This is one of the many paintings by Franz Marc, a German expressionist at the beginning of the last century. He used vibrant colours to impart emotional values to his paintings: "Blue is the male principle, astringent and spiritual. Yellow is the female principle, gentle, gay and spiritual. Red is matter, brutal and heavy and always the colour to be opposed and overcome by the other two." Eric Carle was shown the work of Franz Marc when he was a child, and his most recent picturebook, The artist who painted a blue horse was created in homage to Franz Marc and his colourful paintings.
Front cover
This is the first post on my blog which features a book by Eric Carle, I've mentioned him once or twice, but not looked at a picturebook in detail. One of the first picturebooks I used and encouraged other teachers to use was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? (Bill Martin Jr & Eric Carle), and many of his picturebooks are used really successfully in ELT pre-school and primary classes - my personal favourites are From head to toe, The bad tempered ladybird, Do you want to be my friend?, The mixed up chameleon, The very busy spider, Draw me a star, Today is Monday, Little cloud, Dream Snow, Mister Seahorse as well as the picturebook of all picturebooks, The very hungry caterpillar.
Back cover
The artist who painted a blue horse is created in Carle's characteristic style, collages of colourful paper against painterly backgrounds. The back cover has eight blobs of paint framing his spidery signature. The endpapers are covered in brush strokes of many colours. I'm thinking maybe he's used his waste paper, the piece that covers his work top, on which he tries his paints, overflows onto when using stencils, or splats and splashes as he creates his pieces of art.
Front endpapers
The title page contains the colourful letters from the front cover and our first opening shows us our artist...
Opening 1
"I am an artist" is like "I am a penguin" from his wonderful From head to toe - an indisputable fact - with a colourful palette at hand and a brush full of blue paint, the character could be nothing but an artist.
Our first picture is indeed a blue horse, galloping across the page, as though running home at the end of a day in the paddock.
Opening 2
And our artist continues showing us many brightly coloured animals. A red crocodile, the bubbly water covering his tail. A yellow cow, my favourite, luminous against a dark background dotted with stars.
Opening 4
Then there's a pink rabbit, a green lion, an orange elephant, a purple fox, a black polar bear, and a polka-dotted donkey. The last opening shows us the artist, standing confidently, feet apart, looking out at the reader and the words state quite clearly, "I am a good artist".
Opening 12
Some of Eric Carle's picturebooks have special messages: The mixed up chameleon shows us how important it is that we accept who we are and value differences; The very busy spider helps readers see the importance of not giving up; Mister Seahorse promotes the role of fathers in bringing up their children. The artist who painted a blue horse is no exception, it encourages children to be creative and to use their imagination, to use colours that appeal to them personally and to enjoy colour. But even more importantly it tells teachers and educators that "there isn’t any wrong colour ... and you don’t have to stay within the line. As an artist you are supposed to be free." Anything goes says Mr Carle, and an artist can be a good artist at the flick of a paintbrush.
Better than my own description of this unique picturebook is Eric Carle telling us about it in a short film you can watch on Youtube, made for Puffin Books.
There's also a nice little classroom guide, designed by the penguin group, which can be downloaded here.
Finally, listening to Eric Carle talk about picturebooks, and his life creating them, is a wonderful way to spend an hour, so if you have a hour at hand, do take a peek at the talk he gave at Harvard in April 2010, The education of a good picture writer. It is WONDERFUL and you get a real feel for the boy who made the man, who created so many beautiful books, not to mention the work he has done promoting picturebooks for children through his museum of picture book art.
A big thank you to Eric Carle for all that he has done for children through his books. But a special thank you for this last offering, one I treasure and shall use in all my pre-school classes in the hope that it encourages the children I work with to think they are "good artists" too.
Last summer i was suffering from a mysterious foot injury and wasn't able to do any significant hiking because of it. The weather was pretty nice though, and it was driving me nuts not being able to get out into the mountains, so i decided to change my strategy. I've wanted an ATV for years, and in July i finally splurged and got one.
Once i had it i had to find out where i could ride it. Initially options seemed limited but soon i found out there were far more places i could use it than i expected, even some trails in a nearby National Park. You learn a lot on every ride, and it wasn't long before i was able to handle intermediate trails and river crossings. Still, i tried to stick close to home for the most part, not, for instance, driving 8 hours out to the Wrangles.
The header picture is from the Birds Creek Trail. The one directly above and below are from the Chain Lakes Trail, which i originally learned about from a ridiculously hardcore mountain biking book. This trail was very challenging for me, and my machine overheated because i was not aware that the previous owner had completely buried the radiator in a brick of thick mud.
I had to turn around here at this great view of Castle Mountain. Thunderstorms were approaching and the wind picked up as it got sucked up into the clouds.
Just above tree line you start getting a good view of the mountains
Just above that is this nice lake.
I got a 2009 Polaris Sportsman 500 EX. After adding a waterproof luggage compartment for the back i was able to put all my photo gear in it and safely ride through deep muddy water. It's allowed me to get to new places i've never been and see mountains previously out of site from areas i could access on foot.
What i've learned so far about ATV riding:
1. When you are riding an ATV you are "Living Life in God's Country"
2. Often ATV's become so damaged they must jettison all excess weight in order to get back safely. Some of the heaviest items are beer cans, and body panels.
3. Although they are equipped with winches and racks that make it super easy to bring along a saw or shovel, ATV riders cannot remove even small fallen trees on the trail. Instead it is necessary to make a new trail, or several new trails, around the fallen tree.
4. Likewise, if there is a 50 yard long deep mudhole on the edge of a bluff such that riding through it causes the water to splash over the side of the bluff, it is impossible to dig a 1 foot deep channel to the bluff edge to assist in draining the puddle.
5. Meeting someone else in full ATV gear is like two Stormtroopers meeting. You have no idea who the other person is, but you assume you are both working for the Empire.
6. Based on the lack of books or websites with useful trail information, i have to assume most ATV riders are illiterate.
8. ATV trails can be so incredibly exhausting to navigate that you may not have any energy left to go hiking when you get to the end of them.
7. Despite all the above, ATV's are awesome.
The Jim Creek area is probably the most popular place for ORV use. It's got marsh, rivers and streams, wide open dirt and gravel, and this cool area of forested sand dunes.
After 12 miles of crossing tributary streams and endless pools i called it quits for the day and turned around here. It's the closest i've been to the Knik Glacier, but it would still take around 12 more miles of riding to get there. Maybe a good overnight trip next summer so i'd have the energy to explore the glacier.
Unfortunately, i have found that riding for several hours seriously affects my tinnitus, even with earplugs. I don't know if it's the vibrations or the extended rides. So this winter i'm pondering weather or not to try to modify the machine to reduce noise and vibrations, or simply stop using it. It's kind of heartbreaking because i've found a new activity that i really enjoy.
They say the skilled or daring can cross the Kings River, but that is out of the question from what i've seen of it.
Nonami Takizawa(滝沢乃南Takizawa Nonami, born December 14, 1985) is a Japanese gravure idol, and a female talent. She is best known for her voluptuous figure. She is from Saitama, and her nickname is 'Nonamin' She retired from modelling as of 2011.
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