A couple of months ago, another longtime artist friend and his wife re-connected, via  email.  A highly skilled artist, illustrator, calligrapher (a you-name-it-he/they-can-do-it couple), Phil mentioned that every Friday he sketches with a group using watercolors.  I asked to see some of his work, which he said was posted to their  Facebook group, Urban Sketchers of Southern Oregon. Unfortunately it was a closed group, but without hesitation Phil graciously allowed me to join. Such an exciting opportunity for my small group of students to see so much variety of technique and perspective!

The site was filled with Victorian mansions, cathedral-like French architecture, evocative glimpses of cozy tables by winter windows and artfully-cluttered kitchen shelves; portraits of well-fed pets/ historical storefronts/ delicate bridges/ modern libraries and delightful gingerbread cottages. Admittedly, the array of styles and skills dazed us as well as inspired, but did not intimidate. Yes, there was an initial caution within our first sketches.  But, it was the support of seeing their work accepted alongside the 'grown ups' that made the kid's sketching progress amazing.

In this early portrait of the student artists, their work on the wall behind them, came the first example of how transformative the experience was for the shyest of the students.

There are five girls, but six paintings displayed for their second session of sketching.

These two belong to Resty Joy, who had already begun to cringe and resist the inclusion of her first attempt, the week prior, to draw a Golden Trumpet flower. I asked her to seriously compare the  two efforts. Still writhing at having to expose any thing she creates, under insistance she finally SAW the immense increase in skill she'd mastered between these first and second efforts. Suddenly she broke into a HUGE smile of recognition...there was acceptance in her eyes when she turned to look up.  Pride!

Truly a watershed moment.  Increasingly, encouraged by studying the online sketches of the group, her previously hesitant, faint drawings and murky blending of watercolors began to expand and take on the wondrous, stained glass qualities inherent to watercolor paints--and BIG drawings, they were, too! 

There is more to share with you, the work of the other students, also, along with further generosities from the group of urban sketchers.

Happily, they have now become PUBLIC as URBAN SKETCHERS OF ASHLAND...please follow the link to see more of their work?  It would be wonderful if did that and returned to this site to post any comments you'd like for me to share with the group.

Better yet...JOIN us in the group, if inspired by their work, too!

I initially intended to use the phrase, 'an embarrassment of riches' until I wondered who'd said it, googled the phrase, and realized, "a humbling of riches" better describes recent unexpected gifts.

Danah & Injong Fortunato were the first friends Bill & I made when we brought PILAR to Negros Oriental, May of 2000. Their bookstore, The Village Bookstore, was the first and only place in Dumaguete City where books other than text books could be found.  There was a small table with chairs inside the front window where friends and entrepreneurs could meet. Conversations ranged from personal to political, esoteric to functional.  Often, I listened in on discussions for progressive community programs, and saw them implemented by Danah's formidable mentoring skills and Jong's influence as head of Department of Trade & Industry (DTI). 

Though our One Candle Schoolhouse project in Tambobo (begun in 2002), was forty-four kilometers away from Dumaguete, Danah & Injong's altruism throughout the twenty years of friendship,  continued to provide support. When OCS became TWO Bright Lights Community Centers, their donations of computers, books, supplies, a huge T.V. (now residing in Bonbonon's High School), grant applications, and visits with influential guests continued, along with efforts by Jong to gain governmental assistance for the High School's students, too.

Jong retired several years ago but they both remain active in community development.  A recent visit to Tambobo brought the bounty of books you see, above and below...two boxes of precious volumes their three boys had loved as children are now available to our local children, where these treasures stretch their imaginations:

Zara is displaying her most recent sketch, but she and her sister's REAL reasons for visiting was to borrow more books.  Since the new ones arrived, these two girls have EACH borrowed an average of three to five books weekly.

Thank you, Danah & Injong!

The outing was intended as a special close for nine local children, cousins all, before they returned to regular school classes in Bonbonon. The impromptu summer school 'classes', now over, had begun with teaching the kids how to use the first computer (laptop) any had ever seen.

The field trip included help from Paddy giving them their first exposure to the Internet, followed by visiting their first bookshop--The Village Bookshop--where each were given one hundred pesos to buy a book of their choice. The day included another first: an open air art display that revealed to them the astounding idea of art as something people could create and sell. 

Other equally dazzling adventures were riding the escalator in Dumaguete's largest (five floors) department store (to buy several of them 'slippers' to relieve hobbling from wearing too-small best shoes), and selecting their lunch in a small cafeteria. Not sure, but that might also have been a first for them, too...

This poster-sized Thank You card was a collage of self-portraits they made of themselves, each clutching their book:

Here are some of my favorite photos of kids and the books we have...will attempt to update earlier posts begun but not completed, about the brilliance some of the books we have and the appreciation they engender.