Schools and Rules are Tools for Fools-- Part II of IV

This is part of a four-part post about art and schoolwork. To see the introductory post, click here.

I mentioned that as a homeschooler, I am able to take classes this year that I almost certainly would not have the opportunity to participate in were I in public school. The first of these classes I would like to discuss is not really a class at all, but a discussion group for literature.

This discussion group is held at one of my friend's houses. Every Thursday, seven of us gather to have a really great, nearly entirely student led discussion about whatever work of literature we are currently reading together, drink tea, chat after the discussion, drink tea, talk about fandoms and writing, and drink tea. Did I mention the tea? We like tea.

I feel incredibly blessed to be surrounded by such a great group of like-minded peers like this. We all are very interested in writing and reading. Many of us are actors as well. Our shared excitement for a good story and fascinating characters that can be related to is definitely perceivable in our discussions. (In fact, a few of us went to the children's section in a book store the other day, and we found ourselves discussing the characterization of Lucille from the Junie B. Jones series). Although we are definitely interested in all elements of a good story-- plot, pacing, setting, description, etc. --I think it is safe to say that it is the characters in a book hold the most interest for many of us. And we're all fans of Doctor Who, to cap it off. Really, I just love this whole group to pieces, if you couldn't tell already.

We have a wonderful adult facilitator who picks out books, provides discussion topics if we need them, and gently steers the conversation back on track when we deviate to topics such as gay rights, Doctor Who, human nature, Doctor Who, feminism, or Doctor Who. Other than that, the discussion is completely student led.

I believe that the thing that makes all this possible is that this 'class' is mandatory for none of us; we all really want to be there. In a public school, the discussion of literature in this fashion would probably be mandatory, which, depending on the group of students, could take a lot of the joy and purpose out of it. If just one person doesn't want to be in a class like this, they sort of put a damper on the whole group. It's not that large-scale education facilities really have a lot of choice in this matter; their job is to educate and broaden the horizons of as many people as possible, and I appreciate that the difficulty of this task increases with each additional student who walks in through their doors. But my point is, because of the small size of my group and the honest desire of each of us to ascertain more knowledge about the fascinating psychology of the crazy, terrible, wonderful, mad species known as human beings though the study of literature,  we are able to have some really fascinating, scintillating discussions.

So far, we have studied The Dead (James Joyce) and The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald). We are currently reading A Passage to India (E.M. Forster), which is a fascinating social commentary on the colonized India of the twentieth century. I'll spare you all my rants about each of these fascinating books. I admit that I probably would not have made my way through most of these stories without the relative structure of the group to answer to, as A Passage to India in particular can be a bit of a slog at first (it's worth it once you get to the middle, by the way). That's another thing the group is useful for. It really motivates me to finish a work I might not even have picked up otherwise, because if one of us doesn't do the reading, the discussion pretty much becomes pointless.

I'll end with one of my favorite quotes. "When I learn something new--and it happens everyday-- I feel a little more at home in this universe, a little more comfortable in the nest." --Bill Moyers. I'll admit that I have no earthly idea who Bill Moyers is or was or why he said that, but I think he's on to something. Stories are, and always have been, a way for us to explore our own humanity through the eyes of another: an author or a fictional character. Sometimes the view of an outsider is needed in order to let us see what should be obvious about our own lives, and that's something that stories (and art in general) gives to us.
 

Schools and Rules are Tools for Fools: Part I of IV

This is part of a four-part series of posts about schoolwork and learning in general. No, don't worry. This is not going to be a soapbox where I whine about doing work. In fact, I would like to discuss three of my favorite aspects of school this year. However, I am going to start with an introduction that may come off as a bit soap-boxy. Please bear with me; I promise it's relevant. :)

"Rules and schools are tools for fools-- I don't give two mules for rules." This extremely creative, original, and oh-so cleverly contrived poem is a quote from one of my favorite, endearingly obstinate book characters: Constance from the Mysterious Benedict Society series (an excellent read, by the way. Why is it that children's books tend to be so much better than books aimed at teenagers?).

