A Little Culture

We spent the first part of the day relaxing.  We thought it would be good to just be at home.  This lasted until about 2pm and we began to get a little stir crazy..LOL!

We had already done a little planning for the next day's Life Chain event.  We will be out along one of the main roads in town praying for the end of abortion.  The boys helped me sort the signs into different stacks.  We also threw away the signs that were not usable after many years of use.

So, past the point of twiddling our thumbs and wanting to get out of the house for a little while we began to think about what to do with our afternoon.  Thankfully, we remembered a new exhibit was opening at the Forest Museum, so we headed out for a short outing.

We arrived just in time to see the exhibit open.  There was a nice crowd meandering through the side room where the art work had been artfully presented around the room.  This artwork was created from items from the Bastrop wild fire.

It was last year on September 4th that a 33,000 acre wildfire swept through the Bastrop area.  This had a big impact on our family because my mother was working in the area and heading to work that morning.  We were also heading that direction to visit her for the weekend.  Imagine my surprise when I sat down at my computer to look at the news and found this on my screen:



I was worried that my mother had tried to go to work that morning and was so thankful that my mother had the sense to see this same scene and decide to turn back!  Actually she was told by a state trooper that she could not continue along the road she was driving...but she had already decided to turn back when she got to him.  Can you believe...when she called into work, they told her to try to find a different route!?!

Needless to say, we did not make the trip to my mother's house that weekend.  It would be another  month before the fire was completely contained and the clean up could begin.  We had collected essential items for the victims of the fires to drop off at the Bastrop 4H building for distribution.  As we drove through the worst of the damaged area, we were shocked to see that there was still smoke coming from the burned up piles.  We also saw the once beautiful forest blackened and could not help but cry knowing that this fire could have been prevented.

Now a year later, we entered the art exhibit remembering those images in our minds as we walked through the artwork.  The program that sponsors these exhibits are trying to raise money to assist in the recovery of wildlife in the destroyed area.  They ask local artists to the area to create artwork out of the debris found at the sites.

I met with the woman who organized this group, Art From the Ashes.  She is from southern California and has seen many devastating fires over the years.  Her love for art and the desire to help those who were hurting led to the creation of this organization.  The idea was to create artwork that could be displayed and sold to benefit the effected area.  It was so successful that she now goes through the nation to help local residents do the same.  This particular wildfire in Bastrop was so widespread with so much damage to homes that there have been several exhibits organized to raise funds.  Our local museum graciously sponsored this exhibit to help in this effort.  The art is displayed for the next two months in hopes that the artwork will be purchased by the end of the exhibition.

The boys and I viewed the art in silence (other than my reading of the information to the non-readers).  This was a rare moment for our family to be quiet for so long, I assure you!  However, I think the boys understood the significance of this art.

Henry took many pictures of the art (view others on my Fb page) because he knew Michael would want to see these pieces.  I think he will make a good art photographer because he thinks outside of the box and takes photos from different angles.

By attending this opening of the exhibit we had the opportunity to an art lecture about the use of fire in art throughout the ages.  I found this talk fascinating, but the boys were thrilled to go to another part of the museum for their own art craft.  So while I was listening about how to make horsehair pottery and other forms of fire art, the boys were making puppets and creating a puppet show to tell about wildfires.

They were so cute as they made their puppets, I had to take Zaira out of the lecture for a few minutes to feed her, and I overheard them telling the director of the art class they wanted to share with everyone how important fire is for the environment.  They wanted to focus on the good of fire instead of the negative.  They also decided that the best way to do that quickly was to have the puppets in a classroom talking to their teacher about wildfires.  As others were leaving the art exhibit, they would pass by their show and watch.  A great job for five little rambunctious boys (one extra from another family)!

This deemed worthy of an outing that would appease our wanderlust for the day.  We returned home to make a big pot of Stone Soup.  The evening proved to be cooler than expected so our plans to make BLT's just did not seem to fit.  We love to follow the story of the soldiers and create our own version with what we have a round the house.  We have never failed in making a delicious soup just like the soldiers created for the townspeople in the story.  It was a fun way to end the day and then we were able to go to sleep satisfied with nourishment for our bodies and minds.