Face 1:  Howard Hankins and the Abandoned Presidents
In Croaker, Virginia stands a sight that would make just about anyone stop in their tracks. 43 ghostly busts of presidents crowded together in the tall grass. A bust is a statue from the chest up. Some of the twenty foot busts have crumbling noses. Tear-like stains fall from the eyes of others. All have bashed-in heads to some degree. This is the abandoned Virginia’s Presidents Park. Presidents Park first opened in nearby Williamsburg in 2004, the brainchild of local landowner, “Haley” Newman and Houston sculptor David Adickes, who were inspired after driving past Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. But their presidential visions soon went bust. The park, which cost about $10 million to create, went belly-up due to a lack of visitors in 2010. That’s where Hankins, who helped build the park, comes in. Before the land was auctioned off, Newman asked him to destroy the busts. But Hankins didn't feel right about it and instead offered to take the heads and move them to his 400-acre farm. And so began the laborious process of moving 43 giant presidents, each weighing in between 11,000 and 20,000 pounds, to a field ten miles away. Each bust had to be lifted by a crane, cracking the sculpture’s neck to get the full piece off the ground. Then, each president was loaded onto a flatbed truck and hauled away to Hankins’ property. They all now sit decaying in three neat lines on the farm (except for George Washington, who stands to the side overlooking the group), where they continue to crumble, peel and crack.

Hankins’ heads may have a new home soon. He’s working with a couple local governments to find a good site to rebuild the museum. His vision is a grand one that takes the original Presidents Park model, which included a visitor center with presidential memorabilia and a re-creation of the Oval Office, to a new level. Hankins envisions a new incarnation complete with Air Force One fuselage, Secret Service museum, First Lady memorabilia, Wounded Warriors room, interactivity and more. His goal, says Hankins, is to build something both local children and local economies can benefit from while educating the public and making money. But mostly, he says, he’s keeping his battered presidential dream alive for the kids.
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CREATIVE THINKING SKILL:  RESCUE
The creative spirit seeks to rescue, to save, those things that have value, but are overlooked

Face 2:  MISSY RUNAWAY is an American artist who left the United States in 2013 to study art in Turkey. She used to keep a written diary, but began recording her days by painting in a Moleskine sketchbook with acrylic ink. Her medium is portable, so she was able to pack up her art supplies and continue travelling. The book slowly grew into a collection of one hundred landscapes that depict her journey through New York, Istanbul, central Turkey, the Moroccan Sahara and Paris. 

Missy's paintings have exhibited internationally in Brooklyn, Washington DC, Chicago, Berlin, Zurich, Istanbul and the UK. Her work has been acquired by the Folger Shakespeare Library, Carnegie Mellon University, and placed by RxArt. Pages from her book of paintings are featured in Dawn DeVries Sokol's book, A World of Artist Journal Pages, published in 2015. Her work has also been featured in The National Audubon Society, The Wall Street Journal and Today’s Zaman. 

CREATIVE THINKING SKILL: IMAGES
Mind mapping, sketching, and other forms of art are a powerful way to transport the artist back to a place or a time... perhaps even more powerful than writing.

​Face THREE:  Miss Hesse's ARTIST FRIEND
Yesterday we learned about Missy Runaway who kept a visual travel journal. Today we learn about, Aline, a friend of Miss Hesse's who did the same. In 1998, Miss Hesse went on a trip with twenty other teachers to Eastern Europe. One of the conditions of going was keeping a detailed daily journal. Aline, who was an art teacher, received permission to keep a visual journal. She gave each person a copy of her journal after the trip. Today we will look at a few pages from that journal and listen to Miss Hesse tell about the images.

CREATIVE THINKING SKILL: IMAGES
Mind mapping, sketching, and other forms of art are a powerful way to transport the artist back to a place or a time... perhaps even more powerful than writing.

"Do you see me? I usually have on a headband and am writing in my journal if we aren't touring or in class. I kept my hair short and in a headband because we couldn't use anything electric, including hair dryers, flat irons, etc. Pretty much wash you hair and go. I remember where I was here. Sitting at a bus stop. My roommate for the six weeks we were gone is at the top left. No short legged pants in Eastern Europe. It wasn't culturally accepted. Either long dresses or long pants."

