Pumpkins painting

Halloween is coming!

Always an exciting holiday, and not only for the children! Yesterday we painted some pumpkins here at the Studio to decorate our stoop. We had lots of fun! I love to see how creative the children can get with a few tubes of paint and some craft material. They work on their projects for hours, without missing telly or videogames at all! They compliment each other along the way and share ideas and stories. Art brings our the best in children of all ages!

Maybe these photos can give you an idea of what we shared in those moments.

I hope to see you all tomorrow for our trick-or-treating! And remember: no costume, no treat!

(And for those of you who would ask.... NO! Your everyday face does not constitute a costume!)

Happy Halloween!

Octoberfest Photos

Here are some photos of the Susquehanna Valley International Folk Dancers at the Millville Legion's Octoberfest.

We were offered free beer and food, and we had a wonderful time!

We recruited volounteers from the audience and Oli taught a new mixer dance.

October 25th

Hello again!

Today is the Octoberfest at the Legion in Millville. Our folk dancing group will perform at it, so in about one hour I will be heading to the Milk Parlour to rehearse. Since it is raining I am assuming the fest will be indoor and I strongly hope it will be a smoke-free environment! Can you imagine dancing with your lungs full of smoke?

Before I forget, here is Giselle's blog, so you can follow directly her adventures in Italy.

lifeloveandpizza.blogspot.com

Of course I will keep you informed here as well, but if you want to hear it directly from her, log in an subscribe!

The November edition of our newsletter "La Galleria" has been sent out. If you did not receive it, please send me your e-mail and I will add it to our mailing list. It will soon be available on our website as well, but William has not been feeling well these days, and I have not learned how to post it on the site yet....

If you are out trick-or-treating on October 31, don't forget to stop at the Studio from 6 pm to 8 pm, we'll have treats and face painting, and as always lots of fun!

Mark your calendar for November 14th. The Whitmoyer Art Studio and Gallery will host a new monthly event: Meet the Artist. Our first featured guest will be Larry Ney II, a local artist who recently joined our gallery. Larry will be at the gallery from 6 pm to 8 pm to talk with you about his passion for art and his beautiful paintings. 

What was that? Of course there will be refreshments! It is aperitf time!

See you soon, and as always, Peace.

Chiara 

Vacanze italiane

Hello everybody!

I know it took me a while... but better late than never!

I was finally able to upload the photos I took during the summer in Italy, so I would love to share with all of you some of the highlights of our vacation.

Giselle, Dario, Clay and I left the US on the 21st of July. The plan was to spend a week in the mountains, in the Asiago plateau, a week at the beach on the Adriatic shore, and a week on Lake Garda.

When we arrived in Asiago it was so cold that we slept with four blankets! I started questioning the adequacy of the wardrobe I had packed... but luckily the weather changed after the first couple of days. We stopped at the visitors' center and picked up a bunch of brochures and started planning our activities, being careful to always have a plan B for rainy days! They do happen a lot and unexpectedly on the plateau.

First priority was an outing with Nonno Dario, Nonna Gabriella and little Carlotta. We took a long drive through the regions of Veneto and Trentino. We stopped at a Malga to buy cheese and butter (unbelievable stuff!). While we shopped the kids had fun visiting the animals. Particularly entertaining was the miniature horse scratching his back on the picnic bench! Although the donkey kissing the horse took quite some attention, as did the flower-smelling goose.

Well, I have to get working on some other tasks for now... more Italian adventures to follow...

Giselle's first protest

Hello everybody!

As many of you know, I recently returned from a trip to Italy. My daughter Giselle is attending art school in Treviso for this year and I went with her to help her get settled.
She is doing great, meeting a lot of new people and taking in all the vibrant atmosphere of the art school, as well as the local heritage.

I just received a call from her. Today she took part in her first ever student protest!
The government is restructuring public education and in doing so is trying to cut costs... by cutting instructional time. The hours of instruction will go from about 40 a week to about 32, of course cutting lab hours and art courses. And all this without consulting who is directly affected by the restructuring, the students. For them this is an affront, so they striked and organized a protest in the streets.

Giselle never participate in anything like it. She was surprised to see so many people her age caring, taking action and exercising the right to voice their opinions. She said something like this could have never been organized in her old school here, the students just do not want to take any action. They probably do not care.

Those of you who are my age and went to school in the 80's, probably remember what it was like to fight for the right to have a student organization representing our rights inside the school system. How do you feel to see that many of our children do not understand the importance of that? Do you feel that there is a tendency toward apathy in young people? Why do you think that is? Could it be our generation's fault?

I would love to hear everybody's opinion, especially those of the younger subscribers...

Peace,

Chiara