Summer Approaches

The countdown is on. Only two weeks to go. Only 9 work days to go. Only 7 and a half days with kids to go. Now, subtract the 5th grade field trip on Tuesday and Field Day for the third through fifth grade on Friday, and you have 5 and a half days of teaching. Minus, of course, the class parties and awards ceremonies leaves what?

This summer there is very little travel in my plans. Instead, I will be taking time to do more here at home. There's so much to do and there just may be enough time!

There are two one-day mini conferences scheduled during the first two weeks of the summer by the Museum of Fine Arts and Area VI of the Texas Art Education Association at the museum and the Glassell School. CEDFA has it's usual summer session. A Community Bridge Program course is being held at the Glassell School during the end of the summer. The Holocaust Museum Houston has a Summer Institute.

I'll be setting up my studio which involves rearranging the entire house. I'll be spending some time in the studio for a change. I've been filling up on ideas and images for the past few years. Now to process them.

There's also all this new technology to play with and plans to be made. There are wikis and VoiceThreads, Twitter and FaceBook, not to mention Nings. There are presentations to be planned and lessons to be put together.

I've already started putting together the materials I need for Area VI of TAEA. Lots of new ideas there, too!

Finally, I'm working on a program for teaching knitting with parents and kids. I have a lot of work to do on that end. More about this project, Knit Together, later.

We need to do a lot around the house. Our deck and porch need to be redone. We need to get a new refrigerator and mattress. Lots of fun projects to come! You can follow along if you like.

For those who've gone before

Once again, I've managed to go months without posting.

Since last I posted I applied for a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to attend a seminar in Assisi and Siena, Italy. I didn't get this one. I don't receive every grant I apply for, I'm simply hard headed enough or possibly determined enough to keep applying. Persistence pays off.

Barb and me

Right now I'm thinking about my friends who are no longer among us. My friend, Barb Jones, passed away of cancer on my sister's birthday back at the beginning of March. Virgil Grotfeldt, who I was acquainted with from my UH days, died on my daughter's birthday in February. No causal relationship between the birthdays and the deaths, just weird coincidence.

Barb's self portrait, painted not long before her death from uterine cancer

Both of them will be sadly missed. Two excellent artists gone. The world is a little less for the loss.

When I travel I carry a small leather photo album. Inside it are photos of friends and family, At the very back are photographs of friends who never got the opportunity to travel to the places that I've gone.

There's Allison Magee. She taught fifth grade at the same school as me here in Houston. She was an awesome teacher, creative, talented and loved by her students. She was talented and creative. She died July 4th, 2001, a month after Tropical Storm Allison hit Houston, another one of those coincidences. I miss her. She was fun to work with and we roomed together a couple of times at conferences. Her death was a tragic case of the state of the medical system here in the US. She was waiting on the insurance company to stop procrastinating and get her in for testing. It was a sad, unnecessary loss.

My friend Malcolm Smith is there, too. He was almost 45 years old when he died on October 27, 1996. He was a good musician and friend. He died in his sleep.

Roger Ruffcorn, Zeke Zuelke, Bruce Henry Davis, Bruce McIlheny, Townes van Zandt and Colleen Cade are all gone, but not forgotten. I still remember holding baby Colleen while her parents, Bill and Lucille Cade, performed at Anderson Fair. The longer I think and remember, the more friends come to mind.

When I travel I remember all of these friends. I carry them with me in my photo album, in my mind and in my heart. They inspire me to keep on going.

Well, gotta go. I'm trying to figure out where to go next. Will it be Yad Vashem in Israel? or a mosque in New Mexico? Who knows, but I'll be taking my friends with me where ever I go.

Time goes by

I wonder how I let time get away from me. It's been ages, literally, since last I posted.

I've been consumed with school. I changed classrooms over the summer. Due to the broken wrist, I was unable to do my own packing of materials or unpacking for that matter. I went back to work at the start of the school year, but I've had to spend an absolutely incredible amount of time negotiating the miracles of the modern medical jungle: insurance adjusters, doctors, physical therapy, occupational therapy, on and on it goes.

So much to do and so little time.

My photographs of my travels in Japan, London, New Mexico and New Orleans are available at http://gallery.me.com/jeanking9#gallery . This site can give you a better view of what I've been up to.

