News

November 2019 Ending Corporal Punishment of Children in the U.S.

We will end corporal punishment of children in the U.S. and join almost 60 countries that now do so. Countries that ban corporal punishment, including most of Europe, have done so in order to reduce child abuse and give children the same protection adults enjoy to be free from physical harm. A bill in the Virginia legislature would ban hitting children with objects, a great step in that direction. 

S.B. 32 in the Virginia legislature would ban hitting children with objects.  Hooray!  

SB32: Corporal punishment of a child with an object; penalty. Provides that any parent, guardian, or other person responsible for the care of a child under 18 years of age who uses an inanimate object to subject a child to corporal punishment, as defined in the bill, is guilty of a Class 4 misdemeanor. The bill also provides that a defendant not previously convicted of corporal punishment of a child with an object may have his charge deferred to enter a treatment program. The charge may be dismissed upon successful completion of the treatment program.| Patron: Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax | READ MORE


See latest information on use of corporal punishment worldwide

Changing AND Learning

CHANGING
I let my hair grow out. The white hair was exceedingly boring. Being an artist, I had to do something using color to change that.  Hair feather extensions!  Anyone who knows beading can put them in.  They are available online, a bag of 20 (Amazon) and a tool kit FOR about $30 total.    I also found a hair stylist who knows how to do put them in. 

They can be shampooed, blow dried, and curled. You can pull them out easily or they slide out naturally as you brush and comb your hair.  I first wore them in June in San Francisco.  I was visiting my son and daughter-in-law.  We went to a street fair at Haight-Ashbury.  I was right at home in this hippie community with my hair decoration.  I think I will keep them into the fall.  They are too much fun.

LEARNING
Even if your birthday cake is inundated with candles, like mine, you can learn new things.  I decided that my abstract painting needed a little zip.  Covering it with resin would do that.  I watched a UTube on how to do that.

There are careful instructions online…

  1.  Prop up your painting sturdily so that it is completely flat and level:

I used a plastic sheet protecting my workspace as the resin drips over the edge. I put the canvas on four plastic cups holding the corners.  

  • Open windows if you are inside because resin is dangerous to breathe.
  • Mix the resin which comes in two parts and the hardener (usually a 50/50 mix) which I bought on Amazon.com.   There are instructions on the resin bottles.
  • Pour and Spread. Spread around the sides too after it has dripped over the edges.

I used a putty knife and tried to push out the bubbles.

  •  If there are still bubbles, blow them out with a hair dryer, or small blow torch or crème Brule torch.   

I used a crème Brule torch.

It still had bubbles when it dried.

I brought out my sander and sanded off as much of the resin as I could.  I watched two more videos and picked up some clues.  I will try redoing the resin.   

If at first you don’t succeed,  try try again or find someone who knows how to do it.  At least watch three or four UTubes before doing it.

Beautiful Iceland

BEAUTIFUL ICELAND
I returned from two weeks in Iceland on 8-6-18. There were so many visual delights…waterfalls, glaciers, geysers, lava rock formations, hump back whales, porpoises, seals, and birds, including a large colony of Puffins. We enjoyed Norse sagas and stories about the “little people” and trolls. The trolls I am standing with in this photo were street art. I am looking at photos and thinking about how I might represent my memories of this wonderful country.

Below:  The Blue Lagoon, Lava rocks, a Puffin Bird

 

Update on recent selections for art exhibitions

4th of July parade  painting


4th of July Parade was jury-selected for the July/August 2018 “Celebrating UA” show at the Concourse Gallery honoring the l00th anniversary of the founding of Upper Arlington, a Columbus, Ohio suburb. The inspiration for my painting was a memory of a 4th of July Parade in Upper Arlington in 2010. I was sitting on a lawn along the parade route with several people including a man and his young son. As the parade began led by U.S.A. flags, the man got up, held his son’s hand and said, “Let’s stand up son, the flag is passing by.”  A tear ran down my check. I felt pride in my heritage and community. As a former teacher and a school psychologist, I delight in seeing how children learn. The little boy proudly modeled his father. It was a Norman Rockwell scene. He was my muse in painting this memory.

Gala Painting

Gala is an acrylic painting of a formal event which focuses on a well-dressed older couple with background ball participants dancing or strolling about. The painting was selected for an August 2018 show at the Riffe Tower, an Ohio State Government Building where the House of Representatives meet. I did the painting from a photograph of my husband and me attending a 100th celebration of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

Studio Model #3 was selected for the annual show of student work at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center in July 2018. I have been taking three studio hours weekly of life painting and drawing at the Center for over four years. Studio models pose for us allowing us to gain skill in drawing and painting human forms. We work so intensely for three hours trying to paint with acrylics, water colors, pastels, or oil or draw human figures with charcoal or pencil to express the form and spirit of the model. Since we had only one session with this model, I kept my design simple using white, grey and black oil paint on a black/purple background to paint a portrait of this lovely model. The painting sold!