Author: Joy Murray

I'm a 60 year old artist in Memphis, Tennessee. I spend my life trying to catch stories, give them form, color and light, then send back out into the world.

A New Season of Blogging

Posted in Uncategorized4 Comments

It doesn’t seem like it’s been since July since I last posted here.  Two things kept me away from blogging.  I was in the lull of summer.  The heat just does me in.  It was particularly warm here in Portland, Oregon, and the heat held until yesterday.  Today a soft rain is falling, it’s 69 degrees and I feel a renewed sense of energy.

The other thing was a bit of post-ARTum depression. Do you ever get that?  You finish a big project, you’re happy with it, and you’re glad it’s done. Then you sink into malaise and can’t focus on anything.  I finished writing the 12 Lessons for Greatness and had a great list of things I wanted to do.  What I wound up doing, though, is reading like crazy.  It’s such a good way to cure that feeling of being drained.  I need to plan for that period of malaise and restoration after each project.  There’s no need to rush into another project without properly resting and refilling your creative spirit.

Although I’ve written the material for the 12 Lessons for Greatness, it’s inspired a new interest in helping parents find resources for teaching their kids values.  The word “values” has been politicized so much in the past decades, and yet we yearn for intelligent creative ways to teach our children lessons that will help them as they grow and work.  Fortunately, the YuhuHugs company is committed to making it easier to find playful ways for children to learn.  I’ll be posting news concerning that effort soon.

For the blog, I will continue to post my own experiences with my community, Bridge Meadows, where I work with kids who have been adopted out of the foster care system. 

I’ll also post stories and illustrations as I create them. I’ll share links to cool websites I find.

I had stopped reviewing books for a while because I had too much going on.  I keep reading great things, though, and will be re-starting book reviews.  I’ll lean towards reviews of children’s books — from picture books to young adults.  I also have a fondness for books from independent presses. I love illustrated books of all kinds.  I’ll be reviewing old books, too — even out of print books if I find a particularly lovely gem.   If you have a book you’d like to see reviewed on my blog, please let me know.  Almost all of the books I review will end up in the Bridge Meadows community library, so it will be appreciated by many.

You can read some of my previous book reviews here.

For now, it’s a rainy afternoon, and I must get on with my reading.  I’ll write again soon.

 

The Dream Hut Stories

Posted in Uncategorized1 Comment

Since January, I’ve had the pleasure of working with a the makers of the modern playhouse, the Dream Hut:

It’s an indoor playhouse, designed to unfold and then fold back up. It has a great European design and can be converted into a desk and wardrobe.  It has magnetic scenes that can be changed, a tablet portal as well as a chalk board. It’s both modern and traditional and has a bit of the magic wardrobe feel to it.  It was also rated one of the best playhouses in the US:  http://www.mercadodedinerousa.com/noticias-destacadas/37670best-playhouses-in-us-big-prices-big-differences/

The part I played was in helping write stories and essays on values that are a free download for anyone who wants them.  The stories are a part of the 12 LESSONS FOR GREATNESS, that they want available to help families teach values, and also to encourage families to spend time together reading.  The 12 lessons are on optimism; curiosity; patience; imagination; courage; enthusiasm; honesty; a sense of humor; adaptability; idealism; knowledge; and communication.

They’ve written about the project on their blog.   Since we’re down to the last two values, they’ve started doing some promotion, so I thought I’d share this link with  you:

http://playmorebemore.com/2014/07/portland-author-artist-behind-yuhu-hugs/

Yuhu and Hugs are characters with boundless imaginations but who also have to deal with real world challenges like being sick, not getting their way, and being deceived. The essays give parents a way to promote family values; and the stories show how the kids put values into action.  And they have fun doing so.  The values are not dogmatic or religious — they are what we need to live better lives and achieve our own personal greatness.


For the stories, I’ve gotten feedback from the children I work with at Bridge Meadows on the adventures of Yuhu and Hugs.  From these stories, and the children in my neighborhood, I learn over and over again the beauty of the motto, Play more, be more!

I am working on our last two values.  Meanwhile, you can start getting your downloads here:
http://www.yuhuhugs.com/lessons-12

Here’s a video of how the Dream Hut works:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHzLmvnB-24

Thanks for visiting and let me know what you think 🙂

Stand By Me

Posted in Bravo Youth Orchestra, Bridge Meadows, children in poverty, community, hope, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, music, poverty, Rosa Parks Elementary, stand by me3 Comments

I got to see a short concert by the Bravo Youth Orchestra this morning.

