Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Greetings from Tibet!


now, if this doesn't make your heart sing ...the best christmas present ever.

congratulations to all of you that made this possible!

YOU ARE A GIFT!

Supporting rural Tibetan women and children Report of Booker T. Washington High School Art Book and Pen Distribution Project PROJECT UPDATE Report of Booker T. Washington High School Art Book and Pen Distribution Project
Reported by Kunchok Gyaltsen, MIIM, MPH, PhD
December 8, 2010
The Booker T. Washington High School printmaking art students and other printmakers from other various local schools in Dallas, San Angelo, Arlington and even a printmaking art school in Africa created an Art Painting Book for Tibetan children. On May 13, 2010, a THF fundraising event took place at the Trammell and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas, Texas. Booker T. Washington High School students, and other Dallas area printmaking students and their teachers created, printed and donated copies of the Art Painting Book and coloring pens to THF. The art books and pens were shipped to Amdo and arrived at Kumbum Monastery on October, 2010.
THF In-country advisors identified and selected where and which school would receive the books and pens. One of the criteria was the school would have an equal amount of students to the amount copies of the books. Also it should be a school in a remote region, where there is little resource available and the students have never seen such art books and pens. Finally, the Mardo Tsokyaring School was chosen to provide the books to their children. This school is a township Tibetan boarding school. There are 74 students from ages 7 to 12 years old. The school is located on the highest region of Tibetan plateau, as high as 4,400 meters (14,000 ft) and the area is the original source of Mhachu (Yellow River). Mardo Tsokyaring School is one of the townships under the Mardo County, which is under Golok Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Tso-Ngon (Qinghai) Province. The area of Mardo County boarders Yushu; the language and customs are very similar to Kham although the people speak the Amdo dialect.
Two Tibetan medical graduate students, Lhundup Dorjee and Gyatso, from the Tso-Ngon (Qinghai) University Tibetan Medical College traveled to Mardo Tsokyaring School from November 26 to 28, 2010. They distributed all the books and pens to all the students of the school. They also introduced how to use the books and pens. Mr. Lhundup Drojee is a professional Tibetan teacher and has knowledge of teaching art to Tibetan students. Mr. Lhundup Dorjee is also an associate Supporting rural Tibetan women and children PROJECT UPDATE
professor of Tso-Ngon (Qinghai) Normal University and has many years of experience in training Tibetan teachers and curriculum design for Tibetan students.
Lhundup Dorjee and Gyatso reported that all the children loved the books and pens and were so excited when they got to hold the book and pen in their hands. The students used them right away after the distribution although they had mid-term exams the next day. The teachers expressed how surprised they were that the American students could use Tibetan characters in their art designs. The school has never had any art class for their children and this is perfect project for the school. The school principal and teachers send their gratitude to the printmaking students, their teachers and everyone who worked very hard to put this art book together. Also, they thanked Dr. Kunchok Gyaltsen and Ms. Meredith Aikman for arranging the books and pens to cross the ocean and to reach one of the Tibetan highest places of Mardo.
P.S. With this report, there are a lot of photos taken on that day, the photos presents the Mardo land, distributing the books and pens, how students are using, and group photos of the whole school.

deadlines for the end of 2010

okay all...before you leave for the holidays the following things must get done:
1. edition of 6 about u.s. constitution/u.n. bill of rights print
prints need to be PERFECT...no fingerprints, inked correctly and borders the same size.
signed in pencil
2. card to the first family for the holidays explaining why you picked your article,amendment...
explaining your choice of symbolism and why it's important to you.
3. give me the card with your name and address on the envelope, and a print from your edition that I will mail to the white house..( this is my Christmas gift to you..our future!)
4. your small zinc plate needs to be beveled
5. design for posada print done and transferred on to hard ground.
6. bring in materials: paper towels, Clorox wipies, mineral spirits, paint thinner and each one of you need to have your own rubber gloves, "doctor" gloves and black sharpie and thin point black paint marker.
if you have all this done then you are exactly where you need to be for this class.
now in the new year we will complete this relief etching and play with some traditional etching and aquatint
and then start on our message in a bottle prints.
so guys here are the plans/requirements for next years message in a bottle:
PROJECT:
To design, “real original print” for exchange exhibit and auction. Prints will be reproduced and be made into a coloring book that will be sent to the Tibetan School. The Crow Collection of Asian Art has graciously offered to sponsor the printing of the coloring book. BTW Preserve Tibet club will find a sponsor for postage and editing/formatting the work for print. They will also host and oversee the auction of prints.Paper size: exactly 8.5” x 11” vertical format (prints should fit in a large manila envelope!)
All images should have large areas of white space.
REMEMBER YOU ARE CREATING A COLORING BOOK PAGE.

Subject matter/Objective: to design an image that reflects a “word” or “phrase” that has anything to do with or is related to: garden, park, lake, pond, and river
And this is new from the Crow since they have changed their exhibition schedule:
Crow exhibition theme for the Fabulous Journeys in Asian Art exhibition will involve the avatars of Vishnu—how he takes form as Krishna, Rama, and Varaha specifically, to help others and the environment.
So all above topics are topics are also ok.

Prints must include both English and Tibetan word or phrase.
This is a learning opportunity. Think scientifically artistic.

Again both Tibetan script and word and English word MUST be included in image. It would be great if each artist used a different word
Open to all types of prints.

WE ASK THAT ALL PARTICIPANTS FOLLOW REQUIREMENTS EXACTLY.
Design Elements/Considerations: Line, Pattern, Positive and Negative SpaceAudience: Primary/Middle School Children (in China, no political message please or Religious)Google can provide great searches for Tibetan translations.
There are very few Tibetan children books. The Tibetan Healing Fund recently published and donated texts to these types of Tibetan schools. Also the students are not familiar with coloring books and very eager to learn Tibetan and to make art. It is also a great possibility that there will be opportunities for email buddies with these students in the futureSend two or three prints to each school. Please include in list form, student names, title, and type of print. Include Teacher Name and School. It would be nice if all teachers made a print. Booker T Washington’s adult print group will also be donating prints. In the past all instructors have done so. It’s greatly appreciated.
Work must arrive at Booker T Washington by April 15th, 2011