Day SEVEN | Halloween on the river

6:30 A.M. wake up call but there’s little movement. Ice sickles hang from the tents and the occupants’ teeth chatter. A yellow school bus pulls up and alerts the straggling students to get up and quickly pack the dwindling lunch supplies. We all assemble in the bus and head to the Current River for our Halloween canoeing adventures.  After winding through the hills of southern Missouri we arrived at the Current River with the breaks nearly on fire from the steep decent.  Teams were assorted by experienced, medium, and none; after a brief instruction we were off. A few run ins with the river bank and a couple 360s later, we got our river legs and began our 18 mile trek down the river.  Not far down the river, we broke for a snack and the first of three sketches. While sketching, people passed us and let us know that two canoes had already tipped, only an hour into our trip.  Our next stop was an old spring with a cave that was also home to the endangered grey bat. We wanted to adventure inside but none of us had a spare $20,000 to cover the fine.  Lunch was sort lived because of the bees that apparently live year round in missoura. Paddling and eating proved to be a challenge but worth it in trade for no bees. 3/4s of the way down, we began to get tired and slowed the pace to a crawl. Finally our group of four canoes could see the finish line and the race was on. The underdog canoe, Tony and Neal, pulled off a miraculous, come from behind victory that will go down in the Current River history books. Upon arrival, another race for the showers ensued.   Everyone scurried into the showers only to be greeted with the coldest water on the planet.  After cautiously washing off, the Halloween festivities began. There was a pumpkin carving contest and best-dressed award. The pumpkin-carving contest ended in much heart-breaking for team Luigi, Mason, Neal whose pumpkin was unrivaled but not appreciated. Luigi put his heart and soul into the flawlessly crafted pumpkin, but it was to no avail as they were snuffed for lesser, more generic jackolanterns.

Neal and Jeff

MAC ISSUES MORE PHOTOS HOPEFULLY TO COME! :)

Day Six | ThE tWo LaNe RoLlEr CoAsTeR

We woke in our frost covered tents, to enjoy the experience of pulling stakes out of the frozen ground. Did you know trying to pack a tent that is frozen is quite a challenge? Many of us couldn’t get our tents to fit in our bags right and the packing of bags in many vans was a hot mess. You could only open the back doors an inch to avoid a luggage avalanche. On our drive to our next campsite we stopped at the shut-ins of Johnson’s Shut-ins National Park. We learned more about the flood that happened five years ago. The flood caused many changes to this area; there are many signs that state where you should run when the sirens go off, in the case of another flood. The park service made many changes to the traveling path in the shut-ins. Instead of walking on gravel paths, you walk on a metal and wooden elevated path. This path is also a new discovery to prevent the destruction of the ground cover.

On our way back to the vans, many of us decided to explore the shut-ins even closer. Lost of people were jumping from rock to rock to see how much closer they could get to the open water. We were lucky enough to have this place to ourselves to explore, because in the summer it is packed full of families enjoying the many pools and water slides that are formed. The shut-ins are a great place in the summer to cool off with a nice swim. We loaded up in the vans once again to head to our other campsite. 

Taking the curvy back roads we ended up missing a couple turns and had to turn around a few times. Thankfully we got to the campsite at a great time to have half a day to work on our vegetation transects. This campsite was also equipped with more than two bathrooms and two showers for all thirty-nine of us, unlike the last site. We were excited for our next day on the river, and off to bed we went to sleep with spiders and try to keep warm. 

Kathleen and Sam

Day Five | Double Time in the Johnson Shut-Ins!

We awoke to frost over everything, including my shoes. I had accidentally left my shoes outside the tent and ended up with cold feet for the rest of the day. After a ‘wholesome’ breakfast of lukewarm oatmeal, the instructors divided us into two groups. Half of us went with Gary and Julie to do a new project called a vegetation transect, while the other half went with Michael to a place called Elephant rocks.

For our transect we split into groups of four or five, where we took a compass, a 100ft measuring tape, and our plant skills and put them all to the test. We drove to the Johnson Shut-Ins and started out on the east side of the Black river. We plotted four 50ft diameter circles each about 100 feet from the other and looked at how the vegetation growing within the boundaries changed from each location as we headed east. We also recorded which way the slope was facing, the soil condition, and how they affected the type of trees, shrubs, and groundcover. This was a really fun activity because we got to hike through a lot of downed trees and thick shrubbery to get to the top of the ridge. It was also something none of us had done before which equated to a great learning experience.



Let's just say we had a few trees to deal with...



Our finished product!




