Cranes For Ruth

    Today is the day I present about Cranes for Ruth at the virtual MAEA conference. I look forward to attaching a link to a recorded version of this presentation to this blog for those of you that might not make it today.  All are welcome to join this hands on workshop in making paper cranes. The cranes created will be made to honor Dr. Ruth Starratt, an influential educator and art education program supervisor from Boston University that passed suddenly last March at 83 year old. During this session you will learn about her life and all that she has done including being awarded the NAEA Eastern Region Art Educator of 2015.    In the 21 years I have known her, Ruth went way past being my supervisor and became a part of my life. Ruth and her husband, Jerry, both happily attended our wedding as an honorary part of the family, but not before Ruth folded paper cranes made of beautiful Japanese origami papers for everyone!    Now, I would like to give back...

 Happy Summer to all the educators out there that are wrapping things up at school and kicking off the summer! What a year it was and we made it!!!  Now that we have some time to slow down and reflect, maybe we can make some paper cranes as well! People have been asking me about a tutorial video on how to make paper cranes and I found this one online. Seems to be a good one to get us started. Please remember to attach a story of memory of Ruth and Jerry to your crane. You are certainly welcome to make more than one. Send your cranes to Cranes for Ruth, P.O. Box 560036, Medford, MA 02156. I will keep you posted as the cranes begin to come in! More soon... 

I was  heartbroken  to hear about the passing of both Ruth and Jerry Starratt.  In the past 21 years, Ruth have gone way past being my program supervisor at Boston University ... she and Jerry became a part of my life. I called her my travel mom as we began attending NAEA conference together, presenting and having fun. I fondly remember riding the waterslides outside the hotel in Miami in 2002 with Jerry. Jerry forever became known as "Waterslide Jerry" after that.  Ruth was the one who encouraged me to apply for the Fulbright Program in Japan. That experience in 2005 changed the course of my artwork and caused me to look at everything differently. She worked with my student teachers the way she had worked with me and was one of the kindest and most generous people.  I kept in touch with her throughout the years, sharing my travels with "travel mom" and "Waterslide Jerry". She would always reply to me as her "travel daughter".  In 2015, when my h...