Artists of the LSC: Drop in With Debbie, October Edition
Hello Readers,
Alice in Wonderland would walk through one door and that room presented another door. She would then walk through that second door and another adventure awaited her again. Sometimes life is like that. We go somewhere or meet someone and that leads to one adventure and then that next step leads to something else or someone else of interest. It’s an exciting part of the journey of life. What is an escapade that you may have had that led from one happening or introduction into another one just as fascinating?
This past year started an inspiring adventure for me. It started when I took Chris Pereira’s Card Making Class.* Card-making is a part of my life where I marry my artistic talent and my writing skills together. I make cards for an agency that serves people with disabilities back in Pennsylvania. I make four Christmas cards each week. In December, half of those cards will be mailed to the Pennsylvania agency for their use. The residents can pick from my homemade cards to send to their loved ones.
I also make cards for Crossroads School here in Longmont. It is faith-based, alternative school for middle and high school students. It serves youth who have struggled in a traditional school or who find that a traditional setting doesn’t meet their needs. Each of the students, teachers, volunteers and board members receive a card from me sometime in the school year. It is a place for me to write encouraging words to a group of people I have come to love and pray for regularly. What thoughtful actions do you do for others? Inspire us please!
Likewise, I always love when I am the recipient of someone else’s thoughtful moment where they sit down with a pen and write a note of encouragement or newsworthy items to me. It puts a smile on my face the minute I see it in the mailbox. I make a cup of Earl Grey tea and eagerly tear open the envelope. Ahhhhh! A perfect moment. What is a perfect moment for you?
So Chris’s card-making class was a natural choice for me to attend. It is a fun class where participants come away with handmade greeting cards. The beauty of it is that Chris provides excellent instructions, material and the necessary tools. The process allows participants to be creative and have a great time.
Chris, age 67, has a long history as a teacher. Years ago she taught high school students and then moved to the Information Technology (IT) department in a law office, where it was common for Chris to teach the IT processes to her colleagues. “I love teaching”, she discovered. At that time she was also a potter which is “very long process – sometimes 8 to 10 hours just to heat items in the kiln”, she explained. Then about a decade ago, she was introduced to Stampin’ Up!, a company that provides products for card-making, scrap-booking and other art forms. Within a few months, Chris became a demonstrator for the company. As an assistant and eventually as the teacher, Chris leads the Longmont Senior Center card-making classes. “We make at least four cards each [2-hour] class, but in November we usually do a few more projects in a three-hour class”, Chris explained, and added, “There is instant gratification”. I personally enjoy my time with Chris, whose interests also include painting, coloring, weaving, knitting, crocheting and cross-stitching. Chris also regales us with tales of the boating trips she enjoys with her husband.
So, there are always new students who attend the class as well as those of us who are the old regulars. One such fellow-card-maker I met was Pat Tubaugh, a 70-year-old Longmont resident, who in her words “has had a love affair with art forever”, she says. “I was born with a pencil in my hand.” She remembers an interview in the 8th grade, where a person from her school asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, and she told them, “I want to be an artist.” Drawings, creating collages and designing cloth bags are some of her projects over the years. In the 80s, she started working with wood and for the last three years has attended the Friday morning woodcarvers’ sessions at the Longmont Senior Center. Pat is known by her family and friends for her carved wood feathers. I was fortunate to visit Pat in her home and see some of her other work. My—and her—favorite piece was a bear claw. The realism of the claw was amazing craftsmanship. I am also now a recipient of one of Pat’s treasured bears.
So as this creative adventure continued, Pat invited me to visit that Friday morning woodcarving class.** It’s open to beginners, as well as those like Pat who have been carving for years. Attending the class that day, I met John, Kurt, Dean, Linda and Bob. You, like me, may forget their names (as we often do with meeting new people) but their carvings are now etched in my brain. I saw some amazing items created from blocks of wood that you or I might overlook as just a piece of wood. However, these artists look at wood and see creatures, humans, shapes and designs that some afterwards are fortunate to own for a lifetime.
Kurt Kelley, age 68, started woodcarving less than a year ago. His first project was a bird and this past year he also carved a bear out of bass wood. Kurt said it took about six weeks to create the bear working about two hours a week.
Dean Claus, the youngest in the group, age 59, started carving in 2015. He “loves the beauty of the wood and likes watching how the grain comes out” as he molds his pieces of wood into his creations, he said. The class praised the detail in the birds and eagles Dean has carved.
Linda Frazier, age 78, started woodcarving in 1977. “My mother was a carver and having trouble with a piece. She tossed it to me and said, ‘here, you fix it’.” Since that serendipitous artistic day, Linda has been a woodcarver. Her list of items is endless but one that just touched the creative-Nana part of my heart is a piece she is currently working on – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Bob Smith, age 86 is another wood carver in the class. Bob had cochlear implants placed in his ear this year (an aid that bypasses the damaged part of the ear and use electrical stimulation to enable a person to hear.) Bob said “this class is therapy for me.” He has been attending the class before there was a Longmont Senior Center. Before there was a center as we know it today, there were buildings on the current grounds and in one of those old buildings is where those years-ago attendees would carve. He has been a member of other carving groups and is currently a member of the Denver group. Decades ago, Bob started whittling while camping and he still has the first pieced he carved. When I asked him the difference between whittling and carving, he said with a twinkle in his eye, “those that whittle are wanna-be carvers.” Bob was wearing a belt buckle on which he carved his name. He also showed me another one of his belt buckle wood carvings of a mountain scene.
We can’t forget John Tarpley, age 83, who was working on a Santa Claus the day that I visited the class. “I just like to carve,” he said. “My mom taught carving to returning servicemen in the hospitals. That was in the 40s.” [World War II] She took John with her. He is still using some of his mother’s antique carving tools as well as newer more modern tools. Over the years, he completed a cedar chest that his mother started and he finished. It sits in his living room. He also carves spoons, bowls and many other items.
For a carver, the wood speaks to the artist and they begin their adventure into the contemplative creative relationship with the wood and their carving tools. What is a skill that you do that touches you deep in your heart? Is it cooking? Painting? Writing? Making others laugh with your humor? Visiting others? Greeting the new person and making them feel welcomed? We each have talents. What is yours?
Vincent Van Gogh, when describing the creative process, said “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” Whether it’s working each stroke of the knife in wood or the brush on a canvas with your paint, or even the first smile or hello you give a new friend, beauty comes out of the step-by-step intentional process of creating something worthwhile. What steps have you recently taken to intentionally add a pleasing, resplendent or satisfactory outcome to something in your life?
Finally, I am part of a committee that is working on suggestions for the Boulder County Transportation master plan update. If you have ever driven in Boulder County, work in Boulder County or live in Boulder County, you are the person we want to hear from! Visit the Boulder County Transportation Master Plan website and take the survey before it closes on October 21st, 2018. It took me about 12 minutes to complete.
Thank you for visiting “Drop In with Debbie” and joining in this month’s discourse. Don’t forget to mark in your calendar to return around the 15th of each month to hear and become involved in these discussions.
Until next month may peace be at your side,
Debbie Noel
We encourage you to interact with Debbie. Please email your responses to her email at DroppingInWithDebbie@gmail.com or register at the blog site (very bottom of the page) to have your comments viewed online or send your letters to:
Debbie Noel
C/o Longmont Senior Center
910 Longs Peak Avenue
Longmont, Colorado 80501
Information mentioned:
*Chris Pereira’s Card Making Class is held once-a-month every month on the third Monday from 2 pm to 4 pm; Longmont Senior Center
*The Wood Carving Class meets 8 am to noon each Friday; Longmont Senior Center