We then headed back for a great lunch of PB&H (peanut butter and honey) sandwiches and then switched to the Elephant Rocks with Michael. These were igneous rocks that were formed by magma inside softer sedimentary rocks, miles beneath the Earth. As the sedimentary rock eroded away these rocks became exposed, and after more and more wind and water erosion they became smooth and rounded. This patch of igneous granite rock is very valuable because the rest of Missouri is filled with limestone. The formation is called Elephant Rock because they look like a line of circus elephants. The biggest rock, nicknamed Dumbo, is 27 feet tall and weighs 680 tons. After completing a vignette color pencil composition of different features from the rocks we had some free time to explore. The really neat thing about this site was a trail that circled around the whole place that could be navigated by a blind person.



Dumbo is thissssssss big!





Nate is so good at reading braille!



Fat Man's Crevice



All in all, the day turned out pretty good, at least after it warmed up, with two exciting adventures. To add the cherry on top, we finished the day with a hot bowl of soup and a good game of three-hand touch – power walking football.

Signed
Mark Lukasiewicz and Paige Hubbard

Day FOUR |THTPWF (Missouri Mines and Johnson Shut-Ins)

With a full day of driving ahead of us, the seven a.m wakeup call didn't help at all.  At least we got to enjoy another breakfast at the wonderful Drury Inn.  Gee golly will we miss that twenty-four hour free pop and popcorn.  As we set sails for our next destination, The Johnson Shut-Ins, a grocery stop was necessary.  We arrived at a fantastical market called SCHNUCKS! What a unique name you might say?  Well the name was just fitting because they have an excellent track record and they give you the tools to be your own boss.  After purchasing enough chili to make our tents smell like a barn for a week...standard procedure...it was time to move on.  Thanks SCHNUCKS!

 

It was only a few hours later until we made our next stop.  As we approached a dilapidated structure in the middle of nowhere we questioned whether or not we were lost.  Little did we know, we had just reached Gary's favorite place, The Missouri Mines!!! Full of wonderment and bliss like a child on Christmas morning, Gary led us into this historic establishment.  Our large group astonished the lone worker who probably lived there.  The thirty-nine of us ventured into the deserted two-room museum to explore Missouri's mining history.  The kind man entertained the idea of a tour around the museum as well as an educational film.  Neal even happily volunteered to try out an old rail car!!!

After taking plenty of notes and exploring the whole museum, it was time to get creative! We were assigned to draw one watercolor and one colored pencil drawing of a structural element that appealed to us. A group of us chose to draw the mine from a different perspective.  We sat on top of the vans and completed our drawings and watercolors. At three fifteen we met up in front of the museum for a sketchbook lay down, where we received beneficial feedback. 

Back on the road, it took about an hour to get to the Johnson Shut-Ins campground where we began to eat the chili we love so much.  Our stomachs were satisfied, but the weather grew colder and colder.  Most of the students retreated to their tents, but we attempted to seek alternate ways of warmth.  We first decided that cartwheels and a variety of tumbling tricks was a great idea.  As Buh face-planted into the freezing cold loam, warmth was achieved but pain as well.  The real fun began when I(Luigi) enlightened the rest of the group with a game from my childhood, three hand touch power walking football (THTPWF for short).  It was a close game until Mason lost the approaching ball in the darkness, slipped on a tarp, and fell straight back on his buttocks.  This turned out to be a very pivotal moment in the game because Mason redeemed himself by great defensive play and many touchdowns that led his team to a 77-70 victory.  Our teams greeted each another with hugs and hand pounds after the game as we retired to our tents.  Little did we know, below freezing temperatures and frozen towels were in our future. 

-Danny Pritchard and Luigi Cuartero

Day THREE | A Trip to Japan

Another morning of a phenomenal breakfast guaranteed a solid day of Savanna Studio activities. We jumped in the vans bright and early and headed off to our first stop, Tower Grove Park. We both were in Gary’s van and attempted to lighten the mood with some quality music, which was almost instantly shut off when we hit the road.

The Ruins at Tower Grove Park

When we got to Tower Grove Park, we gathered in a massive pavilion near the parking lot to show off our fabulous scorecard assignment from Citygarden Park. After our group presentations, Gary lectured about plants and talked about a transect project we would soon be working on. We then took a break and threw giant Osage-orange multiples the size of softballs around, to get rid of some built up energy.  When we were done with that, we started on our next assignment. Our charge was to pick three sites, and draw them integrated together on a two-page spread, using pencil and colored pencil. Both of us went straight to the ruins near one of the larger ponds. After searching for the right spot, we plopped down at the edge of the pond and started drawing, only distracted for a little bit by the four cute ducks swimming around. The ruins around the pond were unlike any built work we had seen, so naturally it drew a majority of the class to its edge, in hopes of capturing some of its majestic beauty.

