Art in Action in New York -- Final Destination of USA Tour!

After Pennsylvania came New Jersey, where pumpkins also abounded!

From TV and movies I had always thought of New Jersey as one big grimy dilapidated inner city projects area. I found that it was nothing of the sort. In fact, I discovered they have some of the most beautifully restored and well maintained historic homes in the country! The friends I stayed with, Diane and Steve Workman, were no exception. Their century old house, nestled in the quiet New Jersey suburb of Glen Rock, inspired me into action and I created this pen and watercolor painting as a gift for their hospitality.

While in New Jersey I also visited the Ability School, a wonderful place for kids both scholastically and in terms of teaching and promoting the arts. I snapped this shot as a group of students were busily creating Halloween artwork as an after school project.

Then it was time for The Big Apple! New York City. I have always loved New York. Day in, day out, the city in continuously teaming with life. One can simply stand in Time Square (where the photo was taken) and see just about every type of person, from street musicians to mothers with their children in tow to men in Wall Street suits. At the same time you can hear dozens of languages from people all over the world. You simply can’t get any more international than New York!

I had a very productive meeting with Sarah Smith, the Arts and Cultural Coordinator with the New Zealand Consulate. We discussed joint art projects both in New York and New Zealand, where I am heading at the end of the month.

I met with Broddie Sigurdarson, a Coordinator for Cultural Affairs with the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous People. Originally from Iceland, Broddie works with indigenous people from around the world and helps them promote their art and cultural roots. I showed him my indigenous series paintings and found out how I can best help in upcoming UN indigenous events.

While the tour was now officially over, there was still another 600 miles to go to join my husband Bruce in Michigan. It was a beautiful morning as I took off through Upstate New York. I had told myself that there would be no more photo stops now, the tour was over. But I couldn’t resist one last stop to photograph this beautiful scene -- perfect for a painting. I looked back fondly at our trusty Volkswagan Passat Wagon. With an average milage of 32 miles per gallon throughout the trip, it never missed a turn and held the road firmly every inch of the 7,000 mile journey.

But there was no time for nostalgia; I needed to move on. The open road stretched out before me, full of the promise of future adventures, new friends and unforgettable experiences. I got in the car and began to drive.

Leisa

www.leisacollins.com 

leisa@leisacollins.com

Art with a Message USA Tour - Two Thousand Miles to Go!

The final Michigan to New York leg of the US Tour I did solo while Bruce stayed in Michigan to help his family with a home renovations project prior to us leaving for New Zealand. The main change I noted being on the road again was the beautiful fall colors now imbuing the landscape as far as the eye could see.

Heading south from Lansing, I crossed into Indiana and stopped into see my friend Mahiah and deliver a commissioned work I created for her of the rugged coastland of Ireland. I also checked out Indiana’s largest paintball field, White River Paintball Field. Mariah’s boyfriend Ben started the venture 10 years ago and its now is a growing enterprise, sprawled out on 125 acres of picturesque Indiana woodlands. I was given the grand tour and it certainly opened my eyes to what paintball is actually about.
 

Next it was time to head westward and visit Ohio where I encountered softly undulating farmland and well cared for fields of corn and other crops. This view here is very typical.
 

By mid-afternoon I was through Ohio and into Pennsylvania. Autumn-toned trees now occupied the landmasses dotted with patches of green pines and rocky outcrops. I took the turnpike west and wound around the Appalachian Mountains heading for the North Eastern corner of Pennsylvania, Allentown. My attraction to the city was the fact that my sister and brother-in-law live there with their delightful 5 and 6-year-old daughters, Ashleigh and Samantha, whom I had never met. Besides getting to know them, I squeezed in a painting of their human-like dog Einstein for Samantha’s birthday.

Needless to say, Allentown was a fun experience. I also joined them and a group of enthusiastic youngsters for a very American occasion, a “pumpkin patch” event on Byler’s Farm where you select your own pumpkin for Halloween.

But it was time to move onto New York, the final destination for the tour...

Leisa

www.leisacollins.com/

leisa@leisacollins.com

More Art in Action - Open Air Painting and House Portraits in Illinois and Michigan

Arriving in Illinois and heading down a country road lined with corn we entered the city of Standard, population 300. Spotting a sign that read “4 Family Garage Sale”, we stopped in to check out it out and bought a few items to support the sale. It’s a tight farming community and these are some of the family members tending their garage sale.

We discovered a little known park in Illinois called the Starved Rock National Park which consists of walking tracks through beautiful virgin forest. We drove down to the lake and I was inspired to set up shop and paint the landscape view before me.

And then it was onto Michigan, the Great Lakes State. Just across the border on the southern shores of Lake Michigan we visited the quaint beach community of New Buffalo. The vastness of the lake amazed me. I could have sworn that we were on the edge of the sea rather than an inland lake. Everything about the scene communicated this “ocean” - white sand, waves, harbor inlet. Bruce, a native of Michigan, took it all in stride. This was normal to him, rather than unique.

In Lansing, the capital city of Michigan, we spent quality time with family and I ventured out to explore the city, its historic buildings in particular. I fell in love with the Turner-Dodge House where the “founding fathers of Michigan” resided while they fought for reforms and a better future for the citizens of the state. The Turner-Dodge House is also a great example of a government supported project to preserve historic landmarks. I decided to show my support by creating a pen and watercolor painting of the house and presenting it to the coordinator of the Turner-Dodge House as a gift to the city of Lansing.

