LeeAnne Wallace Memorial Scholarship Fund

LeeAnne’s husband, David, and I have frequently been asked if there were a way to make a charitable donation in LeeAnne's name. Today,I would like to announce that we are in the process of setting up a tax-exempt nonprofit scholarship fund in her memory. One purpose of the fund, amongst others, would be to offer the experience of attending an Art & Soul retreat to those who are unable to afford it (e.g. students). For those wishing to donate to the fund, checks can be made out to "The LeeAnne Wallace Memorial Art & Soul Scholarship Fund" and mailed to Lee's husband David at the following address:

David Granovetter

209 Sherry Court

San Jose, CA 95119

An alternate way of making a charitable contribution to the fund would be as follows (previously posted to Lee's blog): For Lee, creating art was her soul work. Her passion. Her meditation. Her art was inherently linked to her connection to the endless seasons and cycles of life and to her eclectic spirituality. She would continually encourage our children, other young people who hung out in our garage/studio (and all others for that matter) to follow their life's passion, whatever that may be. To that end, it would also honor her greatly for anyone to do just that: Create a work of art of any type and donate it to the fund. It would later be auctioned off at one of the Art & Soul retreats and the proceeds donated to the scholarship fund.

I am very pleased that we can honor Lee in this manner. A scholarship program is something that I have wanted to accomplish for quite some time. More details will be forthcoming as the fund criteria is finalized. I had the opportunity to discuss this with Lee and have her blessing. She is guiding us through the process.

LeeAnne and Misty at Art & Soul Portland Oct 2008

Boring Weather!

We rarely get more than a few sprinkles of snow each year in the Portland area -- and it is always a major news event when the flakes begin to fall. Last week was no exception as we all raced to the windows to watch Mother Nature in action. The kids pray for the roads to be covered -- our snow is usually very wet/icy making driving trecherous -- so schools are closed almost immediately.

WELL --- one week later, and it is still snowing! We have almost three feet on the ground in beautiful Boring, our neighboring town has declared a State of Emergency and everyone is going crazy. People have not been able to finish their shopping and the streets are a mess. The cities do not have fleets of snow removal equipment and they have had to call for assistance. It has been 40 yrs since Portland has seen weather like this.

Fortunately for me -- I work at home. No putting a "Closed due to weather" sign on my front door. Heh heh heh. Although, I have been without power for a couple of days, and the phone/cable/internet is off and on making communication difficult. But I am blessed to be able to take care of attendees without too much interruption. It is truly a winter wonderland.

Road in front of the house

A good neighbor clearing my driveway

Covered in snow!

Christmas Tradition

Abigail has been working on our traditional Gingerbread house. We had much better luck this year than last --- our poor house last year kept collapsing. Vonnie finally used the glue gun and put the walls together. Not edible, but functional. This one IS edible and the boys can hardly wait to devour it.Quality control is a very important part of the process!

Decorated Cottage

This year,I actually managed to reduce my collection of Christmas decorations. It was very difficult, but needed to be done. There is a lot less house to decorate in the Cottage than there was in the Lodge! I kept things most sentimental and even then have way too much. It is kind of sad that we only enjoy these things for a few weeks each year -- but then, maybe that is the enduring charm of the memorabilia.

Bee took some fabulous pics of our Christmas tree. I always have birds or an owl as part of the decor.

Life Updates

We have been working furiously on the classes for Portland 09. The jury completed their selections last month and it has taken weeks to work and re-work the schedule to try and fit classes to classrooms. The result is a fantastic line-up and once again, I am excited about the next Portland event. Vonnie is in the process of uploading the info to the website and our target date to go live is February 15. Registration will begin on March 1.

Pica helping Bee arrange classes for Portland.

Then it is always a daunting task to re-pack and return the samples. Vonnie got lots of help and advice from Annie.

Not to be outdone -- Sophie joined me as the main attraction in the "in box".

Bee has joined us in Nov and Dec at Duck Pond Cottage. This last visit, she brought her camera and got some great shots of our newest family member….Ringo. He is a Gloucester Corona Canary and the funniest bird I have ever seen --- with a perfect toupee. I made the big mistake of going to a bird show (took Bee with me) -- he was in a silent auction and I just had to bid. Happily, I won the bid. He is joined by Pavarotti (so named because he sings like a canary – heh heh heh) and Princess Buttercup. Buttercup is a rescue canary. She has seizures and falls off of her perch. She was given to me as she could not be used for breeding or sold. She needed a home to care for her – and that is our place. Buttercup has been fine since she has been with us and is happy to sit on Abby’s finger. The trio (especially “Pavvy”) makes happy sounds and keeps me company as I work.
My kitties were very pleased with the new arrivals and it was a challenge to keep them off the cages (squirt bottles work well). Now they realize that the birds are not lunch, here to stay and actually are pretty boring behind those bars.

Ringo

Horsing Around

We had so much fun for Halloween this year. Abigail and Secret competed in their first horse show last weekend. One of the classes was a costume contest and Abby had decided that she and her horse would be fairies. Ruth had given Abby the book Fairy Houses by Barry & Tracy Kane which was her inspiration for the costumes. Gathering the costume items, Vonnie found the perfect set of wings for Secret and we devised a way to attach them to her back. There was only one small complication….Secret was terrified of the wings. It was pretty pathetic to watch a huge 15 hand horse tremble anytime she saw them coming at her. Fortunately, we had two weeks to ease her fears and by contest night, she wore her wings like a trooper. Abby wanted flowers in her tail and mane and we made a flower tiara to wear behind her ears. Getting the tail and mane ready

The two fairies took 2nd place out of 19 – it was a very exciting evening for all of us.

Special Announcement!

I am very pleased to announce that Bee Shay will be joining the Art & Soul Staff. Bee brings countless experience and talent to our team and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have her as an integral part of Art & Soul. Bee is making her teaching debut for us in Virginia next May. She has been a Folk artist and oil painter for almost 30 years, and turned mixed media about 12 years ago. She's been teaching some form of handcraft or art since 1978, more on than off. Bee majored in art in high school for all four years and one year of college...self education has been the key from there on. Learn by "doing" has been her basic mode of self instruction. She has spent 10 years actively involved in the Stencil Artisan's League (SALI), an international non-profit organization dedicated to the teaching and furthering of traditional American Folk Art. Working on both the local level (serving on the local board at all levels and traveling instructor); and also on the national board as Educational Chairman and National Convention Chairman. In the early '90's she switched gears and began working in the paper arts world when bitten by rubber stamps and has taught in stores and small private workshops since.

As you can see, we have a lot in common! We love our pets and have a deep affinity for birds.

You may review her work on her blog: www.beeshay.typepad.com

With Marie, Jan, Bee and Vonnie --- not to mention the most dedicated volunteers in the Universe, Art & Soul ROCKS!!