We did a quick lay down before heading out for lunchtime in the streets of St. Louis.

Creek at Japanese Garden in the Botanical Gardens

After lunch, the caravan traveled down the street to the Missouri Botanical Garden. Michael Martin gave a quick lecture about the gardens, and then we got our charge! Since the two of us are basically the same person, we tend to go to the same places a lot. We joined up with Nate and David (our Pow Wow buddies) and ventured off into the garden. We wandered around for a while and took pictures before we picked an area to sketch. After gaping at the massive Koi fish in the Japanese Garden pond, we spread out along one of the paths to find an unknown plant to sketch. We reconvened, and walked closer to the pond to find the ultimate watercolor site. Devon and Nate produced some excellent watercolors, but Emily’s was less than epic, eventually turning it into an abstract, fun filled watercolor.

Make a wish!

After our eventful afternoon, everyone met up to plan the evening. The three directions everyone headed were the art supply store (a necessity for any design student on the road), the hotel, and the local Goodwill…in search for the ultimate Halloween costume. 

Because it was our fellow students birthday, we celebrated later that night with some cake, music (provided by a number of talented piano players in savanna studio), and wonderful company. It was a great end to an eventful day. 

Happy Birthday Kaci!

Emily and Devon

Day TWO | the weatherman said it was going to be windy

            Today we started the day off with the best breakfast of the savanna studio. There was scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits, gravy, doughnuts, and other various breakfast items; it was delicious to say the least. Then we spent the day around the St. Louis arch. It was a close walk since we were staying nearly right underneath it. Our hotel room was actually on a corner of the building so we had two walls that were just solid windows overlooking the city, which was absolutely gorgeous at sunrise and sunset. When we left this morning, it was freezing. The weather man said it was going to be windy today...that was an understatement. The wind was intense; first went Gary's hat, then a few others. Within seconds we were in a tornado of papers as Tony's folder got blown away, and took many people to help scramble to collect them. Today was my place project, so I spent the morning taking a few hundred pictures of the arch and its surroundings for my collage project before we went underground to the museum. I was so amazed at how big it was! I had been walking on top of it all morning and had no idea! It was really nice, although we all had to go through airport security just to get in-which was kind of funny, since the majority of us were carrying knives. We didn't get to take a ride to the top of the arch, which would have been sweet, but instead spent the afternoon across a few blocks in CityGardens. -Jennifer Stromberg

Under the Arch

            in the afternoon,we went to a sculpture park called Citygarden. This community public space is quite new---it was established at 2009. The designer of Citygarden was inspired by the flowing shape of river, and he showed that though three main water features and waving shaped seating wall. We did a scored card analysis there again, and this time we decided our own space to analysis according to the position of the sculpture we were assigned. Although all of the sculptures looks good alone, the situation is different while putting them in a large environment. Some of them blended in very well, for instance, the one called Tai Chi Single Whip, which was located along a river shaped curving seating wall. The movement of the sculpture was expanded and continued to a larger landscape though this seating wall and this makes the the sculpture blended into the landscape really well.

Making good use of the popcorn machine

           At night, it was working time. The lobby was full of our people working on the scored card project. Oh, and the dinner was very nice, i guess that's because we were all hungry. Some of us stayed very late that night, to work on their project and it turned out really good the next day!---Sifei Liu

Willie Nelson Said It Best...

Goin' places that I've never been.
Seein' things that I may never see again

And I can't wait to get on the road again.
On the road again 

For this leg of the trip we are heading south, down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. Our first stop was Bloomfield, Iowa where we discussed JB Jackson's 'Almost Perfect Town,' and the students became reacquainted with their beloved sketchbooks. After a few days in a comfy St. Louis hotel, we'll be roughin' it at the Johnson Shut-In's State Park. We've been planning a Halloween spectacular, complete with pumpkin carving, costumes, and a float trip down the Current River. We will be taking in the sites and sounds of Memphis, trekking along the Natchez Trace onto New Orleans, and eventually hopping a chartered boat to Horn Island off the coast of Biloxi, MS. 

We have another adventure-filled trip, so stay tuned and we'd love to read your comments!

And I'm happy to report that we finally found Fran, our long-lost colleague. We snapped a photo so we'd never forget this joyous day...

Michael and Fran

All together, at last

Happy reading, 

Julie

VIDEO | The End (of the 12 mile hike)

(be sure to turn up the sound)

The END | though its really just the beginning

Hello Faithful Readers!

