A New Skill

A couple years back, Mark designed t-shirts for his horn section here at Interlochen.  I ordered the separate blank shirts, and had them sent to him at camp. They were a huge hit.  Little did I understand the process then, but from what I have gathered, Mark drew the design but the teacher here did the actual silk screening.

This year, Mark wanted to do the same, and so did Johannah.  Unfortunately for Johannah, she didn't meet up with the same kind, compassionate visual arts teacher, but (now fortunately) ended up with a teacher who wanted her to learn how to do it herself.

And do it she did.

She's no artist.  In fact, in elementary and middle school, art was one of her least favorite classes.  It's kind of one of those "gift" kind of things--you either have it, or you don't.  After many unsuccessful attempts to design the shirt (and believe me, she tried), I asked Mark to step in and do it which he did in a morning.

Johannah took the design to the teacher and after hours and hours and hours, she silk screened t-shirts for her string ensemble.  They don't look perfect (like Mark's did from years ago), but I'm so proud of her.  She seriously made every one by herself!  She brought home the silk screen along with brushes and paint (on her bike, no less!) and worked all evening on them.  Then, the next day, she found three solid hours (missing lunch, by the way) and headed to the Dow building.  The teacher watched her and helped her with the front design (x4 shirts), and then he left her alone to do the backs of all of them.

Her theme was "Lords of the Strings", and she came up with the words on the back.  So clever!

I think Mark's a bit worried that the teacher might make him actually work for his shirts this time.