I believe that by creating this poem, Constance is expressing doubt in a system that enforces mandatory learning of subjects and material that she feels will not be useful in the real world. She is not entirely correct in her particular case (I can't tell you why without spoiling a surprise in the plot), but she's not wrong, either. It's my opinion that the main problem with the education system in the United States is that it is way too uniformly molded: it is meant to work for every child, and thus leaves a great many children out. I have no problem whatsoever with inclusiveness as a concept, but there are significant problems in making this a reality. In enforcing a system so homogenous, individuality of learning strategies is lost, along with a lot of the whole point of education. Learning becomes something mandatory, enforced, and moderated by adults, rather than something to spark interest in life and a future career, which is what it should be.

I don't deny that it is important to be well-rounded. A really good computer programmer may find himself with no prospects if computer programming is the only thing he is able to do well and all his skills are unneeded for whatever reason during a particular time. However, at the same time, I don't really see why a youth with enormous talent in visual arts, graphic design, or music should have to take AP Calculus if they don't want to in order to have the required number of classes to get into college. It's not that AP Calculus isn't useful. It's just that a student who is definitely going to go into the arts probably won't use it a lot in the real world, and would make better use of their time in high school practicing more pertinent skills.

This is one of the reasons I enjoy homeschooling so much: my study schedule, though not as flexible as popular culture would have you believe, is nearly entirely self-directed. Yes, I still have to take classes I despise and don't personally see as relevant to my life. But I am held accountable for those things, and if they don't get done, I know I won't be able to study what I'm actually interested in later. Additionally, as a homeschooler, I am able to take classes I am truly interested at the times that I want to. For instance, AP U.S. History is a class normally only taken by 11th or 12th graders, and is not even an option for most freshmen in public school. However, in my freshman year, I was able to take it because I wanted to. (I ended up getting a 5 out of 5, by the way. Still happy about that :D).

Because of the flexibility of homeschooling, I was able to take three classes this year that I truly enjoy greatly and would almost certainly not been able to take were I in public school: AP art History, advanced music theory, and a literature discussion group. I'll devote a post in this series to each of them.

~Naddie Boyne

Random Photograph

I took this photo when I went to Ocean City with some friends last summer. It's just a random, cool shot that I wanted to post. It has no purpose, other than serving as a nice example of aesthetics. Now you have seen a random photo of a boat with no purpose. Congratulations!

~Naddie

Flower Arrangement

I like arranging flowers. I guess it's because I love to play with color combinations. I have been denying the fact that summer is over and it is now fall, and I will probably go right on denying it until May. But at least I can have some fun with the weather and the plants that it produces. Here's a little arrangement I did a week ago inspired by fall colors:

I used marigolds, nandina leaves and milkweed blooms. I tied on ribbons in coordinating colors and decorated the plate with some nice yellow bell peppers that happened to be lying around.

May the cold months leave as quickly as possible this year!

~Naddie

Philmont Photos

I went to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico this July, where I went on a 10-day backpacking trek in the backcountry. It was a very valuable experience, and I wanted to post some of the better photos that I took.

I love Philmont so much and I really, really can't wait to go back someday!

~Naddie

Modern Art (a parody)

I would like to enlighten your lives a little bit by sharing some top-notch modern art that I created. I feel within my soul that these are a vivid look into modern society and almost everything that plagues the minds of mortals today and throughout all of human history.

An Eternity Passes While We Wait for the World to Fix Itself

Emptyness of a Human Soul

The Mental Prison Created by a Cold, Impersonal Consumer Society

The Torment of a Dying Planet

Life altering and soul wrenching, is it not?

~Naddie

White Queen portrait

I've been drawing again. The scanned picture really doesn't give you an accurate idea of the shading or of the details, but here it is:

(I'm sorry that the graphic had to be so big that it has begun to choke the right side of your screen). Yep, that's me dressed as the White Queen from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, which, along with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of my absolute favorite stories. I played the White Queen in HTT's Alice in Wonderland (which combined elements from both books, by the way). I based this self-portrait off of a photograph that someone took of me in the green room, before the performance. That's why I'm wearing only one glove and have got on horrible fake eyelashes. (Side note: I also had to wear falsies in the next play. A friend and I had a joke about me having small tarantulas on my eyes.)

