I AM AN ARTIST! I am?

Spent two weeks in Juneau, right before returning to Bethel for district-wide inservices, in what I look back on as Artist Boot Camp.  I had applied last spring for the Juneau Basic Arts Institute, as it's officially called.  I mean - it would be covered by a grant, I will get college credit out of it, and I get to learn some things that may be useful in my classroom.  Oh, and there would be four other teachers from my school attending.  Sounded pretty alright to me.

Then the syllabus came.  

And I started to get some doubts.  Dancing.  Ummm...  One out of the four classes would be devoted entirely to dancing.  Yeah.  That's a lot to ask.  Turns out, however, dancing can be fun.  Prancing around the room - yep - pretty entertaining.  Maybe on the simple fact that I'm only moving one-fourth of the time - the other three-fourths I'm watching my classmates.

Just doing a little igloo building.  Seriously.

In addition to dancing we did visual art, digital art, and cultural art.  Teachers were all wonderful.  Juneau was wonderful.  I made some things that turned out pretty well.  I learned some things that are proving to be quite useful.  And I got to see Juneau.

That's all my art.  Pretty.  Great.

Juneau is a beautiful city.  Located in Southeast Alaska, it is a major stopping point for the Alaska cruise ships.  As a result there are a number of things to do - restaurants, bars, shops, but the major attraction is the geography itself.  Mountains, rivers, the ocean, spruce trees, and the Mendenhall Glacier.  Fantastic.  So we hiked, climbed some mountains, saw about a hundred million bald eagles, about two hundred million spawning (ie dying) salmon.  Yeah.  Juneau is great.

Angie and Marcella after they ran a half marathon.

Hands down the best picture ever taken of me.  Angie looks good, too.  Email me - I'll send you a copy to post as your background.  It's that good.