loving art, science and creative kids
7/29/2016 8:17:34 PM
Coming Home /16” by 19” / acrylic with silver frame / $ 195
Open the door and what do you see? Is home an interesting reflection of you and do others enjoy it? Does it share your personality? Your history? Your curiosity about life?
The following excerpt is from my upcoming book Lives of Museum Junkies that is due out at the end of August. Look for information in upcoming blogs. I will be holding several book signings beginning in Tampa, Florida in September; Lansing, Michigan in October; and Portland, Oregon in November. Information will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. I look forward to seeing you at one of these events.
Home as Museum
“You can easily substitute home for museum and live in an environment made inspiring. Instead of exhibits, consider decorations, furniture and personal treasures. Architecture, use of space, selection and arrangement of furnishings, collections, and the way they are displayed all define you. How you move about your home, share treasures with friends and family, and teach your children to understand their cultural heritage becomes your way of passing on values.
Ray, my life partner, is a maker of totem poles and Northwest Coast masks. Outside of our home, there is a seventeen foot pole that has become a neighborhood marker. “Go to the totem pole and turn left,” is an oft heard direction given by acquaintances. The lower level of our house has both indoor and outdoor shop areas where carving and painting are pursued much to the enjoyment of nosey friends and those hiking an adjacent trail. Strangers who hear the tap, tap, tap of a hammer stop by wanting to know what is going on, and Ray gladly shows them his carvings, entertaining them with stories of Raven and Beaver.
Our home is filled with his carvings, my collections of pottery and masks, canvases that I paint, and art purchased while traveling. Our furnishings are arranged in a restful way, though presented as eye candy for our visitors. I enjoy living surrounded by the items Ray and I have either made or collected. Sharing them with friends lets them into our souls and initiates many conversations about culture, art, and even politics. Our friends often say when entering our home that it looks like a museum, only warmer and more welcoming.
Many children are first introduced to a cultural institution by visiting a children’s museum. These institutions are unique because the ingenuity they apply to educating the young is more than just exciting—it is engaging. Children spend hours engaged in activities such as playing in water (learning physics and hydrodynamics without realizing it), dressing up in period costumes (a study in history), constructing and plumbing buildings (engineering), and a host of other activities that involve physical as well as mental effort. Young visitors often are seen crying as their parents pull them from the building to go home. A secret to their success is that they are centered on the child and organize their spaces in a way that permits freedom of movement. Displays are built to withstand hard use. They encourage learning by using a variety of cleverly hidden techniques.
I encourage parents to think like a professional and start their own museum at home. What better place to inspire your own child than the relaxed environment of a play area or living room? According to The American Association of Children’s Museums, “A children’s museum is defined as an institution committed to serving the needs and interests of children by providing exhibits and programs that stimulate curiosity and motivate learning.” They encourage parents to interact with their children while in the museum in order to make the experience more meaningful.
That definition fit my family to a “T.” When we moved to Lexington, Massachusetts, a community without a hands-on museum, I decided that I could make my own home into one. The Boston Children’s Museum was much too far to travel to on a regular basis. Part of the challenge of my home operation was one of organization. I decided to set up my children’s basement playroom with a Montessori approach.”
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Lives of Museum Junkies offers insight into how I went about doing this on a shoestring. I also encourage grandparents to consider their residences as their private museum. The accumulations from a life time of travel and just plain living can be organized and displayed in such a way as to fascinate friends and family alike. Perhaps you have thought similarly and share your treasures in a unique way. Do share on my blog site, eichingerfineart.com/blog.
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Artwork is always for sale. Contact me at [email protected].
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For sale on Amazon by Marilynne Eichinger: The True Story of Streetwise, overcoming homelessness and beating the odds. Go to AMAZON .
7/22/2016 9:01:09 PM
Applauding the Blues
Acrylic on canvas/ Gold Frame/ 23.5” by 19” / $ 495.00
Do you stop to look, touch or smell the flowers? Perhaps you even taste some.
The following excerpt is from my upcoming book, Lives of Museum Junkies. Due out in August it tells my story along with that of eleven other innovators who influenced the hands-on museum movement in the early 70’s. Publication information will be available in a few weeks.
The Importance of Touch
In 2012, a young social work student at the University of Rochester was featured in national publications as a most unusual entrepreneur. While studying brain and cognitive sciences as an undergraduate, Jacqueline Samuel became aware of the negative effects of living in a culture that does not sanction touch for its own sake. Throughout the world people are more willing to hold hands and hug friends and family than in the United States.
Adverse consequences of tactile isolation are known to be agitation, anxiety and aggression. Jacqueline decided that she would ameliorate the situation by opening a cuddle parlor she named the Snuggery. Her focus centered on bringing the healing power of touch to those who are tactilely isolated. The rules she and her employees devised were strict; staying clean, keeping clothing on and not engaging in any “funny business.” Her non-sexual touch emporium was singularly based on the platonic need for physical closeness. Business boomed, spurring copy-cat cuddle parlors throughout the country. One even opened where I live in Portland, Oregon.
