Ten on the Tenth: The Irish Coast

Sharing ten of my favorite photos from our trip to Ireland.  Up first, five shots of Inis Mor, one of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland.

As much as I love Celtic crosses, wide open skies, gorgeous ruins and stone walls running to the sea, I think my favorite of the bunch is this hurling equipment outside the local Spar market. It captures the way that Gaelic traditions continue in this part of the world. What's your favorite of this group?
Next up, my five favorites from the northern coast of Northern Ireland.

A fishing village near Larne.

A view from near the Carrick a Rede Rope Bridge in Antrim. And three from the Giant's Causeway:

Got a favorite here? I can't decide between the fishing boats and the one of Paul and Clara walking in this amazing landscape. I'm linking up to Shimelle's Ten on the Tenth. You can see more groups of ten by clicking here.

Scavenger Hunting Around the World!

It's been so much fun to see the Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt Posts popping up all over blog-land! And they are coming in from all over the globe, too! Here are a few favorites:

Allison found brides on a tour bus in Barcelona, Spain! She has this and others in this post.

Ginger from Canada checks in with this trail and skyline. You can see more of her Canadian finds in this post.

From New Zealand,  mum2boys shows us that libraries can be fun and colorful. She has a few more finds in this post.

Deb in England found this hilarious movie poster. She's not sure she should scrap it. If you think she should, go to this post and tell her. 

And from the good old USA, my favorite type of roadside stand ever - fireworks!!! Allison posted a nice assortment of these stands here. 
Did I miss any other countries that have posted? If so, let me know. It makes me very happy to see people all over the world looking for the list of 21 things.  It's not too late to join, the hunt is open until the official end of summer (in Septemeber 21).  That gives you plenty of time to find the items.  You can read all about the hunt in this post. At last count, there's about 65 people playing along! If you want to join, simply comment on the post above and start taking photographs. Blog them if you have a blog (I will add everyone to my reader, so I can see them). If you don't have a blog, put them into a flickr or photo sharing album. Send me a link if you want me to share it with others.  On September 22, I will ask for people to let me know who played and how many you found. I'll use that list to draw random winners. Questions? Feel free to ask them below.

A Somber Border (PPF and photo scavenger hunt)

When I visited Northern Ireland recently, Sian and her family arranged for us to go on a Black Cab Tour of Belfast. In addition to covering the general sights of the city, these tours specialize in educating visitors about the "Troubles" which plagued Belfast due to strong political differences between Protestants who want Northern Ireland to remain part of Great Britain and Catholics who would prefer it to become part of the Republic of Ireland or an independent nation.  It's a very complicated issue, with very strongly held beliefs on both sides. The radical fringes of both sides have engaged in sectarian violence which scarred the country for too many years. Although I consider myself politically aware and well educated, the tour made these issues real in a very powerful way.  One of the sights which brought these issues home was a visit to a  "peace wall." I naively thought a "peace wall" was going to be a sculpture, art display or monument to the peace process which led to a cease fire in 1995. I discovered that the "peace wall" is a border (scavenger hunt item #3) between neighborhoods, designed to ensure everyone's safety.  It is really long:

And there were blast marks from where explosives have hit in:

As we toured the areas that are still most adamantly divided, we ran into a few young toughs who overheard me speaking about something that I had seen in "Ireland." They wanted to remind me that I was in Northern Ireland. I acknowledged that of course we were and hastened to explain that I was speaking of  something I had seen in the Republic earlier in the week.
I had been discussing the prominent display of Irish flags I had seen in Dublin because Ireland was playing in Euro 2012. In Northern Ireland, the prominent display of Irish flags signals partisanship.  On the other side, flags and bunting left over from the Queen's Jubilee have blended into partisanship displays in anticipation of the "marching season." The prevalence of the banners and their dual meanings really affected me. 
I created this art journal page to reflect on this:

I like the page because, while it fits within my travel sketchbook, it feels more like an art journal page helping me think through and deal with things I learned while traveling, rather than a sketch of something I have seen. It's a new use of my sketchbook and something I want to do more of. I'm offering it as part of Paint Party Friday and wondering whether others use their sketchbooks to do something beyond simply sketching. (For more entrants in the paint party, go to this link).  Thanks for reading this post, and thanks to Sian for showing us this side of Belfast. I hope I didn't offend anyone.
Belfast is a wonderful, cosmopolitan city, and Northern Ireland is stunningly beautiful. No one should be dissuaded from visiting because of its troubled history. Like many others, I pray for the day when the Peace Walls come down.

