When I was in grade school, my teachers taught us language arts, math, and history from blackboards. Lots of writing and chalk dust. Rarely was there any drawing, or use of any color other than white. But I actually look fondly back at those times - it was part of my childhood. When I became a teacher and I had my own blackboards to use, I remember being deeply and humbly moved, knowing I was in the company of those wonderful souls who were my mentors and role models. However, having trained as a Waldorf teacher, I regarded the chalk as more than a form of communicating verb tenses and long division, it was a medium for creating art. These large scale drawings were created during my time as a teacher, finding inspiration from the curriculum with my students. I drew from nature, history, and science - beauty and art were present everywhere. Most of my drawings were over four feet by six feet, created from between three hours (like the Cupcake drawing) and twelve hours (as with the Last Supper drawing). Thank you for visiting! Rick Tan There is a quaint little cottage tucked away under the trees at the end of a gravel path. Every Tuesday morning, it beats with the rhythm of the hearts and souls of homeschooling families of Davis Wholistic Learning Resources.
Founder Sandi Russi's team of Rick and Jennifer Tan of Syrendell and Robyn Wolfe of Waldorfish host children from five years to thirteen years in handwork, woodwork, art, movement, and drama. With teaching backgrounds in public school, homeschool, and Waldorf, and as professional artists and musicians, the trio offer a mixed bag of goodies. In short, they teach from the heart. In their 10-week Fall session ending November 15, the teachers and children engage in a vast number of hands-on, hearts-on activities! On those Tuesday mornings, where the Tans affectionately call the Homeschool Cottage, children are inside and outside, learning, doing, moving, being. In short, they are creating from the heart. Creating capacities and skills. Creating friendships and values. Creating joy. Our Winter-Spring session will resume on January 24. Until then, the Homeschool Cottage at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis will rest, awaiting the sounds of hammers tapping, brushes swishing, and children's voices in song and in play. One month ago, our intimate gathering of friends and colleagues set foot on the impeccably landscaped estate of Park Winters. Young, successful entrepreneurs with busy work lives, they came to Syrendell Summer Retreat for rejuvenation and creative inspiration. The Park Winters estate served as a tranquil setting like a cozy nest tucked safely into a grove of trees. We were pampered in the sensual pleasure of chef-prepared gourmet meals, a salt-filtered pool, local wine, the burbling of a fountain and koi pond, and simply being barefoot on the grass. We were in the three day retreat, constantly surrounded by beauty and serenity. Our workshop offerings gave a balance of technique development and creative exploration. Designed in the spirit of feng shui, they drew from the elements of water, fire, earth, and wood. We worked with our hands to dye wool and silk, to spin, and weave yarn, to build a wood loom, to experiment with watercolor painting, and to journal. Throughout the workshops, sitting at meals together, and doing movement, yoga, and kinesophi, we simply allowed ourselves to unplug and unwind, and to reconnect and replenish. We surrendered to the blessing of captured personal time and togetherness, engaged in conversation about work, family, and relationships, and in dialogue with our own creative genius! To our retreat guests - thank you for your radiance! Rick and Jennifer Tan HOSTS | Jennifer and Rick Tan | Syrendell
VENUE | Park Winters MEALS | Chef Scott Ostrander | Dining at Park Winters PHOTOS | Caroline Winata | Milou and Olin Photography Homeschooling is on the rise! According to data gathered by the US Department of Education, the number of homeschooled children ages 5 to 17 increased by almost 62% from 2003 to 2012. There are over 1.7 million kids out there who are learning at home, at the park, and in the woods. Parents are reclaiming the roles of teachers, with the world at large as their classrooms!
Support for homeschooling families has also risen. Sandi Russi, founder of Wholistic Learning Resources, had recognized in 2010 the need for a place where homeschooling families can avail of specialty classes such as art, handwork, woodwork, and movement. She pioneered a program that offers Waldorf-inspired classes in a school-like setting that supports the homeschooling lifestyle! There are others out there who bring their know-how and love of teaching to the homeschool world such as Earthschooling, Live Education, Syrendell, and Waldorfish, to name a few. We are happy to partner with Sandi Russi in launching Davis WLR last year, which brought us (Rick and Jennifer Tan) on board as homeschooling teachers for the families in Davis, Sacramento, and surrounding areas. We are also very happy to participate in WLR's Avenues & Inspiration Conference this August 2016. With Sandi Russi and other instructors of the WLR program - Kathy Anuszczyk, Talib Huff, Ciana Keller, Audra Sterrett, and Brian Wolfe, we are proud to inspire other parents and their families to make the homeschool journey with us. Homeschoolers are a community of people who believe in the power of family, that the capacities of the 21st century can be taught and fostered in the home, that we as parent/educators are responsible for guiding our future's leaders, peace keepers, and change makers. Ultimately, we make the homeschool journey because we value the precious time seeing our own children grow and become loving adults. Join us at the Avenues & Inspiration Conference; let's begin the adventure! Rick and Jennifer Tan Start with workshops in wool crafting, wood working, watercolor painting, and journal keeping. Mix in chef-prepared farm-to-table gourmet meals. Combine it all in a setting of tranquil luxury and impeccable elegance. And voila! Syrendell Summer Retreat 2016 at Park Winters.