You might wonder what type of person needs to pay $60 for an hour hug? Clients come for a variety of reasons and include those on graveyard shifts returning home to empty beds, the physically handicapped and the chronically depressed. There are thousands of people, many elderly, others single or with a physical disability who are never touched, held, or hugged. Having a friend to talk to and being cuddled is important for overall emotional well-being.
Jacqueline’s insight is backed by volumes of research showing how touch reduces cortisol, the stress hormone that suppresses the immune system. The Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami is a center that concurs with Jacqueline’s concerns. They recently completed a study showing that teens who lack hugging are more likely to be aggressive than their peers who are regularly hugged. Elderly people who are touched are healthier and less likely to develop dementia. Premature babies who are stroked gain weight faster than those who are not and infants who lack adequate physical and emotional attention are more likely to have behavioral, emotional and social problems as they age. And now we see that tactile learning can also be highly effective.
Hands-on museums are cognizant of sensory research, and tactile solutions especially form the basis of many of their activities. Not only do people need physical contact with others but they also have a need to touch and play with objects. A friend of mine shared an insight that it was not just his auditory sense that made him enjoy playing the piano, but his tactile contact with the keys. . . . . .
My work in the museum field was influenced by an exercise I had to complete as a graduate student in psychology. One of my assignments was to write a paper imagining what it would be like to lose each of my senses. I was also directed to explore my feelings about loss of sexual sensitivity. To start the exercise I would sit for an hour in an easy chair imagining myself as a blind or deaf person. As I delved into the assignment, I was surprised to realize that losing my hands would be one of the most horrendous handicaps I could have. The hour spent with handless imagery was torturous, leaving me scared, almost frozen. What if I could not touch a door knob or wave my hands while talking? How horrible it would be to not be able to tousle my child’s hair. Touch was not the only sensation that affected me deeply. I quickly realized that losing my sight would be just as awful. As a visual and tactile person I am so fortunate to have both of these faculties.
Each of us is controlled by biological predilections and we are most happy when we allow daily activities to be guided by these predispositions. . . . . Understanding a child’s sensory preference helps parents and teachers design appropriate educational programs. The visual learner may love reading books, but there are many children who are hesitant readers and need to be drawn into the learning process through an alternative sensory route. A history teacher might design a curriculum for tactile learners by challenging them to make dioramas. The process still requires the children to read in order to know what to include in their 3-D pictures, but their interest in the project will be internally motivated. . . . .
Parents, grandparents, friends and teachers please think twice before you tell a child not to touch. Your curious child might just need a little guidance to encourage safe and constructive activities that take advantage of his or her way of communicating. Remember, a broken glass can be dangerous but there are safe ways to turn broken glass into a mosaic . . . touch me, touch me not. . . . .
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This summer is a good time to let your children wander and experiment by using the sensory mode they most prefer. A warm hug for effort will go a long way towards developing their passion for learning. And by the way, we parents and grandparents love hugs as well. They provide wonderful feelings of well being.
Please comment on my blog at eichingerfineart.com/blog.
Art work is always for sale. Contact me at [email protected]
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For sale on Amazon by Marilynne Eichinger: The True Story of Streetwise, overcoming homelessness and beating the odds. Go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AAXMJOG
7/16/2016 9:58:50 AM
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry by Marilynne Eichinger
acrylic painting/ gold frame/ 27” by 23” / $ 450
Article taken from Lives of Museum Junkies. My book will be available some towards the end of August. Details about publication will be forthcoming in a few weeks. IT shares experiences of my time as founder of Impression 5 and president of OBSI that enabled me to observe a wide variety of personal and family interactions. Behind the scenes situations and lessons learned from observing visitors gives insight into what it takes to live a full, productive life. It is filled with funny and poignant happenings of myself and eleven other directors who naively pursued their dreams. Excerpt follows:
The Happiness Business: Playful Learning is Good
What is the secret of life? This question is an easy one for me to answer: happiness, of course. I am not talking about giddy-happy like you might feel if you won the lottery but rather calm-happy producing a general sense of well-being. The Greeks described happiness as the joy we feel moving towards our potential. It is a process and not an end in itself.
Museum professionals are in the happiness business, parents too are in the happiness business, and managing your own life is immersed in the happiness business. In an August 2013 article in the Huffington Post, Carolyn Gregoire reported on a seventy-five-year-old Harvard study that explored the secrets to a fulfilling life. What the researchers learned was that for most people, love rates highest, with happiness second. What creates this sense of satisfaction? Joy, the study went on to say, is created by connections and challenges because new perspectives can make you happier. Dealing with challenge through creative expression produces a feeling of well-being. What the researchers learned may seem obvious but as a Huffington Post article said, “ it doesn’t make it less true.” Philosophers as ancient as Aristotle, as contemporary as the Dalai Lama, and as scientific as University of California professor and researcher Sonja Lyubomirsk who in 2007 authored The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want, agree that happiness and contentment are goals that give meaning to life.
