Pictures and Participation

I can't help it; the sky here is so changeable and amazing, I have to post the pics.

This was the morning of June 18th; the sky was going to storm, but the sun was determined to come up anyway.

This was this evening at Merritt Reservoir; I went there today for my first meeting of the Jackrabbit Society of the Sandpainters - an artist's colony in the heart of the Sandhills. What an eclectic group! There is a potter in the group, and even though she is West-Coast educated (which means our styles and approaches are VERY different), we hit it off immediately.

A very different third Thursday from what I am used to. No makeup, no heels, everyone in jeans and talking about things that really mattered to them - teaching art in the schools, the three tornadoes last night that hit Ainsworth, the rain and cool weather and what it has done to crops, painting light, shading, and color and negative space interpretation, and the various life stages of butterflies and spawning of fish (of which two of them had copious pictures on their laptops). Trumpeter swans caught on a lake in a sudden snowstorm. Using masking tape to guide one's painting of trees, to make the bark outlines more rough and natural-looking. How to do batik and silk painting on greenware and bisque.

The schools here are very different; volunteers teach art and drama and literature and other things - and the kids are eager, sign up to come to school early, stay late, or come to the school on weekends (at their own expense) to take the classes and be a part of the groups. All this and they still help out to maintain the family businesses or ranches, or rodeo, ride and train their horses to barrel-race or rope and tie cattle, in the afternoons and evenings and on the weekends as well.

Quite a few differences in many things, not just the scenery and the topography. I've already been signed up as the drama coach for the high school across the street when school starts again; a local nurse has written a Halloween play she wants us to put on... and yes I am getting involved again. But this time it isn't just one or two people putting forth effort for the parents who don't show up except to complain, or the kids who couldn't care less about their own lives and futures.