Rainy Day Christmas

It’s the middle of Christmas Day, just after watching an afternoon movie with John and the girls, but before starting to make dinner and opening presents. The rain has tempered down to a drizzle and it’s warm enough to open the windows a little to hear the sounds outside. No, there’s no snow, but the sky is at least being weathery, and the raindrops look like tiny crystals hanging from the courtyard tree branches. I love it.

I started this holiday long weekend with a list of projects I thought I wanted to catch up on and a shortlist of to-dos, but I realized how ridiculous that seemed when I woke up yesterday. Instead, I am knitting. Last night we watched Netflix’s A Boy Called Christmas, and the main character spends pretty much all his screen time in a simple hand-knit red scarf that reminded me of the white one my Mom knitted for me when I was a kid. It inspired me to dig through boxes to find my old needles and some yarn.

I haven’t done any knitting in a LONG time, and my skills only included casting on and knitting & purling, but I unraveled the start of a decades-old project that I still kept because, well, that beautiful yarn!— and I’ve been gobbling up YouTube tutorials this weekend. So fun. I am happy to say that I don’t even know what time it is right now. I love days like that!

I hope that wherever you’re spending your Christmas weekend you’re with those you love, be they people or pets or both, and that you’re finding time to lose track of time too.

Merry Christmas!
~ Claudia

Happy Christmas to You!

I’ve been putting off writing about Pippin because I don’t really know where to start. It was all so overwhelming in the beginning that I didn’t blog about it, and then I didn’t know whether to start with the present moment or start from the beginning until we caught up. I finally decided I could do both, and so I am introducing Pippin with this photo that makes me feel so joyful. It was taken last year at the barn where we were boarding; they have a holiday get-together every year called “Christmas for the Horses” at which a real tree is decorated with carrots, apple slices, and candy canes; and the horses, decorated for the occasion by their owners or barn kids, are turned out two at a time to nibble away. In the photo above, Pippin (on the right) is with his best friend at the time, a newly-off-the-track Thoroughbred named Remy.

Once the horses have had a few minutes at the tree, they get to visit onlookers at the fence who offer more treats and pet their noses while the tree is redecorated for the next round.

Pippin loved it—he’s so gentle with kids!—and this festive event was one of the things that truly filled me with Christmas spirit.

I’m looking forward to finally putting down stories about my time with Pippin in this blog. It’s been one of the most amazingly beautiful-frustrating-rewarding adventures I’ve ever been on. Blessings abound, and I (and Pippin) wish you a joyful, happy Christmas :-)

This Moment in Time

A year and a half ago Covid cancelled my in-person work with the Ohio State School for the Blind, and it’s so good to be back again, sitting on my tiny chair at the round table in the art classroom. Through a TeachArts Ohio grant from the Ohio Arts Council in 2020, we were researching the history of the school, presenting and responding to our findings in creative ways. Before the pandemic shut down classrooms, we discovered a lot in the basement, in old school records, and on rarely seen walls— including a framed letter from Helen Keller herself!

While it was disappointing not to have our plans for exhibitions and an open house come to fruition, the pandemic honed our focus on one important thing: documenting the present moment in OSSB’s history. We reached out to staff, faculty, alumni and parents, asking them to share school memories, stories, or even anecdotes about themselves. Students shared OSSB experiences via quilt squares, wrote essays, and created artwork in response to the pandemic. They made self-portrait photographs to share parts of who they are. The result was a self-published book titled This Moment in Time. (have a look and/or purchase here!). A braille and audio version are also in the works.

The most rewarding part of the experience for me was my conversations with students about their artwork and writing, whether in the pre-Covid classroom or via Zoom while we were all at home. Sometimes funny, sometimes solemn—always poignant—our exchanges rarely stayed on the surface but dove into the heart of what were sometimes difficult, emotional topics.

It's an honor to be back via another TeachArts Ohio grant (thank you, OAC!) to resume work on the original concept for this project, creating a timeline of important events in the school's history. We’ll be making a series of display banners using image transfers and collage. Updates to come!