As long time artists and educators, we have been teaching children the practical arts, and it was time to bring the merits of hands-on creative learning to the grown-ups. Through working with nature's materials such as wool, silk, and wood, the children acquire mechanical skills, develop a sense of self-esteem, and build a love of learning. What about adults? What would they gain in hand-dyeing wool, hammering wood, or watercolor painting? If you have witnessed a young child's imagination - in their playtime with blocks and dolls, in their telling and re-telling of stories, in their pages and pages of drawing and coloring - you would be envious that they appear to be an infinite wellspring of creative abandon! As adults, we can easily lose touch of that can-do imaginative spirit. However, in our grown-up lives, when we can be offered the gift of childhood as we build and draw and paint and play with yarn, we can reclaim what is in us all along: our creative genius. Maya Angelou once said, " You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have!" But wait! There is more to the Syrendell Summer Retreat than replenishing your creative powers. Perhaps with a similar philosophy in teaching children, we believe that the content of what is taught is best received when the whole being is engaged and happy. If you are growing a garden, you can't simply plant a rosebush and be done with it. You need to feed it with warmth, and to surround it with love. If the Syrendell workshops are like planting a rosebush, then Chef Scott Ostrander's gourmet meals will certainly nourish it, and the Park Winters estate is the gorgeous planting bed! We aim for a balanced, harmonious experience with the Retreat. If we are to succeed in growing the garden that is you, then the Retreat must nourish all your senses and nurture your spirit completely. Park Winters owners John Martin and Rafael Galiano designed and built and polished a gem. The estate truly shines and bathes guests in sparkly splendor! And Chef Scott is a masterful artist whose work is a feast for the eyes as well as the palate. We are so fortunate that our workshops had landed here. And there is one more element that is crucial to the enjoyment of the Retreat: the attendance of others like you. Our human connections with each other throughout the Retreat is what weaves it all together. We encourage each other, laugh together, learn from each other. Come join us - let's inspire one another, Rick and Jennifer Tan We are happy to have our friends Robyn and Brian Wolfe of Waldorfish share with us their insights into black and white drawing in the middle grades. This is their blog post from May 9, proudly reprinted here! The Waldorf art curriculum is smartly designed to meet children where they’re at in each phase of their development. If we provide children with the right tools at the right time, the whole experience nourishes them on a deep level. In the early grades (1-4) students live in a playful artistic realm. The experience of playing with colors and finding basic form is more nourishing than technique and detail. Students use art as an extension of their imaginations and the stories they hear. Around fifth grade, students are learning about ancient civilizations and how art was used as a method of communication and story telling. From early cave art to the hieroglyphics of Egypt and the mandalas of ancient India, the painting and drawing styles were full of imagery and color. Early art tends to also be fairly two dimensional. It's primary purpose was to tell a story, honor the gods, and represent culture. This is perfect for a child (such as the average 5th grader) who is on the verge of puberty but still lives in the imaginative world of childhood. As puberty sets in, the child moves away from the colorful imagery of these ancient peoples into a world of realism and perspective. From the beginnings of civilization and the golden age of Greece the curriculum moves toward the fall of Rome as children enter the 6th grade. Their arrival in Rome begins the next phase of artistic expression. Teaching art (or any subject!) in the middle school is challenging yet meaningful work. Students generally are starting to compare their own work with that of others. They are also realizing that they are very different from each other. Each student is on his/her own journey both internally and externally. Most of us remember the battles we faced each day in middle school. The inner struggle to understand how and why the body is changing is contrasted by the outer struggle to find one’s place socially. The child is thrust into a world of polarity. These polarities are often expressed verbally by middle school students. “I HATE my drawing!” “This is SO TOTALLY fun!” “My teacher has NEVER liked me!” “This is the BEST class!” There may be no better way to meet this moment in their development than to introduce the polarities of black and white drawing along with the multitude of greys that come with studying the nuances of light and dark. Students begin to study optics in Physics and using a phenomenological approach are encouraged to look at the world as infinite expressions of light and dark. By learning to see light and shadow and positive/negative space, elements of realism and depth begin to emerge. 6th graders are also generally hungry to learn technique. “It doesn’t look right” is the most common complaint I hear from middle school art students. Their ultimate goal is to make their drawing match what they see (either in reality or in their mind’s eye). Learning how to effectively use lines and shading helps the students become better able to draw what they see, as everything we see is based on relationships between light and dark. Black and white drawing, with it's emphasis on using lights and darks to shade & add depth, is the best way to help them begin to achieve more realism in their art work. This new skill meets the children perfectly as they are beginning to see their social environment through their own internal polarity lenses. Things are fair or not fair, someone is telling the truth or they are lying. That experience was either the BEST, or the WORST. Sound familiar? Emotions tend to run hot and cold at this age. Socially, students tend to feel “in” or “out.” As teachers, we strive to have the experience of the grey scale between light and dark be therapeutic for them, on a deeper unspoken level. While black and white is the main theme at the start of adolescence, the shades of gray in between hint at the next stages of complexity in the development of the human being. As students move beyond the 6th grade towards the end of middle school, vanishing points will expand artistic horizons and bring an entirely new perspective in the grades to come. ~Brian Wolfe For the month of May, Waldorfish and Syrendell teamed up to offer a BLACK & WHITE TUTORIAL PACKAGE! From Waldorfish, 3 levels of Charcoal-drawing video tutorial series and Syrendell's Black & White Drawing Lesson (videos + ebook!). Click this button below for 30% savings!