You can also find me on Facebook, H-town Art Teachers, and several other places around cyberspace.

We'll see if I manage to keep up with this space over time. This tends to be my summer blog, more than anything else. My other blog, News From The Art Room, has also been sadly neglected. So many places, so little time.

I want to go back!

I've been organizing all the material that I brought back from Japan and, I have to tell you, I am amazed. As I look over all the information and remember the places I've been and the things I've seen I am struck by both the quality and the quantity of experience. Yet, there is so much that I wish I'd done, so many things I wish I'd seen.

i want to go back.

I did not even make a dent in learning about the arts of Japan first hand. I've no idea how much time, money and energy it would take to be able to do this.

Let's see, there's ceramics. I'm putting together a ceramics program at my school this year. One of the other groups got to see the famous kiln in Shimotsuke. I was so jealous when I realized this.


Japanese paper is one of my favorite things, from shoji screens to washi. And then there's origami, the art of paper folding. I do a variety of origami lessons with my students, but I want to learn more. Or how about kirigami, Japanese cut paper. Of course, there is the combination of the two in the form of pop-ups. I don't know the Japanese name for them, but I love them all the same. I ran into kirigami in Katori, but the gallery was closed for the day and it was my last day there.

I would love to be able to check out the woodblock prints. I bought one over in Asakusa, but I would like to see more.

I had hoped to bring back tools, woodworking tools in particular.

I guess I will simply have to save my dimes and nickels until I can go again.

Chiba University

Our first full day out of Tokyo we went to Chiba University to meet the education faculty. We sat on one side of the room and the University folks sat on the other. We were given a packet of information, a lovely Chiba University bookmark and a red and gold origami bird. Tom gave our opening speech, introductions were made and the question and answer session was underway.

Facts learned from this visit:
Student teachers only practice teach in the classroom for four weeks!
Teacher turn over in Japan is very low.
Teacher salaries in Japan are subsidized by the government. Check this website for more info on teacher salaries worldwide, http://www.educationworld.net/teacher_salaries.html
"Monster Parents" are a problem in Japan. (Think about it and I'm sure you get the idea. Are you having visions of Godzilla at this point?)

I spent time talking with Shingo Jinno, Associate Professor, Theory of Visual Art. With the help of Dr. Mitsue Allen-Tamai, we were able to communicate quite well. I'm hoping to be able to establish a line of communication now that the trip is over.


Scrumptious Japanese sweets!

My flight home

I know that this blog is not in chronological order, but you'll just have to bare with me.

The Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka staff lined up to wave good bye to us.

Leaving Japan was a breeze, although my big bag was overweight and I had to pay 3000 yen for the privilege of getting it back to the states. Narita Airport was easy to navigate and the employees of United Airlines in Japan were very helpful.

I was able to board my flight early and the flight attendant helped me with maneuvering my bag into the overhead compartment.

I had the middle seat on every flight I was on for the entire journey. On the flight from Japan to San Francisco the gentleman who had the window seat was a body builder and wrestler. I am not kidding or exaggerating. His arms were easily bigger around than my thighs. He was wearing a tank top. He was huge! Now remember that we are flying economy and we will be sandwiched together for ten long hours.

The body builder was on my left, that's the side with the broken arm, and an average, normal size American guy was on my right.

My wrestler friend had two dinners and three breakfasts! Yum, airline food!

When we arrived in San Francisco we had to stay on the plane while a passenger was removed. It seems for the last five hours of the flight this gentleman had become determined to open the door and get off. It took a while before they escorted him off in handcuffs and interviewed the witnesses.

I only had an hour and a half between connecting flights and part of that had been lost due to the delusional passenger. I got my bags and with help maneuvered them onto a cart. I passed through customs with no problem.

At San Francisco security the fun begin in earnest. I did as I had been told to do. I explained that I have recently acquired a metal plate in my arm and that it will set off the metal detectors. I asked to be pulled out for a pat down and to have my arm swabbed to detect any explosives. I was told to wait and go through the metal detector. This slowed everything down. The security folks were slow. It is humiliating enough to go into the little clear acrylic isolation booth, but this is followed by being swept with a metal detector followed by being physically patted down by hand. Finally they take two swabs and go over my hands and splint. Everywhere else I had been asked if I wanted to have this done in a small private booth. Not in San Francisco.

