Daily Dose - March 22, 2020

Hello Friends,

Is a weekend really a weekend when you're staying home all week, too? We're all learning new patterns to our days and now to our weeks as well. Teachers are learning to teach—and students are learning to learn—remotely, everyone is learning to work and socialize and connect from afar, and many of us are learning far more than we ever wanted to know about epidemiology and logarithmic curves and details of hand sanitizer recipes. 

Sometimes all this learning and adjusting and adapting gets exhausting, and then we have to learn to stop, take a break, let it all go for a little while, and accept that it might take longer to do less, now.

The Chestertown Spy's label for this experience, The Great Slowdown, is a good description, but may also be good advice. This moment demands altered expectations. We will not accomplish as much as we're used to. Kids will not complete as much homework as usual. Uncertainty, stress, and fear don't promote efficiency.

Photo credit Maria Wood - true confessions time: I did not make these cranes

I took a day of rest today (mostly), and I may do so again tomorrow. And if I may be so bold, I suggest that we all let ourselves off the hook a little bit in the coming days and weeks (not for washing your hands, though). Let the extras go. We'll get through this and we can speed back up again later.

Wash your hands, get outdoors,

Create something, keep in touch

Maria Wood, Executive Director

KidSPOT CORNER

(also good for grownups!)

If you're feeling stressed, try Anchor Breathing, as shown in this video by a young friend from Utah. Let us know if it helps! 

On This Day in (mostly) Arts History

• 1963: The Beatles' first album, "Please Please Me," is released following the success of the singles "Please Please Me" and "Love Me Do" earlier in Great Britain. 
• 1948: Andrew Lloyd Webber, English composer and musical theatre impresario, was born.
• 1930: Stephen Sondheim, American musical theatre composer and lyricist, was born.
• 1808: Caroline Norton, English feminist, social reformer, and author was born. (d. 1877)
• 1784: The Emerald Buddha was moved moved with great ceremony to its current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand

Arts Trivia

The first person to email the correct answer to mariawood@chestertownriverarts.org gets a shout-out in tomorrow's email. 

Journal/Sketching at Home

From Watercolor Artist and RiverArts Instructor Jim Mahla:

Many artists like to travel and keep a journal of their surroundings and observations while in unfamiliar and or exotic locations. I started doing travel journals several years ago after taking a workshop with AWS member Don Getz. (Google him for some ideas)Since that time I have filled several journal books with my own sketches and thoughts about what I saw. I also began teaching Journaling Workshops.

With the situation that we are faced with at this time I thought why not start journaling close to home. A view out the window of your home. The first daffodils of the season, your favorite garden ornament or even the lowly dandelion. Make a few notes about the weather, or even your thoughts about the dilemma that the world is in today. You may look back on your writings and realize how tough we really are.

No need to be elaborate. Start small, just some sketch paper or your favorite watercolor or pastel paper. Sketch away. Cut the paper to an 81/2” x 11” size and when you have several finished sketches punch them with a 3 hole punch and put them in a binder.

If you decide to share your results and with who is entirely up to you, just relax and let your mind be absorbed by your art.

Notes from my workshop: Some goals:

• To record all the big and little things around you that make you happy.
• To remember what you saw and record it with your own hand and heart. – To slow down and notice the world around you.
• For the sheer joy of doing it.

Sketching your life can be as simple as drawing the little things like a flower, to documenting a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Many of us have always kept written journals, grown-up versions of those teenage diaries where we wrote our deepest thoughts and feelings. Keeping a sketchbook of your life is a little bit like that except it holds not only your thoughts and feelings, but also your own sketches of the world around you – In a way that only you can do it, bravely putting pen to paper and adding your favorite medium for a completely satisfying experience.