I am beginning to resent my nose. It's a nice enough looking nose, I suppose, but it's an absolute nightmare to draw. I mean, there's this bit down the side where you think it should be raised, but it's straight! And in profile the knobbly bit on the end has got no outline. And don't get me started on the shading around my nostrils! In the spirit of Alice in Wonderland, I've resolved to give my nose a firm talking to. It shall go without its supper until it has promised me that it will make an effort to be easier to draw.

Fair farren,
~Naddie

So apparently I can draw...

 Remember how I made it very clear that I cannot draw anything other than the Death Star and musical symbols to save my life? Evidently that is not so. I have discovered that I do have some drawing ability. I was not aware of this fact until recently, when I started doodling absently because I had nothing better to do at that moment (don't you just love summer vacation?). And, well, while I'm not exactly Van Gogh, you can actually tell what my pictures are supposed to be.

As I said, not Van Gogh. But I think it's pretty obvious that they're supposed to be horses. While this may not seem all that exciting to you drawers out there who actually posses considerable skill, this is a big step forward for me and I'm really pleased with it.

I seriously enjoy drawing, and I'm excited with all the new artistic possibilities I can now consider.

~Naddie

Coolest. Furniture. Ever.

 

 

"Check out this awesome and stylish Vintage leather interior designed by LA Designs. I love how they have used many parts of the car to turn it into armchairs and even tables."

Found this on Tumblr. Who said furniture couldn't be art? This is the neatest combination of objects since the bunk bed ("I mean, it's a bed. With a LADDER! How cool is that?") 

~Naddie

P.S. By the way, I'm not really awake at 3:00 AM. I auto-scheduled this post. Right now, it's 7:16 PM on Friday. If I actually am awake eight hours from now, something has gone seriously wrong with my life.

Inspiration

Inspiration is a fickle thing. A lot of people write about it in rhapsodic and often schmaltzy terms, making it sound a lot more wonderful than it actually is. Personally, I get a lot of ideas, all day long, about all sorts of things. But not always how and when I want them. 

Being creative can drive me absolutely mad sometimes. Sometimes, when I’m in the middle of, say, math, I’ll get a wonderful idea about a novel I could write and I have to abandon 2√x±4y and scribble it down on whatever paper-like surface happens to be nearby so I don't forget it. This, needless to say, can be very annoying. And when I’ve got all my homework done for the day and have sat down in front of the piano to finish the walking base motif I’ve been thinking about all day, NOTHING HAPPENS. Inspiration, that flighty, easily offended creature, has abandoned me in my hour of need.

So how should you deal with inspiration coming at inopportune moments? I’ve found it’s helpful to carry around a notebook and small pen or pencil with me wherever I go. I keep sticky notes, a tape recorder and a pencil by my bed in case I have an idea late at night. As soon as I get an idea for anything, I record it. Even if I never use that particular idea, at least writing it down gets creative juices flowing, which may lead to other, even better ideas.

I know everyone says this, but inspiration can be found anywhere. I once got an idea for my NaNoWriMo novel by noticing that my piano teacher’s pen was running out of ink. Once I was in the laundry room, and very randomly I began humming. Now I’m in the process of turning the melody I was humming into a jazz piece for piano. As long as you keep your eyes open and let your mind wander, inspiration will eventually strike. Very unfortunately, at about age 12 it becomes uncool to be curious about everything and ask questions. Personally, I don’t really spend a lot of time being cool anyway, so that’s not an issue for me. If you stay curious, you stay creative.

As you read this, I will be in New Mexico in the wilderness. Maybe I’m hiking, riding a horse, shooting a rifle, or collapsing in a tired heap after hiking ten miles up and down a mountain in the heat all day while carrying a twenty-pound pack (don't you just love Scouting?). Whatever I’m doing, I hope that I’ll use that experience in my art someday. 

Good luck finding the inspiration for the things that you like to do!

~Naddie Boyne

April Waltz

At long last, here it is!