Providing opportunities for children to play freely is an important part of parenting. When my children were young, dress-up was a big part of their playtime. I salvaged a large cardboard box and filled it with old nightgowns, prom dresses, suits, ties, scarves, swords, hats and crowns, stethoscopes, homemade armor and makeup. Many days, between five and eight youngsters could be found parading around the neighborhood dressed like royalty, Hollywood sirens, or superheroes. This opportunity to develop their own creative expressions gave them a great deal of pleasure. . . . . . .
These children were happy and committed when they were playing and practicing at being part of adult society. In later life, when I met clients in the mental health center I could not help but wonder if they had ever experienced spontaneity and a sense of wonderment when they were young. Unfortunately, the adults I saw in counseling sessions had lost an essential and playful part of themselves. I worked diligently to discover if they had ever experienced what it felt like to be free spirits in control of their future. Those patients coming from a restricted childhood had a more difficult time finding a path towards their own well-being. They needed to be taught how to laugh, shout, and fly. . . . . .
Play, also a stress relieving activity, is critical for emotional health, according to one study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Another classic study published in Developmental Psychology reported that free play actually makes kids smarter. Even play fighting has been found to improve problem-solving skills. In general, play is practice for the unexpected. . . . . . .
Just as children fantasize so do adults need outlets that let their imaginations run wild. I watched a group of designers, contractors, and architectural firms participate in a museum sponsored sandcastle contest with teams of company employees competing to make the most creative structure. The groups had a great deal of fun imagining possibilities with the added benefit of knowing that they were assisting a worthy charity. The most important part of this activity was that it gave the adult participants an opportunity to be as whimsical as they were when they were children. There was a secondary benefit to those watching on the outside, for they were able to observe the creative process at work.
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Today’s thoughts:
My advice? This summer is a perfect time to encourage your family to play freely. Consider providing for hours of unscheduled down time. Along with your children or grandchildren slow down, be bored and incredibly lazy. When traveling don’t book every minute with activities so that you have no time to see the flowers, pay attention to odors or observe the oddities of passerby’s. Open yourself to the unexpected and enjoy the fact that you are alive.
Most of all have a wonderful and happy time!
Art Work is always for sale. Contact me at [email protected].
7/8/2016 8:22:24 PM
For the Sake of Righteousness
Last week was spent in the sunny (and hot) Bahamas.
Among other activities such as swimming with sting rays and snorkeling, my granddaughter and I climbed the steps of the Sun Temple in Costa Maya. In ancient times the top platform was used to perform acts of human sacrifice in hope of influencing the gods to provide an abundant harvest. It was
an honor to be chosen for this sacrifice and parents offered
up their daughters willingly. Those who complied were the self- righteous ones.
Their actions are not very different from those of radical Islamists today. Suicide bombers also have religious convictions that they are willing to die for. Their certainty about the way things should be is imbedded in their psyche and their faith is so solid as to not be easily shaken. In many Middle Eastern countries the families of suicide bombers are given a monetary reward for their loss and parents are esteemed for having produced such a religious child.
Christianity is no stranger to this phenomenon either. Crusaders marched, maimed and killed for their faith and were respected if they died in the fight. Those who today stalk abortion clinics and are ready to eliminate anyone not sharing their certainty also consider themselves to be among the righteous. They are willing to spend a life in prison or even on death row in order to stand up for their beliefs.
Political movements too are rife with followers who substitute a love for humanity for a utopian ideal. They trust their intuition implicitly and have little understanding of the words of Anatole France who said that, “even a little dog is the center of his own universe.”
As an anthropology student I learned that cultures throughout time have developed their own beliefs, political systems and religious teachings. Many are faith based and people attach themselves to it with iron bonds. Trained at an early age by parents and leaders their society's mores are imbedded in their heads. Who is to say which one is right?
When my father had a conviction and wanted us to adhere to his teachings he blasted, “its my way or the highway.” We kids conformed if we didn’t want to get in trouble. We remained silent.
Fear to speak out and express uncertainty or a desire to do things differently is frowned upon in most cultures because people are more comfortable with the status quo. Most prefer to live in a dependable world. Just think of how difficult it is for seniors to adapt to heavy metal music, purple hair and tattoos.
Just as was Socrates, I am wary of the unexplored life. I find it difficult to understand why people are so quick to come to conclusions based on feelings and faith and why scientific exploration is not embraced more rigorously. As the earth changes over time so does our knowledge. New information needs to be incorporated in a minute by minute ritual. It took an awfully long time for Europeans to accept that the world is round and men like Galileo suffered because of narrow thinking.
When it comes to righteousness I would rather err on the side of humanity and maintain the belief that people are doing their best to understand and live within the boundaries of their lives. An enemy today, as we see with Germany and Japan, may be a friend tomorrow. In my belief system there is no room for torture or killing.
The challenge for the righteous person is to be understanding and caring. This is sometimes more difficult than killing. I advise those of you who have not already done so to watch Michael Moore’s latest movie, Where to Invade Next. He presents a number of solutions developed around the world for improving a sense of self-worth and allowing for a more harmonious existence.