We have safely returned, with sun-kissed faces, to our beautiful campus which has been touched by autumn's paintbrush since we started our journey FOUR weeks ago. I am just sure that the Savanna Studio has been granted a special clock, because there is no way our West Country Trip has come and gone. We had a great time with at least three million photos to prove it. Well maybe not that many, yet.

Would you permit me to brag for just a moment? Great. We have FANTASTIC students. From the start of the first trip, the sense of community was apparent. The students posses a truly colorful array of talents, an incredible work ethic, and the desire to help their peers succeed. I expect great things from them in the future!

There is much to do in the next 16 days, but I'm already looking forward to getting on the road again. We will try to post new blogs while we are on campus, so keep reading and feel free to comment!

Julie

All 36!

LAST DAY OF THE FIRST TRIP (other than driving home)

10-1-10

Plaza in Denver

Denver, Colorado

After our exciting firm visit to Wenk the other day, we started our new day with a very enthusiastic ride on the free mall bus, which took us to the end of the 16^th street mall. Once we were at the end of the mall, we took a leisurely stroll down to Commons Park. Once there, we got a chance to explore the park a little bit before we started on our section views of the area. After we finished our sections, we were given our project details and groups for our “score card” projects. After we got to our sites and were set free, we all started on different things and headed in different directions. A little tight on money, Matt and I had a wonderful meal at a Denver exclusive, McDonalds (dollar menu). It was probably the sketchiest one I’ve ever been to. Afterwards though, it was back to work.



SNAP DRAGONS!



My group and I worked for a while on our projects, but around five, we decided to “put a fork in it”. We quickly ran across the street to get Kat some chocolate covered marshmallows from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. After, we had a happy Kat on our hands. Once back in the hotel, I found my roomies taking a nice nap, which I quickly woke them up from. Being our second day in Denver, a few of our class mates decided to take in a bit of the night life. Between Kat, and Matt bickering for two hours, trying to get some work done, and people frequently stopping by the room, we soon decided to just order some pizza for dinner. Plus that way we didn’t have to walk very far. Deven, Emily, Kat, Matt and I decided we would split three pizzas between us all, so after probably a half hour or so of deciding what to order, we finally called in our order. Twenty minutes later Matt and I went to go get the pizzas. That’s when we found that we had called the wrong Papa John’s and our order wasn’t there. Thank you to the nice people that work at the East and West Colfax Papa John’s we quickly got the situation fixed, though. In only another twenty minutes we were enjoying our pizza back in the room. It was a little disappointing to see Deven full after only one piece, because she filled up on snacks while she was waiting. After getting stuffed on pizza and orange Kool-Aid (provided by Kat) we sort of just laid around.



Pizza Party

 It wasn’t long until Matt and Kat started bickering again though. All she wanted was to go to the zoo, but that quickly turned into a large debate. Needles to say, I think we are all going to the zoo sometime soon. That was pretty much our night, we sort of just sat around and had fun together. I’m sure some of the people that went out have some great stories; I just haven’t heard them yet.

-David Anderson

Day Seventeen - E. Colfax Here We Come!

Look at that hair!

Emily Iva- Today was one of our final driving days! We woke up warm in our tents, then instantly froze in the slightly ridiculous Teton air as soon as we unzipped our tents. Moving slow, we packed up our gear and got ready to head to Denver. The motivation of showers being available that night made us move just a bit quicker. Many, like myself, were wearing hats to cover up the 3-day nasty that was our hair. Yet with all of the filth built up on us, our spirits were still fairly high. With the end of the trip nearing, tensions were high and even MY claws were starting to come out. Unfortunately this led to me yelling at 3 fellow Savanna-ers, which I still regret.

Everyone is sleepy.

But I digress! We packed up our gear, threw it in the vans, and were on the road by the usual 8AM. With a 12 hour drive ahead of us, many took advantage of the time to catch up on sleep. I only managed to sleep for about a half hour, because I had the numerous distractions named David, Nick, Ryano, Nate, Devon and Jeff around me. And I say that with all of the love in my heart, dears.

With Michael Martin at the wheel, or copilot at least, we had a van ride of fun trivia and quirky comments. The ride was nothing short of entertaining, because wherever Devon and I are, there is always a dance party. We had a quality line-up of songs, if I may say so myself. Even Nate and Nick busted out some pretty impressive moves.

We arrived in Denver after dark. As soon as the gearshift hit park, we jumped out of the vans and into the showers. Some went out and explored around Denver, and some, like myself chose to stay in. No matter what we did, we stuck to the advice the lady at the front desk of our hotel gave us: "When you walk out of the building, DON'T go right, go left."