Wandering and Collecting

I once read somewhere that art teachers are like the scavengers of the school: we are constantly rummaging through the trash "saving" pieces of this and that to be refashioned into art projects. Art teachers have been known to stare off into space when inspiration for a lesson strikes, immediately sketching an idea onto a scrap of paper and stuffing it into our apron pockets for later. We accept all sorts of wonderful donations that get squirreled away and make us worried that one day the people from the show "Hoarders: Buried Alive" will come knocking asking to see the supply closet! Some of us even push carts filled to the brim with magical art supplies around school buildings with bits and pieces falling off along the way, leaving a trail of broken crayons and tissue paper bits in our wake. 

Bright colors! Fall is so inspiring to me.

You can see how I operate, huh?

What I am getting at (and I swear I'm not just writing this post as an excuse for my "habit" of collecting!), is that you never know when inspiration will strike. I live in New England and right now the trees are crazy with color. You can see my minivan swerving all over the road as I exclaim to my children (who may or may not actually be in the car with me), "Look at those leaves! Beautiful!" And, "OH! That sky!" And last night: "Look at those trees in the fog! WOW!"

This week has been VERY rainy here, which makes the colors of the leaves even more spectacular. I have pulled the car over at least four times in the last two days to pick flowers and pick up interesting shaped and colored leaves. The neighbors worry. My kids are embarrassed. The townsfolk must wonder who this woman is wandering about the town, staring at trees and asking random landscapers what type of leaf this is exactly....Yes, I did. And it was a silver maple leaf.

Yesterday I couldn't help myself. I was headed home to teach a private lesson where one of my students is creating a piece inspired by Georgia O'Keefe of a close up of a sunflower made with tissue paper on canvas using Elmer's glue (I'll post those picts soon) and I saw some beautiful flowers in the rain. They were golden yellow and pinky-red. At the same time! I drove by...I went back...and picked some. I then went home and created the piece in this post.

The minivan-stopping culprit. Gorgeous!
I don't know what type of flower it is, but the colors are fantastic!

Inspired.

Fall, I love you!