In feng shui, the intentional placement of belongings within a space optimizes the flow of positive chi, which promotes wellness, prosperity, and healthy relationships. Rooted in eastern mysticism, its auspicious practice has yielded powerful results. One of its most useful tools is the bagua map, which identifies areas within a space that support each realm of experience. The Syrendell Journal borrows the bagua map to create the chi-graph - a unique journaling platform for the intentional placement of thoughts. These nine realms of human experience are Sensuality, Legacy, Prosperity, Creativity, Harmony, Vitality, Synergy, Industry, and Identity. Your experiences can be categorized into any of these nine realms, revealing the interconnected and dynamic nature of our life forces. Your thoughts are comprised of the imprint of past life events, commentaries on current life circumstances, and projections into future life paths. By exploring, arranging and transcribing your thoughts accordingly on the chi-graph, you activate the positive flow of your personal chi. The chi-graph is the journal entry page where you are in freedom to creatively express your thoughts as drawings, doodles, keywords, poem or prose - however way fits with your writing or drawing style. Nourished or neglected? When you reflect on your chi-graph entries, you may find that some areas of your life have more positive flow than others. The Syrendell Journal gives you the courage to revisit and retune neglected areas of your life, and to care for and heal the parts that need your attention. Likewise, it shows you the areas of your life that truly lift your spirits. With the Syrendell Journal, you begin the empowering process of discovering your whole self, celebrating the forces that sustain your soul, and awakening your creative genius! NOTE: At the Syrendell Summer Retreat 2016 at Park Winters, guided by Dr. Rick Tan, participants will explore their thoughts with the Syrendell Journal, catalyzing the positive flow of creative, loving energy, all from the luxurious and tranquil setting of Park Winters in Winters, CA. The Syrendell Journal will be available to the public in the Fall of 2016. We cradled them in our arms for hours as they slept and nursed. We were attentive and vigilant to their every sound and every breath. We existed, it seemed, for the sole purpose of ensuring their survival. Early on, we learned that parenting is all about being present for our children - throughout their lives for always. It is about never letting go and never letting up. Frothy waves washed sand dollars, seashells, and stones onto the shore as I held my four year old daughter's hand. As ocean rushed in and receded out, she would laugh and be thrown off balance and sand would swirl around her feet. I was her anchor. Like an explorer temporarily moored to steady her vessel, she is charting the waters, readying to ply the open sea. Our eldest son, at nineteen, does not need the physical tether of his father's hand, or his mother's arms. He got plenty of that when he was a young boy. Captain of his own vessel, he is now plotting his own course and finding his own treasures. But even navigators need reliable and unchanging landmarks. Like the lighthouse on a rocky promontory, we are a beacon of safety. We are the penetrating light that gives guidance in stormy weather and the reliable, comforting silhouette in sunny skies. Throughout our children's lives, whether in the physical closeness of hand-holding or in the ethereal connection that binds us , attentiveness and vigilance for their well-being remain our parental duty. Providing comfort, enrichment, and encouragement. It does not have to be 24/7, it does not have to be sensational. We just have to strive to be mindfully present all along the journey - never letting go and never letting up. Venturing out to sea, the children will know that they can drop anchor anytime and the lighthouse will always beckon them back home. Author's Note: We took a day trip to Point Reyes National Seashore and spent part of the day at Limantour Beach where the photos were taken. It happened to be the same day of the bombings in Belgium. This post is dedicated to those whose families will not see their children ever come home. So never let up - brave parenting will bring world peace. A good friend of ours who lives in Davis, California, with her family is a floral designer. She is brilliant in many ways: a devoted wife and mother, a passionate scientist with a Master's degree in molecular genetics, and an innovator with a refined eye for floral arrangements. With the discipline of a scientist, she learned the art of floral design, and continues to hone her craft with every bouquet and boutonniere she assembles. Her hands, her eyes, and her imagination are guided by something in her that informs her when her work is complete. As an artist, one who leads a creative life, striving for the beautiful is a life-long endeavor. It is, as with other creatives, a mission - an obsession - for a meaningful communion with a divine designer. Leonardo da Vinci illustrated a book written by Luca Pacioli called De divina proportione in the late 1500's. It was a book on geometry that explored the golden ratio (1.618....) and its significance in mathematics. For artists, mathematicians, architects, and scientists, the Golden Ratio represented