Bex Hall

Bex Hall > Creative Education

Creative Education

It’s been a weird few months.

Ginkgo leaf.

The first eight of this year I was enthusiastic with art, writing, blogging, and all things creative.

But September came and momentum screeched to a halt. I felt some guilt and anxiety for not keeping up the “schedule” I’d set for myself.

October was a wash for regular activities. The Walk When the Moon is Full project timing didn’t work out so well. The phenology wheel and journal only saw some errant notes with a few doodles on scratch paper to be transferred later. Tomorrow. Next week.

The negativity I felt subsided and instead, I acknowledge I needed some time off. Some time to rejuvenate. Regroup. Refresh. And other Re- words as well.

I’ve been experimenting with printing leaves. Thinking about setting up an online shop. Dreaming of building a new studio. Looking at classes to take and what I might teach others. 

And writing. Always writing and reading and learning more.

I guess I’ve been creative just behind the scenes. Quiet. That’s how I’ve felt lately.

Today is the 324th day of the year. I have written and posted 196 blog entries. My intention was to post something every day. I did the first 100 days, then the frequency lapsed. 

What other goals did I have? I returned to my first blog post from January 20th and re-read my intentions.

The overall plan was to document and share what I’m learning and doing. To include those of you interested in a creative path and practice. To make connections and discover what it is we want to say and do.

Did any of this happen?

Some. Maybe. I don’t know.

A quote from Emerson hit home this morning: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

What is within me that can be of value to others? How can I be of service? What’s the next step?

What’s my next step?

I’m going to keep going down this path and my hope is along the way, we meet, we create, and we find the answers together.

Until next time, may your life be filled with creativity, curiosity, and lots of love. xox

Which way do I go?

Black walnut harvest is fun adventure

Ellie gathering walnuts.

Part of our property has an abundance of black walnut trees and my husband suggested we check if anyone in our area buys the nuts.

Turns out a company called Hammons has a buying station nearby. I called and they pay $18 for 100 pounds. I envisioned how this would be a great teachable exercise for Ellie, who’s almost-eight. She would learn the value of being paid for work, about saving money, and basic math. It would be fun for the family.

My husband, Charlie, in response to my vision, says, “I just want to walk through here without turning my ankle.” 

It’s okay to have different dreams.

So, to get an idea of the project, I grabbed a 2-gallon bucket and timed myself as I filled it. Five minutes. I weighed it on the bathroom scale. Ten pounds. So ten buckets = 100 pounds in less than an hour – easy.

Even the dogs helped.

Then Charlie mentions they might weigh them AFTER they’re hulled. This is something I hadn’t considered. 

I called and confirmed it was true. I did some research and learned it takes 220 pounds of walnuts in their hulls to get 100 pounds in the shell. It was going to be more work.

And it was. Four of us spent a few hours gathering nuts in buckets and bags. Our backs became weary and even though we wore gloves, our fingers became stained black from the overripe walnuts. 

Black walnut stain.

We filled the back of the car with the fruits of our labor and headed to the farm store. The hulling machine chugged to life, and we dumped bagfuls of walnuts into its bin. A conveyor carried them up and into a covered area which separated the nut from its hull. It conveyed the remnants in the opposite direction and dumped into a wagon, and the hulled nuts deposited into a mesh bag on the other side.

At the hulling machine.
Ellie and Sarah dumping walnuts

The final weight was 75 pounds. $13.50. Divided by four. $3.38 per person. 

Which was exactly how much Ellie needed to buy a tiny pumpkin and some cat treats from the farm store.

We didn’t have conversations about savings, nor did we have lessons in math. We had little money to show for our efforts. But what we had, though, was time spent together. And that was priceless.

See a short video below.

I love new art supplies

Portable Painter Micro

New art supplies! The Portable Painter arrived yesterday and I haven’t traveled with it yet, but used it to create a mixing chart and I love it. It holds six half pans but will accommodate full ones. It fits in the palm of the hand but opens, slides together, and provides a water well and mixing trays.

On the Scratchmade Journal website, I downloaded a free color mixing chart template and followed along to create a palette from my six colors. She has other charts available as well. 

Portable Painter with color mixing chart

Here’s to new art supplies and newfound artists, cheers!

What I learned today about fungi

Pac-man fungi

What you see here, I think, is some sort of Pac-man-like game the trees are playing using the mycorrhizal network. Not as fast paced as what we play electronically, but then nature has its own timetable and pace. 😊

FYI: mycorrhizal (from Greek, Myco, “fungi” and Rhiza, “root”). The complex network connecting trees is dependent on a symbiotic relationship with microbes in the soil like fungi and bacteria. This symbiotic relationship between tree roots and fungi is known as the mycorrhizal network. —Science In The News, May 6, 2019 by Valentina Lagomarsino, Harvard.edu

A young writer observes and reports and brings me to tears

Ellie’s story

Ellie, at almost-eight, informs me of her need for a notebook, for school. We rifle through Pawpaw’s stash with intense consideration. This one, the paper is too slick. That one, the paper doesn’t feel right. She tests the lead from my Zebra M301 mechanical pencil on each page with careful penmanship and declares the steno pad the perfect match between graphite and paper.

She takes her new tools with her as we run errands around the property in the Gator™️. We drive through the yard. The grass is green. Dappled light filters through the trees. The sun is yellow. The sky is blue. She turns to me with an astonished look as she points at the fluffy cumulus and writes, the clouds are white.

We finish and head home. The house is brown.

Inside, in our pajamas, she continues to write with an occasional spelling request. After some time, she asks me to read her three new sentences out loud. Because they are short, I can get through all the words but the last one, before my voice cracks.

The heart is red. The family is love. Inside my heart.