Vacation vs. Home: Reflecting on Some Differences

I made a watercolor pie chart of how I spend my time at home vs. how I spent my time on vacation in Ireland.  The main difference seems to be in the amount of time I spend doing laundry - LOL! I also spend a lot more time watching Euro football and much less time watching Henry play football. In Ireland, I had to devote more time to work than I do at home because I taught every day for two hours and had to prepare for the classes. I was not on the computer as much and didn't watch television (except for the football matches), and I got to do a lot more sight seeing.
This got me thinking about one of the big differences between being on vacation for a month and being home - on vacation, we live with much more limited "stuff." We have about 10 days worth of clothes, shared bathroom supplies, two towels per person per week (Clara goes through 3-4 towels a day at home, which translates to the big difference in the amount of laundry) and a much more limited pantry. Plus, we have no TV in the flat (although people entertain themselves with ipads and computers).  Did we feel deprived? Not really. It's actually kindof nice to live simply. It makes me wonder how much we should purge stuff once we get home.
I also thought this would be a good opportunity to share a little bit about the work I have been doing in Ireland. I've been teaching a class on international negotiation skills to a group of U.S. law students who have chosen to come to Ireland for three weeks. Many of them will be going on to Prague for another three week session. In addition to classes, we've done a variety of sight seeing trips.
Here's a picture of my students and me in front of the Irish Parliament Building:

A very respectable group, aren't they? Except that they have a habit of wanting to get a "jumping picture." So, I took one of them jumping in front of the Parliament Building:

The best part of the picture may be the man in the window who has a really bemused expression on his face.  Thanks for sharing my vacation with me so far. 
I'm curious whether any of these observations resonate with you? What do you learn about yourself and your habits when you're on vacation? Are you able to translate them to changes at home?

Class Review: The Art of Wild Abandonment

I have struggled with writing this review, just as I have struggled with finishing the signature art journal page from the class (above).  But I wanted to post something before I forgot everything. So, here goes.  The Art of Wild Abandonment was a class offered by Christy Tomlinson but taught mainly by Junelle Jacobsen of the Yes and Amen Blog. The list price was $45, but I paid the early bird price of $35.  It was a good class, but it was so badly in need of an editor that I ended up unhappy with it. There. I said it. I feel bad saying anything negative about the class because the two teachers are both super sweet and extremely talented. I also learned a ton, and the class had a huge amount of content.
But, it could have been so much better if there had just been a little more organization of the lessons. And the videos, while fun and inspiring, really truly needed to be edited. It seems to me that sometimes right brained artists feel that having someone with a left brain help them out is a bad thing because it might constrain their creativity. On-line teachers, let me tell you, from a consumer's perspective, it's not a bad thing. Really.
The class ran for three weeks.  Each week had about four lessons created by Junelle, and each lesson had a video with several parts. In addition, Christy added at least one video a week to show how she used the lessons which Junelle presented.  The first week focused on sketching and painting with water colors. Those of you who follow my blog realize what a huge positive impact this had on my creativity and the direction of my art. 

The second week focused on paper piecing and using acrylic paint. I also completed most of these lessons and enjoyed the projects I made. 

The third week dealt with texture and three dimensional projects. I didn't do many of these (although I did like the basic idea of using a roof brush to dry my brushes, I wasn't into the idea of decorating the brush with fabric). I did like the canvas and inspiration board I created.