Leisa
www.leisacollins.com 
leisa@leisacollins.com 

Art with a Message USA Tour Continues - from the Geysers of Yellowstone to Endless Cornfields

Our next stop was Yellowstone, Wyoming. Famous for its geysers, hot springs and fossil forests, Yellowstone has over half the thermal activity of the whole planet!

 

We stopped into the city of Cheyenne, the colorful cowboy capital of Wyoming. It’s population of 50,000 mirrors the fact that the entire state only has around half a million inhabitants. The city was named after the Cheyenne nation, one of the most famous and prominent tribes of the Native North Americans that once thrived on the western Great Plains. Along with the Sioux they were instrumental in the defeat of Custer and his forces in the Battle of Little Big Horn.

 

Next was the state of Nebraska, that continued the cowboy tradition of Wyoming. Vast plains and low-lying hills surrounded us. Bruce and I stopped into the town of Ogallala and mingled with the locals.

 
Our introduction to the state of Iowa was the watercolor pink hues of sunrise on a crisp foggy morning. The barren plains of Wyoming were replaced with rolling green hills and lush farmland.

Once the morning sunlight had penetrated through the fog, we realized that we were surrounded by 380 degrees of corn!!!!

There was no time to waste however as we sped on our way through this picturesque state. 

Leisa
www.leisacollins.com 
leisa@leisacollins.com 

Art in Action - Launching an Online Forum for Children and Art

Working with children in the field of art is always an inspirational endeavor.  Quite often, however, when young artists complete works of art they don't have a forum to show their art on a broad scale and let the world know how talented they are!

That’s why I created a new blog called the Leisa Collins Online Art Gallery for Kids; and I hereby dedicate it to the children of the world and encourage them to create art.  After all, it is their creation that will bring about a brighter future for everyone.

This blog was conceived at a painting session and free art lesson I conducted on the lawn of the State Capitol building in Sacramento, California, USA.  As you can see from this article in the Capitol Weekly the purpose of the event was to protest the slashing of school art funding and promote the responsibility of artists and parents to fill the void.  Below are photos taken at the event.

Leisa and Sarah

Leisa and Angela

My Message to Young Artists:

If you are between the ages of 3 and 15 years old and would like your artwork to be part of this online gallery, scan each piece of art or take a close-up digital photo and email it to me at leisa@leisacollins.com. You must also include the following information so it can be included with your work:

a)  Your full name

b)  Your age

c)  The city, state and country that you live in

I look forward to seeing YOUR creations and including them in this special online gallery for young artists!

I am proud to present the two works below by aspiring young artists from the Sacramento area who took part in the free art lesson at the State Capitol.  These works of art are the very first exhibits to be placed in our online gallery for kids.

Sarah Benessini, 10 years old, Sacramento CA

Angela Miller, 10 years old, Sacramento CA

Share this link to my new blog - Leisa Collins Online Art Gallery for Kids - with your friends and family, young and old, to give an opportunity for other young artists to display their works through the online gallery as well as more kids art projects to come.

Leisa Collins

www.leisacollins.com

Art with a Message Lands on the Moon and Discovers Cowboy Land!

There was a marked change in the landscape as we cruised along the Oregon side of the Columbia River. We discovered unique rock formations, some square and jagged while others were rounded and “sponge-like”. Union Pacific trains chugging by from time to time made things even more interesting. Now this, I thought to myself, is art in action!

As we drove east toward Idaho the alpine trees disappeared and a golden landscape of rolling hills extended as far as the eye could see. They call this stretch of road the Oregon Scenic Highway. The message emblazoned on the slope in the photograph below -- Keep Your Forests Green -- shows how passionate Oregonians are about protecting their environment!

We crossed the border into Idaho and shortly thereafter pulled over into a scenic turnout that overlooked a lush valley. Way below we could see what was once called the “Old Toll Road”. In former times it was the main stagecoach route to Idaho City, which at that time was the foremost settlement in the state. If you look closely down into the valley you will see a distant winding road. We followed that trial to Idaho City, now a well preserved historical site.

My husband, Bruce, and I had always considered Idaho to be just one big farm with fields of potatoes and corn and little else. We couldn’t have been more wrong. While there is farming on the plains, we learned that Idaho has more national park acreage than anywhere else in the lower 48 states. One such park was the beautiful Challis National Forest.

Once through the forest we found ourselves in a sort of twilight zone. The surrounding landscape looked as though monstrous farm ploughs had been busy that very morning! We scrambled for the map. Where were we? Craters of the Moon National Park. Those huge mounds of dirt were in fact dried molten rock, the result of massive volcanic activity eons ago.

We learned that Idaho is an eclectic mix of just about everything. When we finally reached civilization we found ourselves in Pendleton -- Cowboy Land! Home to the famous USA made Pendleton shirts. We stopped into a local saloon for lunch and made friends with these local gentlemen. When asked if they were retired their response was “yep, retired and workin”. But on that sunny day they were simply taking it easy and having a friendly afternoon chat over drinks. The prior week, however, had been a different story. Our new friends and the entire community of Pendleton had just hosted an annual rodeo, one of the largest and most famous rodeos anywhere. Hats off and cheers to Pendleton and its residents -- towns like this are what make America a great nation.

With the last light of a long day we spotted the Sawtooth Mountains in the distance and knew that Yellowstone Park and the state of Wyoming were not too far away.

Catch you on our next art with a message action adventure... pardner!

Leisa
www.leisacollins.com
leisa@leisacollins.com