea right? I haven't started yet because the pieces are too big and I won't have time to execute them the way I want until this summer. You might be asking well then Katie why have you been rambling on so long about this project. To which I would reply that is a valid question. I will direct your attention to the black dots inside of the dove, up close it looks like this... 

Faith Knot

It's a knot. If this were a film the knot would be in a constant state of motion circling in on itself. This knot is the image that pops into my head when I answer questions like how can God be both all-knowing but give us free will. I picture the answer looking something like this knot because lets take my life for example. When looking at college as a bright-eyed freshman of 18, I had a few career paths in mind, a nurse, a teacher, a missionary in China, graphic designer. I obviously ended up being a teacher and the Lord is glorified because of it. However, what if I had become a nurse and made the (tragic) decision to spend hours of college studying science and things I don't fully understand and by the sheer grace of God ended up a nurse. Would he not have been glorified if I had chosen that course? Yes he would! Because all things work together for the glory of the Lord. So when God looked at me as a freshman or even as a child in my mothers womb he knew all of the paths I could have taken and would have allowed me to choose any of them and could have worked any of them together for His glory. So I picture in my head the path and the starting point of the Lord and know that each path would inevitably circle back to the Lord and his glory.

However, as I thought more about this knot an what it represents I began to realize that it could also function as a representation of faith. It takes faith to except what I just explained. Science would look at my explanation of free will and the Lord's omnipotence and laugh. Many people would laugh but I believe all of it. I believe it from my head to my toes that it is the truth. Also, faith is messy it is not always easy it is not always filled with events that make you happy. Sometimes faith takes you through a time of suffering of painful suffering but the Lord is good in all of it. So then I began to apply the knot imagery to faith and incorporated it into these paintings of the trinity that I hope to do. Because believing in the Trinity, singing the words...

"Praise and glory to the Father. 

Praise and glory to the Son. 

Praise and glory to the Spirit. 

Ever three and ever one." 

... requires faith. I began to flesh out the ideas about faith and the trinity. Around the same time I was doing a unit on woodcutting with my students so I made some prints to work through the ideas. These were my results....

Holy Spirit - Woodcut on Paper

Son - Woodcut on Paper

Father - Woodcut on Paper

Knot Cloud with Trinity - Woodcut and Oil on Paper

 I'm fairly please with my results, as you can see I enjoy a lot of chatter (the black smudges) in my woodcuts. To me chatter is part of the happy accidents that can make a piece unique. I have to go inhale my lunch but I plan to update soon with a few of the most recent paintings that were inspired by the fantastic and fabulous Charles Spurgeon.