In November, Jack Frost was bought by a 3rd grade teacher in Michigan. Judi told me that she was going to use Jack Frost in January as a class project, since January is such a dull month for both teachers and students. (I remember going back to school in January and just thinking it was torture after all the fun of Christmas!)
In Jack Frost's story I wrote how he loves to paint frost on everything, and is inspired by his favorite artist Jackson Pollock. Judi and the school's art teacher got together and they came up with a dual project for the kids: each child would write their own version of Jack Frost's story and then in art class they would learn about Jackson Pollock and his drip paintings, then make their own Pollock inspired painting. Judi sent me an email saying the class had made a book for me and she was mailing it off. I was so delighted and inspired when I opened up the envelope and this great handmade book came out! It is full of Jack Frost stories from each kid, along with a letter to me, and pictures of them and their Pollocks. A really fun idea and it made my day to read each story and learn how much the kids responded to Pollock and his paintings. Most of the kids put down Pollock as their favorite artist and a lot now want to paint like him someday, it was amazing to be a small part of the kids discovering and loving art! I posted a couple of the student's paintings, there were too many to post them all, but they are all amazing- such freedom to have fun and just BE- something that most adult artists struggle with their whole lives to recapture- myself included! :D
According to the kids' stories Jack lives: in the cold part of Canada, in an igloo in Mississippi, inside a red oak tree, inside an icicle, at the kid's house, in an igloo in the backyard, the North Pole, Antartica, and in an icy mailbox.
He works anywhere from: all night, from 7pm to 6am, from 1:30 am to 1 pm, from 3am tp 5am, and my favorite: from 5am until 6:02am. I love those extra 2 minutes. :)
In the summer, Jack spends his time: on the planet Neptune (ice bowling with 6 pins), in the Arctic, in Antarctica, in the kid's freezer eating ice cream (mint of course) all day while he hibernates, at the North pole with Santa, at the beach where he swims all day with the sharks, in Florida making flowers freeze, and in Alaska where he changes his name to Jack Sunshine and gives people sunburns instead of frostbite.
Thanks to Judi and her third graders for making my week~ I'm keeping their book in my studio as a reminder to just let go and create! I'm off to go and sit down and write responses to 30 letters... so have a great rest of the week everyone.
