Creative Critters and Crunchy Crusts!
Pre-K – 3rd graders baked sourdough bread with local baker Lauren Strohl, and 4th – 8th graders made recycled critters with artist Jean Skipper as part of the Ocracoke Alive program to bring art and crafts education to island kids this semester.
Lauren is well-known on Ocracoke for her delicious baked goods at Graceful Bakery, but most of the kids remember her from her former job at Ocracoke Child Care. For her arts class, she helped the children make mini-sourdough bread loaves to take home and enjoy. She mixed the dough at home and had it ready (at the Methodist Church Red Hall) for kneading and shaping.
"I wanted them to have fun with the dough, to feel and squish it," she said. "We had such a good time. The kids were super well-behaved and it was great fun."
She introduced the art of bread-baking by showing the kids a little jar of her natural sourdough starter, and explaining the ingredients in the dough. Then the kids sprinkled a handful of flour on their tables and got to work pounding and stretching the sticky dough. Lauren taught them how to carefully flatten, fold, and shape the dough into loaves. The kids left their loaves with Lauren so they could rise and then Lauren baked them.
"We put them on parchment paper on trays and labeled the paper so each kid gets their own loaf," she said. "The kids get a little delivery right before school's out," she said. Homemade bread, fresh and hot from the oven – it doesn't get any better!
Lauren wants to give a shout-out to her great helpers Leslie Lanier, David Tweedie, and the classroom teachers. "It was an extremely supportive environment," she said. "I'm really grateful for that because I could just focus on the kids."
Lauren will return to the Ocracoke Alive program the first week of March to bake with the 4th – 8th graders. She also plans to open Graceful Bakery in mid-April, "ready for another great season!"
Jean Skipper traveled from her home in Vass, NC to spend a week on Ocracoke and create art with the kids.
"Each kid was more special than the last," she said Thursday afternoon. "They were so open with sharing their stories about Ocracoke. I would come back anytime and work with these amazing kids."
Jean chose the recycled critter project because she wanted the students to know that "Art doesn't have to be made of fancy supplies using expensive tools. It can be made out of stuff you might throw away."
She prepared for her Ocracoke class by gathering supplies: scrap wood pieces from a pallet company, dowel rods, straws, metal cans, found objects, shot-glass-sized red solo cups, bottle caps, plastic lids, and random craft supplies, including her must-have stash of googly eyes. She had help from an artist friend at home, Mary Nelligan, who helped her pre-drill the pieces so the kids could assemble them in one session with Jean.
And when she posted on Facebook about needing cans and craft supplies for her Ocracoke class, Leslie Lanier shared the information and was inundated with donations from islanders, which made Jean feel very welcome.
I first visited with her just when she'd finished setting up Deepwater Theater as her workspace. She was excited to meet the kids and to talk about art and Ocracoke.
Jean is a fulltime artist now, but before she took that plunge, she worked in the corporate world – and was happy to leave it. Her first ever show as an artist was the 2006 Ocrafolk Festival, where she met Leslie, who became her first ever wholesale customer. Jean's prints, pottery, greeting cards, and jewelry have been in Books to Be Red ever since. (She brought a big shipment with her this week!) Even before that, in 2000, Ocracoke resident Ann Warner was the first person to buy anything arty from Jean ("She bought one of my photos right out of the trunk of my car!") That was also the same year that Jean met her husband on the island.
"Ocracoke is at the heart of all of it for me," she said.
Professionally, Jean focuses on one kind of art – her distinct line of jewelry. Jean Skipper Originals include lots of found and recycled objects, everything from keys to beads to bobbins to Jean's hand-stamped copper charms. She combs thrift stores and yard sales looking for bits and pieces that speak to her. "I like pieces that tell a story," she said.
But besides her jewelry, she likes to try all kinds of arts and crafts – just for fun.
For five years, she owned a co-op gallery representing 80 artists. But running a gallery was too much of a management job, so in 2011, she went back into full-time art.
"I like to do art for the pure joy of it," she said. "I don't want my career as an artist to become a job. It's too precious."
Jean makes at least two trips to Ocracoke a year in the spring and fall for artist retreats at Soundfront Inn. She and two artist friends, Jody Ohl and Penny Arrowood, offer weeklong retreats for women who stay with them at the Inn.
"We have eight students for each workshop. They live in the house with us and we cook and clean for them," she said. They also have guest speakers and visit around the island. "We like to show them something different each year."
Amy Howard told them ghost stories last year, and because of that connection, many of Jean's artist friends donated canvases to the Ocracoke Through Your Eyes art show at OPS last week.
"People come from all over the country," she said. "A lot of them come before or stay after the retreat, and they're all really excited about the island now."
For this visit, Jean came with her mother and is grateful to Ocracoke Alive for the opportunity. They're staying at Captain's Landing (thanks, Betty and George for the sweet suite donation!), and when she's not teaching students (on Tuesday and Thursday), Jean says, "Just to be on the beach is heaven to me. I've got no plan, no schedule, just spending time with my mother and local friends, and watching the sunset from Captain's Landing."
The deal for Ocracoke Alive Art Partnership instructors is this: if you live on Ocracoke, you'll teach your two days and take home $150. If you come from off the island, the unpaid residency includes a free week-long stay at a cottage on the island in exchange for the two days of class instruction. Artists are encouraged to see their trip to Ocracoke as a time for reflection and retreat.
"Ocracoke Alive is amazing to put all this together," Lauren said, echoing many parents and community members.
"Both my kids were so excited after their first art program," said Cathy Scarborough. "Gavin was so proud to share the bread he'd made – still warm and delicious!" Both boys have read the list of upcoming arts classes and are anticipating more fun and learning.
Next week, the younger students will learn Native American song, dance, and crafts with Pat Garber while the older kids create copper jewelry with Kathleen O'Neal, owner of Island Artworks.
The Ocracoke Alive Arts Partnership classes are offered free of charge to Ocracoke School students and local homeschooled kids. The program is made possible through generous donations. Find out more at www.ocracokealive.org.