I was watching the clock. My plane would begin boarding in five minutes. One of the security agents asked to look in my bag. I opened it and he took a quick peek. My hand was swollen from the previous flight and I couldn't zip the bag closed again. Time was passing. The security agents watched with interest as I tried to close my bag. I finally asked for help and was soon on my way.

At the terminal one of United Airlines employees refused to let me board early when I told her that I would need assistance boarding. She instead asked me if I would like a wheelchair. Wasn't it United that used to ask you to fly the friendly skies?

We landed in Houston and had to wait for a plane to vacate our gate. I was ready to be home.

Sure enough when I came out of the terminal Joel was there waiting. What a sight for sore eyes! He went with me to baggage claim and helped wrestle my bags onto another cart. In every other airport the carts were free. I was surprised to have to pay three dollars to use a cart in my hometown. Welcome to Houston, ya'll!

I was glad to arrive home to the heat and humidity and my own bed.

Of broken bones and traveling

If you have a choice of traveling with a broken bone or not, my advice is don't do it. If you are going to do it anyway make sure you take along plenty of ibuprophen.

If I had been able to change the dates of my JFMF trip from the June cycle to the October cycle I would have. As it is, I am a hard head and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. Everyone I know told me that the JFMF is the trip of a lifetime and they were right. Broken arm or not, I couldn't pass it up.

Variations in temperature and altitude caused me problems. Fast elevator rides hurt. Heat made my hand swell. Several times during the trip I attempted things that I simply could not do and the pain was excruciating. My eyes filled with tears.

Several of my travel companions were quite kind and if it hadn't been for them I could never have made it all the way through. They helped with my bags and included me in their activities. For this I am incredibly grateful.

There were times that I felt sorry for myself. Self-pity is an ugly thing no matter where you are.

At other times I felt angry. One of my fellow travelers had the audacity to ask if I felt my broken arm was effecting my emotional state. I found her question cruel and thoughtless. The answer to her question was not simply yes, but hell yes. My mobility was effected. My balance was thrown off. I couldn't put up my hair or fasten my bra. I could only apply deodorant to one armpit. I had to put a bag on my arm to shower. If I ate too much soy sauce with my sushi my hand would balloon out. I couldn't take part in group activities like bowling. Finally, I could only type with one hand, which left me poking and plodding away at a task I normally fly through.

Since our free day was at the beginning of the trip my arm limited where and what I could do. My desire to go to Kamakura, Kyoto, Hiroshima or Nara was not to be. At that point in the trip I couldn't handle crowded trains or having my arm jostled and bumped. I spent my free day in Tokyo wandering around with some fellow JFMFers.

Towards the end of the trip my arm was doing much better. I no longer needed the sling. I could use my fingers and, if i did it correctly, I could carry light objects.

What the arm looked like under the bandages on the next to last day of the trip.

Just letting it stew

I have not left Japan yet, but I have started to reflect over my experiences here. Just as a pot of stew will simmer on the stove so my thoughts and memories are simmering in the back of my mind.

I set out on this trip with very high hopes and expectations. I was hoping and believing that I would see extraordinary art education here in the land whose art inspired the likes of Van Gogh and Gauguin among others. I also started out on this trip with a broken arm that was more of a hindrance than I was willing to admit.

I toured the elementary school and found that there was no art specialist on campus and that art was only taught on Monday and then only two of the grade levels took part. I need to note here that the school was very small. There were only 101 students. A budget that supported a separate art teacher was probably not a possibility. The head principal at the school is a master calligrapher. Calligraphy is an art form in its own right and this man is most certainly an artist. In the course of a lesson in the school garden where the students raise vegetables, they came back inside and drew themselves in the garden.

In the Junior High I saw some lovely work. Students worked from photographs. I did see beautiful examples of color exercises and, a couple of days previously, we had run into some of these same students painting along the river in Sawara. The book on the teacher's desk was Johannes Itten's color text. This is one of the books that I use at home in the United States.