something universal, if not divine. It offered a notion that underneath the seemingly random beauty of nature, there was an intelligence, or an intentionality, to the design that connected all things. A star inscribed in a pentagon and the proportional lengths of the bones of the fingers possess the golden ratio. The spiral of a nautilus shell and the arches of a cathedral possess the golden ratio. Art is imbued with a natural law. The creative life is all about tapping into that natural law. When our floral designer friend steps back from a bridal bouquet she has just finished and nods with satisfaction, she may say that the finished product is a result of her training mixed with intuition. From a deeper perspective, that moment of satisfaction is the instant she has tapped into the divine beauty of nature's design. When an architect creates a structure perfectly suited to its surroundings and its inhabitants, she has communed with the divine designer. When a poet, writer, composer, and playwright create pieces that speak to our hearts and souls, they have connected with a miraculous muse. When a painter has captured the essence of a landscape or the nuances of a face, he has tapped into the spirit spring. The creative life is pleasurable and fulfilling, but it is just as painful and frustrating. The bouquet that is not symmetrical, the line that is off-center, the word that is just not accurate, the color that won't cooperate - these bug the heck out of a creative individual! It is not about perfection, it is about peace. Like listening to the dissonant sounds of an orchestra tuning to each other that gradually harmonize, one achieves peace when a harmonious connection to each other and to the beautiful are made. A creative life is a quest, an arduous task, a commitment to be a conduit for nature. It is a quest for grace, beauty, and peace. The creative life is a mission for meaningful relationships with each other. It is to discover one's own creative spirit, given courage by divine grace. This is a re-post from The Waldorf Way, October 4, 2009:
Once we develop these inner qualities, we stand above all the dangers that can arise from the division in human nature. We can no longer stray from the path. These qualities, therefore, must be formed with the greatest precision. Then we enter the esoteric life. -Steiner, Berlin, December 7, 1905 Steiner describes a series of qualities that are essential to our growth and development. Inner work is a major construct of anthroposophy, and one can easily understand the importance of it for the Waldorf classroom teacher, and for anyone else who wants to work on their inner Self. The six essential qualities are as follows: 1. Control of Thoughts. Mastery of one's own thoughts begins with setting aside a short time each day to focus consciously on a thought, placing it center in one's mind, and actively arranging other thoughts related to it in a logical manner. This exercise creates order within one's intellectual capacity. 2. Self-Initiated Action. Often, our actions are a result of reactive circumstances, obligations to work and family, and environmental stimuli. This exercise asks one to initiate an activity or task that is derived solely from one's own inner drive, creating a connection with the individualistic, unique Self. 3. Evenness of Feelings. Steiner describes it as detachment or imperturbability. One simply practices in regulating emotions to weather the ups and downs of life. Also, it describes the ability to take an objective perspective to evaluate the circumstances and surroundings. Sometimes, it helps to step outside of the self to see clearly. 4. Goodness of a Thing. In everything, there is goodness. One must practice in seeing the silver lining in every situation that arises. We are confronted every day by what appears to us as negativity. It is a higher state to see the positive within it. 5. Having Faith. In the esoteric sense, this means that every new experience is met with openness. One must practice in avoiding past events and circumstances to color how one may approach a new idea or thought or concept. This allows you more freedom to experience the fullness of the world. You become fearless. 6. Balance. This is key to any esoteric or practical training. One must practice in harmonizing activities so that there is time for meditation, for practicing these exercises, for family, and everything else that develops a person into a fully functioning human being. Author's Note, February 24, 2016: Teacher training at Rudolf Steiner College was like being at a gateway to a hidden garden. Standing at that gateway looking in, I was in awe of the colorful world of Waldorf. When I entered the garden, I was given the opportunity to uncover its roots - anthroposophy, and sample its fruits - Waldorf teaching. The garden, as I had realized, was immense! The gardener, Rudolf Steiner, had quite a green thumb, having fed this garden with a veritable stew of Eastern and Western philosophy and spirituality and science and initiate inspirations. The garden is beautiful and demands to be shared beyond the walls of Waldorf. Anyone who believes that inside him or herself resides a divine, creative universe will understand what Steiner was telling everyone: reach in, and you will find the artist of your life's canvas. |
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