Art of the Matter: Spring Birdhouse Collage

by Carmen Wolf, Board Member of Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art

Spring has sprung! Are you as excited for the beautiful weather as I am? I’m already seeing birds returning from their migratory journeys, plants poking up through the soil, and buds on trees just waiting to explode into leaves. After a long winter this thrills me! This month we are going to embrace spring and explore and expand our creative talents.

Our project this month is to create birdhouse collages for all the beautiful birds that are returning. Birds have been an important part of art for centuries. Birds have been used in art to signify peace, knowledge, immortality, freedom and spirituality.

Birds are important in art in many different cultures. The phoenix and heron are used in Asian cultures. The Ho-o-do is a temple in Japan meant to look like a phoenix landing on the water. It also has phoenix statues on the roof. In Japanese culture the heron represents longevity, good luck, and divinity.

The goldfinch is used in many religious paintings in Western Europe to represent resurrection. There is a legend that the red on top of its head comes from the blood from Christ's crown of thorns. The goldfinch also eats thistles and thorns which again connects it to Christ’s crown of thorns.

I challenge you to take a tour through the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art permanent gallery and find as many birds and birdhouses as you can. Sometimes they are sneaky and show up in unusual places, so keep your eyes open!

When some birds make a nest, they become scavengers and they use all kinds of materials to create their home. We are going to do the same. First, we have to gather our supplies. Some possible materials could be old magazines, junk mail, wrapping paper, tissue paper, bubble wrap, cotton balls, paper bags, feathers, etc. Be creative, just make sure to check with your parents before cutting up magazines or mail. Don’t forget colored pencils, paint, markers or crayons, and the glue.

Once you have your supplies we’ll start on the bird house. Take the paper you want to use for the bird house and fold it in half vertically. Draw half of your bird house on the fold and then cut it out. It can be a square, a rectangle, a polygon, any shape you want that can be mirrored. When you unfold it, you will have the body of the bird house. Don’t forget to cut out a hole so the bird can get in and out! I used construction paper and bubble wrap for one of my bird houses.

Next, we are going to make the roof. You can be as creative as you want, it doesn’t have to have straight lines and look like a typical bird house. Again, we start with a piece of paper folded vertically. Draw the mirrored profile of your roof and then cut it out. When you are done, open it up and see how the body and roof fit together. You can add a piece or two to go in between if you want.

Now let’s think about the background. Do you want your birdhouse to be on white paper, colored paper, strips of tissue paper, or do you want to paint the sky and grass? Maybe you want to paint swirls like a van Gogh painting. Again, there are no limits so be creative!

Once the background is complete and dry, it’s time to start assembling. Place your bird house and roof on the background and decide where you want it. Does it look lonely all by itself? Maybe you want to add a bird or two, some plants, or even clouds in the sky.

After you have all the pieces ready it’s time to glue. Start with the pieces that will be covered by other pieces, the bottom layer. Then keep adding the layers until you are happy with your creation. Set it aside so glue can dry. Wow! You created a masterpiece!

But wait, we’re not done yet. Now let’s use another part or our imagination. Pretend you are perched on top of your bird house looking around. What do you see? Where is your bird house located? Are there other animals around? Maybe some people? Create a story about you as a bird returning to your new bird house and include it with your artwork. Be sure to take photos of your work and share on social media using hashtag #MGMOAart. I can’t wait to see your beautiful artwork!

Scan this code to visit the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art’s at-home project page.

HELPING HANDS

Local Organizations Respond To COVID-19 Pandemic

From staff reports

Local businesses and organizations have not only found creative ways to operate while navigating the response to the coronavirus pandemic, and many have also found ways to give back and lend a helping hand to their neighbors in the community.

Here are a few some people told us about and some others who are still offering any assistance they can.

If you are part of a group or know of a group who has been working to help locally, please email editor@shawneeoutlook.com or contact us via facebook.com/shawneeoutlook.

Salvation Army

The Salvation Army is still providing all social services – including vouchers to its Family Store for clothing items – along with food pantry, shelter services and Boys & Girls Club activities. For more information about details about the Salvation Army’s local response to the public health crisis, call (405) 275-2243. Those needing emotional or spiritual help can also reach out to (844) 458-4673.

Emmanuel Episcopal Church/United Presbyterian Church

Throughout the pandemic crisis, Emmanuel Episcopal Church has continued its daily lunch program. Hearing that patron numbers were increasing and that some supplies were becoming more difficult to obtain, United Presbyterian's Session decided to contribute to Emmanuel's efforts.

In November, the Session of United Presbyterian Church of Shawnee voted to contribute $5,000 to Mission Shawnee to support their food pantry and any special food baskets prepared for the holiday season.

OHCE

Oklahoma Home and Community Education chapters around the state responded to the call for masks as soon as the need became apparent. From mid-March through early June, OHCE groups worked together to produce 42,000 masks, including 2,500 from chapters in Pottawatomie County. These masks have gone to several medical facilities, firefighters and military personnel as well as many family and friends.

Those who would like to help OHCE’s efforts with community projects such as this and others including assisting women’s shelters, church organizations and more, contact the county OSU Extension Office at (405) 273-7683.