When I traveled through Europe I finally understood why the various painters from the Renaissance to the impressionists painted as they did. They were capturing their environment in two dimensions. The quality of light, the land, the plants, the sense of place are there because this is where they worked, this is what they saw.

As I write this I am thinking of Monet and his Japanese bridge, Monet whose work was inspired in part by Japanese woodblock prints. Monet has been big news this week when his painting of waterlilies sold at auction for a record $80 million.

In my mind's eye I see the iris festival that I was privileged to visit twice during this trip.

I let my mind wander to the almost tactile sensation of crossing beneath a Tori gate and entering the quiet beauty of the forest as I approach a Shinto shrine.

The smell of earth and trees warmed by the sun while I walk through cool green shade past pools of koi and turtles. The wisps of incense carried on a breeze.

I long to see more Japanese art created by Japanese art teachers and their students. I know that several of my colleagues said they saw a great deal more than I did. I wish that I could tour Japan looking at the school art rooms across the country.

This trip has taught me a great deal, but it has also highlighted how little I know.

I am waiting to have time to reflect over my experiences here. I hope to correspond with both my Japanese and AmericanI. Maybe in this way I'll find answers to the questions that I have.

Perhaps there is some way to collaborate between our art classrooms using the internet, something more than showing student work in an online gallery, something somehow interactive that allows the students and the art teachers to establish a dialogue across the Pacific.

I need to say thank you to the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund and the Japanese government for making it possible for me to take this trip. So many people did so much to make this trip a possibility. Thank you all!

Let me now sing the praises of the dogs of Tokyo

Dogs and small children, both seem to act as magnets.

Wandering around Tokyo I spotted both, but what got my attention the most were the dogs, particularly their clothes. So, for your viewing pleasure, I bring you some of the dogs of Tokyo.


Dogs in shades


Pretty in Pink


Sports fan


Daddy's girl

Beauty in small things - manhole covers

Attention to detail and aesthetics is everywhere.


It's not a manhole cover, but isn't it lovely!



Tokyo


Chiba City


Kartori (Sawara)

Skipping Around in Japan

I just sat here in my room on the 28th floor if the Grand Prince Akasaka Hotel in Tokyo and watched a red half moon rise over the Tokyo skyline. I tried to photograph it, but I just couldn't catch it.


A small piece of my view.

Who would ever have thought that I would be here?

Katori and Sawara

The day started with a trip to Katori City Hall where with met with three parents representing the three levels, elementary, junior high and high school. There was a question and answer session that left me convinced that we are more alike than we think.

We had a box lunch at City Hall and boarded the bus for Sawara.

We visited the Inoh Tadataka Museum. Inoh Tadataka surveyed Japan and made an incredibly accurate map of the entire country.


We shopped and observed students drawing along the river.


Our next stop was the Katori Shrine.


I think I found Totoro's tree!

Our final stop was the botanical gardens to see the irises. Nothing I can say can begin to approach the beauty of this place.

Chiba City and on to Kasimu

We checked in to the Mitsui Garden Hotel in Chiba without any further excitement. After a short settling in, I set out exploring. I wasn't feeling horribly adventurous at this point, so I started with circling the block and then circling, or maybe that should be spiraling, outward. There is a park across the street from the hotel and a Shinto shrine about two blocks away.

Dinner was on our own and I had missed lunch. I set out in search of food. As i passed a variety of restaurants, I realized I was craving good old American cuisine. Less than a full block from the hotel was an 8 story shopping mall. It was enticing for more reasons than one. It had a sign with a picture of a big, juicy cheese burger on a sign near the door and ,high overhead in huge letters, a sign for Tower Records. Yes, friends and neighbors, the same Tower Records that used to be located less than a half mile from my home in Houston! Now I know where music stores go when they leave Houston!

The food court was on the 8th floor. There I was lured in by the exterior of a small restaurant that looked extremely out of place. A neon Tecate sign glowed by the rough wood entrance and there, next to the entrance, was posted the same picture of a real live, scrumptious cheese burger. Not a McDonald's burger, but the real thing.



I headed back to the hotel with a Japanese DVD of My Neighbor Totoro and two CDs by Ayano Tsuji or is that Tsuji Ayano?