The orchestra is from Rosa Parks, the elementary school a few blocks away from Bridge Meadows, where I live.  The orchestra started last year with an intensive music program and now the kids are performing in venues all over the city.  The kids have various levels of mastery, but they’re all living better lives because of the Bravo Program.  Here’s their Mission in their own words from their website:

 

 “MISSION

BRAVO transforms the lives of underserved youth through intensive classical music instruction emphasizing collaboration, promoting self-confidence, and creating a community where children thrive.

VISION

Inspired by El Sistema in Venezuela, BRAVO will establish in Oregon a network of youth orchestras for social change serving both urban and rural communities with a high concentration of poverty.

VALUES

  • Inclusion: Embracing racial, cultural and economic diversity by honoring the unique contributions of each child and family.
  • Equity: Improving academic and social outcomes of underserved children.
  • Excellence: Pursuing the highest musical standards through rigorous education.
  • Social Responsibility: Encouraging children
    to participate in their communities.
  • Joy: Strengthening the spirit in all that we do.”

 

That’s professional bassist Andre St. James who helps with the orchestra.  It hurts and astounds him that these orchestras aren’t in every school. 

Can programs like this really work?  I can see the success in the shining eyes of the children as they tuned their instruments, and again as they concentrated on the sheet music.  The best part was when they closed their eyes as they were swept up in their own playing.  The orchestra has professional musicians, teachers and college apprentices to help unify the music.  The children hear excellence and rise to the occasion.   They sing the parts they can’t quite play yet and the sound of their young voices was a delight.

They played a variety of pieces, including Stand By Me, the beautiful old song by Ben E. King.  The conductor said some of the children found out the teachers got the more difficult parts of the music, so the kids took the the sheet music home, practiced more and were ready to play along for the whole song.  Other members sang the lyrics and it touched my heart to hear I won’t be afraid, I won’t shed a tear, as long as you stand by  me.

We so need to stand by our children, offer them the instruments and the education they need to grow to their

Quick sketch of equity, excellence and joy

full potential.  Programs like this shouldn’t be rare.  We are a wealthy nation and yet our children are experiencing poverty and neglect at alarming rates. I see the way neglect breaks children down — and it’s not just the poverty.  Poverty is a manageable fact of life.  It’s the social neglect, underfunding of education, and very real lack of safety nets for many families. It’s seeing wealth all around them.  It’s the shame and derision we heap upon those who are poor. That wears down the resilience of us all.  It keeps the souls of children from flowering.

But this group nourishes parched souls.  No matter what else happens in these children’s lives, they will have music.  They can turn back to it again and again.  We all stood to sing We Shall Overcome with them.  How very moving to hear the voices of the elders of this community, the children we mentor, and these young musicians join together in the spirit of that song.  We are among the very lucky.  Deep in my heart, I hope to see that luck become common. 

“Music Changes Everything” was written on the back of some of their T-shirts. If you’d like to see more of that change, check out their website:

http://oregonbravo.org/

You can see a news segment about the origins of the orchestra here:

http://www.kgw.com/news/Nonprofit-gives-Rosa-Parks-school-first-ever-instruments-234681601.html

Keep a song in your heart and thanks for reading my post.

The Bones of Art

Posted in art with kids, Bridge Meadows, community, drawing, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, kid wisdom, painting, teaching art6 Comments

I teach art for all ages at the community center in my neighborhood Bridge Meadows.  Most of my students are children.  I try to make an easy going place for kids to express themselves, learn to deal with mistakes, and have a good time.  I do minimal instruction but give guidelines.  I also try to get them the best materials we can afford because I think the the kids deserve it. The better the materials, the less frustration.

One of my youngest students is Tomas, who is 4.  He’s loves to paint.  He doesn’t want crayons, markers or pencils.  He wants to slop around with watercolors. 

I hold class from 4:30 til 6 on Monday.  Children come late sometimes, but Tomas came with his brothers and mom at 5:45 and wanted to paint.  All the other kids that day were working with markers, oil pastels and colored pencils.  I didn’t want to get everything set up for him to paint when he was going to leave 10 minutes later.

“Let’s just draw today,” I told him.

“No I want to paint!” he said.

“But you need to draw sometimes, too.  You know drawing is like the skeleton of painting.  It’s the bones that hold paintings up.  You  know, like your bones hold you up.  Drawing holds up painting.   It’s the bones of art.”

He looked a bit mystified. 

“Not if you’re a snowman,” he said.

And that’s one of the great rewards of  working with children — they put things in perspective for you.

Mixing colors
Tomas’ Monday Masterpiece

For more posts on life at Bridge Meadows, you can click the tab in the heading.  You can read my latest post about it here:  Living the Rich Life.

I appreciate your comments, likes and shares.