Gateway to Prevention and Recovery

Any community member can contact our Shawnee office at 273-1170 ext. 0 Monday-Thursday, between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and Friday 8 a.m.-3p.m. and speak to a behavioral health professional free of charge.

Community Renewal

Community Renewal is providing a list of resources that it updates every weekday. Visit communityrenewal.org to find a link to its resource page.

Immanuel Baptist Church

Visit ibcshawnee.org/serve-coronavirus or call (405) 273-2105 for opportunities to serve, such as: • Signing up to deliver groceries, prescriptions,

DVDs and other essentials to those in need. • Sew face masks for health care providers. • Make care packages for health care providers. • Providing free to-go meals from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. every Thursday at Mission Shawnee at 126 S.

Center St.

Shawnee Forward

The organization is gathering and posting information for local businesses to help understand the impact of the current crisis and where they can find help. Visit shawneeforward.com.

United Way

United Way Worldwide is operating its COVID-19 Community Response and Recovery Fund and has already helped provide resources for local organizations providing relief to families. Visit unitedway.org/recovery/covid19 for more information.

Oklahoma Blood Institute

Blood donation typically takes only about an hour, and one donation saves up to three lives. Appointments can be made by calling 1-877-340-8777 or clicking here or visiting a donor center listed below: • Ada – 1930 Stonecipher Blvd. • Central OKC – 901 N. Lincoln Blvd. • Edmond – 3409 S. Broadway, Ste 300 • North OKC – 5105 N. Portland Ave.

Please be aware of and observe all local distancing guidelines and social restrictions when deciding how to donate.

Shawnee Weathered Great Depression But Saw Little 'Dust Bowl' Effect From Drought

The decade of the 1930s was a dismal economic time in the U.S. usually referred to as “The Depression” and the “Dirty Thirties.”

Those days began in October 1929 with the stock market crash. At first, that event didn’t affect Shawnee as much as other parts of the country, but the drought in addition to the Rock Island railroad strike and its eventual closing did. While Pottawatomie County escaped the dust problems of the state’s northwestern plains, local citizens didn’t escape the decade’s tough times.

Shawnee banks failed, jobs disappeared, drought shriveled crops, farmers lost the markets for their produce and the rains didn’t come. Farmers struggled and some couldn’t keep up payment to the bankers who had loaned the money for seed and equipment. Foreclosures followed. Some businesses had shut their doors when residents could no longer pay their bills. They were tough times, but local folks were better off than their neighbors in the northwest corner of the state.

On Sunday, April 14, 1935, Shawnee got a better understanding of what their far west neighbors were enduring. They had heard of the dust storms out in the Texas panhandle, southeast Colorado, southwest Kansas and the northwestern corner of Oklahoma brought on by mismanagement of cultivation coupled with the severe drought. The prairie was literally blowing away, but Shawnee and the eastern three quarters of the state had not been affected the same way. The state was basically divided by what was known from what early explorers called the Cross Timbers. The eastern part of the state was forested, and the soil content was different.

But on Sunday, April 14, 1935, the dust storm was so bad that much of the country felt the effects. The winds picked up the dirt in the Dust Bowl described in most accounts as the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. Before long, much of the entire state was under the dirt cloud, including Pottawatomie County.

Shawnee residents experienced a dusting, and some reported staying in their houses and shutting windows. One report told of the workers in City Hospital hanging wet sheets over their windows to protect their patients.

While Pottawatomie County wasn’t part of the famous Dust Bowl, citizens then felt compassion for their western neighbors who endured such an event many times, and it wasn’t only the country’s midsection that experienced the worst day of the dust storms. There were reports of the dust up in the atmosphere falling on the decks of ships in the Gulf of Mexico, and some wrote of seeing signs of dust on buildings as far away as Washington D.C. and New York.

It was such a light touch in Shawnee that the local newspaper didn’t even mention the event. The headlines in the local paper on the Tuesday after what was later called “Black Sunday” featured the opening day of Major League Baseball and an upcoming cooking school. One article told of the “Terrible Dust Storm” in Cimarron County, and two days later there was a small story about state lawmakers approving funding for the “dust harassed farmers” in the panhandle.

Fortunately for Shawnee and the area, citizens were spared the harassment of the dust storms but not the Great Depression. In the midst of the trials of the 1930s, the federal government came to the rescue with their programs. People were put to work and companies got contracts to build. First on the list was Jefferson School. When a tornado swept through the north side of town eight years earlier, the school had suffered damage. Debris on the top floor was cleared away, and school continued in the four remaining classrooms. Then in 1932, Jefferson became the first structure built in Oklahoma by one of the government programs. Shawnee then gained more schools, the county courthouse, Municipal Auditorium, sidewalks, swimming pool, the lake and pump station and other work to help the town through the dark days.

Despite movies and books that depicted Oklahoma, and “Okies,” in a different light – and Shawnee didn’t escape the sad decade – it wasn’t as some would report. The Dust Bowl was real, but locally the drought, the shutdown of the Rock Island shops and the closing of banks were the problems. And Shawnee survived the Great Depression.

The Tuesday, April 16, 1935, edition of Shawnee Morning News made no mention of “Black Sunday” only two days after the dust storm event from the plains near the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma that had effects as far as the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico.

Photo submitted