Since I clearly got so much out of the class, I feel bad complaining. But, here's the deal. When the first week's lessons went up, it was unclear how many lessons/videos there were or whether you were supposed to watch them in a particular order. I posted a question about it and got a very nebulous answer. Early on, the class needed a road map or overview of the forest because it was too easy to get lost in the trees. This was mainly because the videos had to be split into several parts because they were not edited, and they ran for about 45 minutes each. Now, I love watching people create, but I would much rather see a nicely edited 12-15 minute video than a rambly 45 minute one (split into several parts) which includes the artist leaving to go answer the phone or time passing watching something dry. (Junelle would occasionally say, "Christie, you should fast forward through this part." Unfortunately, the fast forwarding did not happen). Junelle also made clear at the beginning of each video that she wasn't sure what she was going to do in the video, which (while somewhat endearing) led to a lot of trial and error and hmming and stammering and videos that were much longer than they needed to be. Eventually I felt like the teachers were not valuing my time because they felt like I had 2.5 hours to watch unedited video to find the core of the lessons. I think that the problem could have been ameliorated (even without editing the videos) if the week's lessons were spaced out a bit - so  the first part of the lesson might go up on Monday, the second part Tuesday, etc. But, again, that level of organization (recognizing which part came first, second, etc.) did not seem to be something that the teachers wanted to put into the class for some reason.  Instead, each Monday a flood gate was opened with a bunch of amazing creativity flowing out. I learned from it and was inspired, but the teachers could have made it so much easier for that process to happen. Sigh.
The class seemed to be a good size. There were plenty of participants at all levels to learn from and get ideas, but not so many that you couldn't look at everything.  Instead of a forum, Junelle set up a facebook group page. And I think that worked pretty well. Junelle was active on the page and tried to give feedback to most everyone. As the class went on and people fell behind, it was a little hard to see what people were doing. But I think the facebook approach is not a bad one, although it could use some tweaking.
I find it really hard to assign a letter grade to this class. On one hand, it had a huge amount of  information which has really changed me as an artist. On the other hand, the lack of an editor left me unhappy and a little sad because of the potential greatness of the class. I guess I would ultimately give the class a B, and I would have to think long and hard before taking another class  from these teachers. 
So, what do you think? Am I being too tough? Am I expecting too much for there to be organization/structure and unbridled, wild creativity? Your thoughts definitely welcomed (especially if you took the class).

Quick Scavenger Hunt Round-Up and Stamp Winners

Today's scavenger hunt submission is #18 A Movie Poster.  "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter." Advertised in Dublin.  Could there be an odder movie or a bigger cultural disconnect? Not sure. . . 
Happy Monday! I hope you all had a terrific weekend. Thanks to everyone who stopped by for the Organisation Blog Hop and Christmas in July Stamp Give Away.  The winners of the stamps are:
CTMH Polar Bears - Elizabeth (of Journaling by Lizzie)
Snowy - Irene (of When the Sun Comes Out)
Reindeer Moon -Jo (of Jo Murray - Art)
Ornament and Tags - Abi (of Creating Paper Dreams)
I'm still traveling, so it will be a week or so before I can get them in the post.  Everyone, please email me your regular mail address as soon as you can (Irene, I already have your address)r . 
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In other news,  I'm over the moon excited about how many people are participating the the 2012 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt - close to 50 so far! It makes me smile sooo big when I see a post with new finds.  Check out some of these fantastic posts: Jacky's pier; Irene's shadow; Alison's someone playing a musical instrument; Lizzie's clothesline; Jane's someone playing with a ball; Debs' shadow; Melissa's horse; and Helena's labyrinth. Such a wonderful assortment.  Makes me wonder if the list is too easy - maybe I should have included "someone dressed like a viking" . . . 

(photo taken in Dublin, Ireland). 
If I left your post out, please add a link in the comments, so blog readers can stop by and see it.

Saved by Allison and Craig!

See this picture? That's me and  Allison of Life in the Slow Lane.  I live in California. She lives in a small town in Spain, yet here we are together. Isn't that amazing! I love meeting blog friends in real life. They always turn out to be just like you would expect from their blogs - only more so! Allison is sweet and funny and so relaxing to hang out with.
Plus, she and her husband Craig saved the day for us. They were in Barcelona to watch their talented daughter graduate from college (with honors mind you), and she arranged to spend a bit of time meeting up with me on our first day here. By the time we got together, my family and I were four lost sheep, feeling completely frazzled because we could not locate the apartment we were renting in Barca and had been standing watching the pouring rain, thunderstorms and hail for several hours.  Well, Craig got on the phone and sorted everything out, while Allison and I and the kids relaxed and chatted. It was exactly what we needed! Maybe blog friends are actually angels . . . it sure felt like that today!  Thanks Allison and Craig for coming to the rescue. And for taking the time to get together for a drink. Next time, we'd love to host you in the Bay Area!
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I'm exhausted from the traveling, but I will be 'round to read the Stories from Storytelling Sunday soon. And I'll pick a winner of the stamps from the Organisation Blog Hop and post that tomorrow.