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"Wow, does this bring back memories! We climbed to the top of the castle in Prague, not knowing there was a much easier way to get there. We would climb and rest, then climb and rest. This drawing does a much better job of capturing just how hard that climb was than my photograph! You see --art is able to express feelings through symbolism, much better than a photo."

"We went on a van tour of the Bavarian forest, visiting hidden away castles. The ride was twisty, up and down (there were mountains) and covered everywhere with pine trees. My measly photo showing the pine trees along the road doesn't do what this drawing does!"

"We were excited about our train ride from Prague to Budapest --that is until we got on the train. Since it was an overnight train ride, we had sleeping compartments. However, they were nothing like we expected. Crowded, three-tiered --barely enough room for all our luggage, and VERY hot. No air-conditioning and only a tiny window for the July weather. This drawing closes in on you. You feel cramped just looking at it. I can still feel the heat and being unable to move when I look at it."

"Do you see me? Aline was always careful to make her sketches of each person stay true to what they looked like. I still can remember each person just by looking at her drawings. In this drawing, we all crammed into a cable car that took us to the top of Zakopane in Poland. It got colder and colder as we went up, until finally... we were at the top of the snowy mountain."

"Here I am again. Her sketch of me is a somewhat irritating reminder that I am basically two long legs attached to a short body. She also captured me doing what I typically do --see the world with a camera in my face. The other lady who looks sad, probably was. We all secretly called her the "shopaholic!" She had two faces. Smiles when there were things to buy, and gloom when there wasn't. She bought so much stuff she had to ship it home periodically throughout the trip."

"The top sketch is of my roommate taking a huge plunge. We climbed to the top of a burial mound in Krakow, Poland. Instead of going back down the path, she decided she would RUN down the incline. Bad idea. She started rolling and rolling. Lucky she didn't break her legs. Of course, none of us had a camera on her at the time. Aline's sketches were never dependent up timing.

The bottom sketch is one of my favorites. Do you see me? We were eating in the only Jewish restaurant in Krakow. Before the Holocaust there were 65,000 Jews living in Krakow. When we were there, there were less than 100. The restaurant was very old, with mahogany tables covered with crocheted tablecloths. There were menorahs on the antique sideboards lining the walls. We listened to a small Klezmer band perform songs, and we dined on traditional dishes. It was a very special night. I took a photo of the menorah that was just over my shoulder. I will never forget it...

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Face FOUR:  DEGAS AND MISTY
Remember Misty Copeland?  She was a "Face of Creativity" for Week 4 last year. ( http://www.weinerelementary.org/week-45.html ). Misty Copeland, principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, appears in Harper's Bazaar magazine to recreate iconic paintings and sculpture from impressionist painter Edgar Degas. With her presence, Misty once again disrupts the historical whiteness of ballet.

In the Harper's article, she explains why she loves to dance. "I was drawn to ballet and performing for a reason that I think a lot of people can't really understand or relate to," she says. "People think it's like, 'You're out there,' or 'You're exposed.' But I felt safe when I was on the stage, like no one could get to me. It was the first time in my life that I felt protected."

CREATIVE THINKING SKILL:  MERGE
Creativity looks for ways to bring together two creative ideas and make them one...

​http://www.boredpanda.com/perfectionism-at-work/

DAY 5:  TOO MUCH PERFECTIONISM REMINDER!
A couple of weeks ago we looked at perfectionism. Too much perfectionism often robs you of your creativity. You are afraid of making a mistake, so you never try new things and grow. Too much perfectionism steals your creativity and replaces it with boredom.

Today, however, we will look at images of what might be called "Creative Perfectionism." Completing these creations would drive most of us crazy, but each is fun to look at and shows how perfectionism can really organize things!  Perhaps it is a reminder that creativity will never be stopped by boundaries. It is also a reminder that perfectionism is great for organization!

CREATIVE THINKING SKILL: ORGANIZE
Creative perfectionism can organize things so they are easy to find, make great use of space, and even entertain!

spices