The next morning we went headed to Chiba University where we met the education faculty. I had the good fortune to get to talk with the Associate Professor of Visual Arts, Jinno Shingo.

From there we travelled on to Katori City where we visited a Sake Brewery and then met a papier mache artisan named Miuraya-san. He had created a rabbit that was used as an image on Japanese postage stamps. He demonstrated his technique of created works using a drape mold.





Finally, after a question and answer session we went to our hotel, the Kashima Central Hotel. It's a beautiful hotel with all the amenities.

I went with several other members of my group in search of dinner. We walked an incredible distance before we settled on a restaurant in another hotel. I had eel, which is very tasty.

On the long walk back we stopped at Baskin Robbins for ice cream, then it was back to the hotel for sweet dreams.

Tomorrow would be another day all too soon and it was set to be as full as any of the preceding ones.

Latest excitement

Our bus was in a wreck on our way to Chiba City.

The woman in the other car was very lucky. Her right arm was injured and bleeding, but she and her passenger were both able to get out of their car on their own. Her car was totalled.


Our bus appeared drivable, but we had to wait and change rides. Wawako-san hit her cheek on the dash of the bus and one of the younger teachers was complaining of neck pain. One of our ranks went to the hospital with lower back pain. We were all wearing seat belts when the wreck occurred.


The rest of us are safely installed in our hotel. We were brought here in a small convoy of black taxis.


Chiba out my window

Now it is time to explore Chiba City and find some lunch.

Later.

Trying to catch you up to date

So many things have happened, so many places seen, so many speakers heard, how can I even begin to tell you about it all?



We have met politicians


and Hiroshima survivors,


watched Kubuki


and Kyogen,
ridden buses and subways,


toured temples


and the halls of government,



seen a festival at the nearby shrine


and seen a wedding, and walked and walked and walked.

Before we arrived in Tokyo there was a horrible incident in Akihabara Electric Town. A young man went on a rampage, driving a rented truck into a crowd and then jumping out and stabbing people. Similar things have happened in the States and actually still do. Here in Japan seems to be a much rarer event. Yesterday we happened onto the site of the incident. Passersby were stopping to offer flowers. It reminded me of the memorial to Tom Jones in front of the Art Car Museum in Houston.


Memorial in Akihabara Electric Town

Yesterday at 8:43 we felt an earthquake. Here on the 28th floor, I felt the building sway and heard it creak and groan. It felt like being on a boat, but without the boat. The epicenter was north of Tokyo, but we felt it all the same. I don't believe I would want to get any closer to one of these things.

This morning we are off to Chiba Prefecture!

Welcome to Tokyo!

We arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday, June 10th.

The Fulbright Memorial Fund folks were great. There were signs and greeters all along our path. Good thing. too. as jet lag was definitely taking its toll.

Approximately 160 lagged out teachers dragged wheeled luggage out to our waiting buses. We were met by our guides, all of whom are volunteers. They, in turn directed us to buses by Host City.

Our guide, Keiko-san, in front of our bus

The bus ride into Tokyo passed in a blur. On the bus we were given our meal allowance, signed a receipt for our allowance and handed in a copy of our itinerary.

My arm ached from the flight.

We are staying at the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka and, yes, it is as luxiourious as it sounds. At the hotel we disembarked and received our room assignments. We each have our own room.


My first view of my room

After a quick clean-up in the our rooms we went to meet some of the Japanese Fulbright Scholars. Each of us was assigned a table with of the Fulbrighters.

I was at Table 8 with three other teachers and Mr. Shigeru Tabe. He was at the University of Michigan in 1967 where he studied linguistics on a Fulbright Scholarship for two years.

After a short talk by David Satterwhite, we walked with Tabe-san to a lovely restaurant called Wa Zatami for dinner. It was awesome! Sashimi to my heart's delight!


Entertainment provided by Yuko Naito on Koto and Koumei Ashigaki on Shakuhachi


Ebi AKA Shrimp


Sashimi AKA Raw Fish, yum!


Edamame AKA Soy Beans

Afterwards Tabe-san left us and we wandered around for awhile.

I had forgotten to take anything for pain and was nearly in tears by the time I made it back to the room. I won't make that mistake again!

More later. I have another full day ahead.