I wrote April Waltz not, as the title suggests, in April, but in February. I called it April Waltz because the sound suggested April to me. (I have synesthesia, which for me means that among other things I hear music in color. This piece is mostly blue and yellow with green and red, in pale-ish shades that remind me of flowers. I dunno, that's just the way that my mind has always processed sound). I've been editing it since February, and have finally arrived at a final version. Today I was at my church and choir practice finished early, so I thought hey, why not record good old April Waltz on this awesome concert piano here at the church? It's about time I posted it on my blog. So here it is. Please ignore the faint sound of screaming children in the penultimate phrase. Unfortunately, the church was far from empty while I was working. Oh, and the sound quality is kinda lousy because I had to record it on my iPod, but I deemed it good enough to post. I thought it was far better than no waltz at all, considering how long I've been promising to post this :)

~Naddie

The Most Excellent Apparatus of Cool

On Friday the 13th (my birthday), I went to the End of the World Ball, a homeschool dance put on by a group in my area. (It was awesome, but I'm still mad that they didn't play R.E.M.'s It's the End of the World As We Know It). Because the theme was the end of the world, I seized upon this excellent opportunity to dress steampunk.

For those of you who don't know, steampunk is a kind of science fiction. Think Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, gears, goggles, Victorian-era dress, time machines, complicated and ingenious inventions, really cool hats, mad scientists, gentlemen adventurers, and steam. Lots of steam. Anyway, one cannot dress steampunk-style without some sort of weapon or tool. In the steampunk world, I'm fairly certain that lacking a type of apparatus is against some ancient law or other. Hence the title of this post.

I made the Most Excellent Apparatus of Cool out of an old plastic slide whistle, tinfoil, widgets found in the basement, and liberal amounts of bronze paint. I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out:

What does it do? I have no idea. That is why I called it The Most Excellent Apparatus of Cool: I don't know if it's a tool, weapon, or even if it's just a cleaning brush (however, I sincerely hope it's not the latter). I'm flirting with the idea of making it sonic, but I have no idea how to go about it and I'm not very good with electronics. (If you can think of some way to achieve this, by all means leave this spark of brilliance in a comment and be rewarded with the knowledge that you have my eternal gratitude).

I loved making the Apparatus so much that I have begun to keep spare widgets that I find around the house in a plastic box on my bookshelf, to use for future projects. My mom even promised me that when the vacuum cleaner breaks, I can have the pieces! Squee!

~Naddie

Welcome to this, by humble attempt at blogging

How should I begin?

'Welcome to Singing dragons, the Best Blog on Earth' seems somehow presumptuous. 'Welcome to Singing dragons, a reasonably ok attempt at blogging' seems too far in the opposite direction. Maybe 'Welcome to Singing dragons, my new blog' is the right way to do this. It seems neither too bold nor too flamboyant.

Here goes. *ahem*

Welcome to Singing dragons, my new blog. If you are reading this at all, chances are you know me reasonably well. And if you know me reasonably well, then you also know that I am, for the most part, what some people have politely referred to as 'technologically challenged.' But I thought I'd give blogging a shot anyway, because most of what it involves is writing, and that at least has never posed any problems for me.

This blog is exactly what it says in the description: Adventures of a reasonably well-adjusted artist. I will do my best to record the more noteworthy of my experiences on this Earth, mostly related to the various forms of art that I practice: writing, music, and acting. I hope, mainly for your sake, that these tales will be worth reading.

And now, a word about me. My name is Naddie Boyne. Really. Some of you may know me best as XXXXXX, (or sometimes Pigeon, Past, Onion, the Sandwich Bandit, or Sunny) but for the purposes of this blog I am Naddie Boyne. You may be wondering why I chose this name (and if you were not, I am going to tell you anyway). One day I was at my favorite restaurant, Chipotle. I had ordered online, and when I received my bag of food, I could not help but notice that the surely well-intending clerk had misspelled my name rather badly. I am not sure how he got Naddie Boyne, because my actual name is something QUITE different. But there you are. The name stuck, so now, for all intents and purposes, I am Naddie Boyne.

Thank you for reading this. I have a feeling this will be a learning experience for all of us.

Naddie