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One will find her kicks on Route 66 ... and another down her own garden path |
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Tuesday, April 15 2008 |
 Post & Mail image/Chris Meyers
By CHRIS MEYERS
Staff writer
One will spend the summer traversing Route 66 while searching for growth in numerous artistic classes and experiences on the road, and one will spend the summer getting all the rebirth and renewal she needs from a project right in her own backyard.
Together they will be getting the most from what both consider a great honor and privilege — to be the recipients of the most recent round of $8,000 grants from the Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Fellowship grants.
Sarah Corey, an art teacher at Indian Springs Middle School, isn’t quite sure when exactly her trip will begin, but not having a specific schedule is part of the joy for her.
Throughout the trip she’ll be stopping at workshops along the way and focusing on plein (open) air painting, murals, photography, ceramics and glass art.
“It’s kind of been a necessity in my life,” Corey said of all forms of art. Although the four-year-teacher has always loved art, she didn’t start out on that path in college, having spent the first two years majoring in business before making the change.
“I’ve always had that calling and desire to be an artist,” she said recently while talking about her summer plans.
A lifelong love is also at the heart of South Whitley Elementary teacher Lynn Plummer-Studebaker’s project, which will be giving new life to a greenhouse in her yard that once stood on the grounds of Whitko High School.
Its fate was almost a dismal one, with plans in store to demolish it and sell or recycle the material.
“I couldn’t bear to see that happen,” Studebaker said.
So, she and her husband, Danny, paid $200 for it and went about the undertaking of getting it from the school grounds to their backyard, something that was no easy task despite Danny Studebaker’s shrug of the shoulders when praised by Lynn for his work in moving the greenhouse as one whole piece.
Danny Studebaker said he built a series of skids and flats to put the greenhouse on while it was carried on a trailer from Whitko to their home just a few miles away.
He was also instrumental in getting a knee-high wall of cinder blocks built as the base for the greenhouse glass to rest upon.
For Lynn, gardening came into her life when her father passed away and taking care of the gardens at the family house became her responsibility.
“When my Dad died, I took over all the gardening for my Mom,” Studebaker said recently. And it’s a passion she won’t be giving up any time soon.
Throughout the rest of the school year, she plans for her elementary students to help start annuals, perennials and day lilies to put in the greenhouse.
“For a good month, they’ll be taking care of them at school,” she said.
Lilies are something Studebaker especially likes, with countless bunches growing in her yard.
“I started with six, one-gallon pots and now I have thousands,” she said.
Many of the students’ plantings will also end up in the courtyard at SWES so the children can see their work grow and develop, offering them a place of pride.
“There will always be something for them to see,” Studebaker said of the roses and perennials that will be growing at the school.
In addition to helping students grow flowers and plants that are pleasing to look at, she also hopes the experience will help the students to be able to eventually grow gardens of their own for food purposes.
Studebaker doesn’t limit her gardening tasks on her own time to just flowering plants either, with equal devotion to both vegetable-producing plants and flowering varieties.
But it won’t just be all dirty fingernails and fun with plantings. Studebaker said many educational science standards will be involved in the project as well.
But bringing back fully-developed plants from the greenhouse for the students to see, or having them visit the greenhouse, will also the biggest highlights of the project for Studebaker.
For Corey, it will be works of art and stories from the road that she’ll bring back to the students this fall.
“My whole plan is to discover the artist within,” and share it with the students, she said.
Taking in the various cultures, especially those of Native Americans, along the way will be one of the main focuses of the trip.
Corey’s grandfather, who recently passed away, was an avid learner of Native American cultures and Corey is looking forward to getting to know those same things her grandfather found fascinating.
The journey will start in Chicago with two days and nights of a glass works class, and from there it will be on to St. Louis for a stop at the city’s art museum before getting back onto Route 66 and heading to Tulsa, Okla. for an overnight stay and another stop at a museum.
Once she gets farther west the fun really starts, with the chance to paint the beautiful desert scenery and cliff sides while out in the environment with them, although Corey isn’t sure yet if she’ll be able to use her favorite oil-based paints in the desert heat. She’s got an assortment of water-based paints as a back-up just in case.
She plans to spend two or three days in Albuquerque, NM and reservations in that area before heading to the Grand Canyon and her the last two destinations of San Diego and Mission Viejo.
While there she plans to work with murals and other paintings while she attends various workshops and art classes being offered in the area.
For both, it will be a summer of diving into their respective passions, hoping to bring back the joys of the journeys to share with the students.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I’m so thankful to the Lilly Foundation for offering this,” Corey said. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, April 16 2008 )
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