art room – Ruth E. Hendricks

From the Archives Jan 2017

A screenshot of my January 2017 blogpost.

January 19, 2026 by Ruth Categories: PhotographyTags: archives, art room, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., photography, Pittsburgh PA, postaday, school, students 10 Comments

Choosing Love

As I was watching NFL playoff games today, I noticed the words on the backs of helmets Choose Love or Be Love.

Turns out they’ve been there awhile but I must have been looking at my knitting.

Being curious I googled to ask why the football players were sporting these words. Started as a response to a shooting in Buffalo, classified a hate crime.

Then I learned that there was backlash from some fans about this simple message being displayed. “Choose Love” was controversial?

According to the NFL, the meaning behind the slogans are straightforward. “Be Love” is a reference to the Dr Martin Luther King Jr Center’s Be Love campaign. According to the King Center, Be Love is a movement “born amid the immense uncertainty and global tension of the past year.”

Here’s an article from The Football Educator “The Power of “Choose Love” in the NFL”

“Choose Love” has become more than just a slogan within the NFL; it’s a unifying force that transcends the boundaries of the game. NFL players wield considerable influence both on and off the field, and through the “Choose Love” movement, they’re using their platforms to promote positive social change. This initiative encourages individuals to look beyond competition and rivalry, focusing on compassion, empathy, and community. (Click for original article )

Compassion, empathy and community?

“ I choose love.”

**Art Room Hands** I photographed years ago which my friend Joanne had saved in a folder on her computer and sent me today.
Thank you

January 19, 2025 by Ruth Categories: PhotographyTags: art room, children hands, choose love, community, compassion, diverse hands, Dr.Martin Luther King, empathy, NFL, photography, postaday 10 Comments

Wordless Wednesday

June 2, 2020June 2, 2020 by Ruth Categories: Photography, Wordless WednesdayTags: art room, elementary school, hearts, love, photography, postaday, wordless wednesday 11 Comments

Delicious Dinner With Friends and a Crazy Surprise Ending

*Plan for the New Year 2017– contact friends you haven’t seen in awhile and make time to get together

I met two friends/former colleagues from Greenfield School Tuesday evening.

The first photo is my view as I waited for them to park after battling rush hour.

Forrest was our attentive and knowledgeable waiter who guided us in our selections.

Piccolo Forno in Lawrenceville

Bruschette butternut squash and greens with mint chevre, cannellini bean spread with basil pesto, and red pepper tapenade

Polpete Toscane baked meatballs of beef and pork with a fresh herb green sauce

Gratinato di Cavolfiore cauliflower, brussel sprouts, spinach and leek gratin with toasted breadcrumbs

The appetizers and the BYOB bottle of dry red wine that Lara and Joz brought to share

Joz and I ordered the same thing-Ravioli con Burro e Salvia

Cappuccino Gelato Panna Cotta and a wild brownie with Cayenne Pepper in it- zing!

Thanks Joz for taking our photo with the nice young man Jeffrey who brought out the Greenfield Shirt I’d left on my chair in the restaurant.

Turns out the he was our former student at Greenfield School in 1997
(cool that he could still recognize us)

I taught him art and Ms Evans was his third grade teacher.

January 17, 2017January 17, 2017 by Ruth Categories: PhotographyTags: art room, dining, dinner, friends, friendship, Lawrenceville PA, photography, Piccolo Forno, postaday, student 17 Comments

In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

from the Art Room photo archives

January 16, 2017January 16, 2017 by Ruth Categories: PhotographyTags: art room, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., love, photography, postaday, students 13 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge: Room

Turned in the Grade Summary Reports and my keys. The room is able to be cleaned now the clutter is gone.

Got the required signatures on my close-out sheet for School Year 2013-14 and took a photograph as I was getting ready to leave.

Thursday and Friday we go to training at another location from 8-3. Three o’clock Friday it will be School’s Out for the Summer.

Here is the room in response to the challenge

A photo of a colleague in an art room upstairs, photographed almost exactly one year ago

An a giant room/gym with the graduating class of 2013 last June, keeping with the school related room theme

Click this link for the Top Five Songs for School’s Out for the Summer

(Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Al Green, Chuck Berry and Supertramp are featured)

June 11, 2014 by Ruth Categories: Photography, Weekly Photo ChallengeTags: Al Green, Alice Cooper, art room, Chuck Berry, photography classroom, Pittsburgh PA, school, school year, teacher, Top Five Songs for School's Out, weekly photo challenge: room 9 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge: Friendship

The sunflowers are a gift from a friend.

This photograph was taken in the art room today on my iPhone. Most of the middle schoolers were on a trip. After lunch I had a few who didn’t get to attend. This wonderful painting was created by a young man named Scott. He painted the sunflowers a friend had brought me.

I didn’t want to leave the flowers at home alone so took them with me to school. They were so vibrant and summery.

Oh, the unexpected surprise of the gift of flowers from a good friend.

Friday after school, I put the bouquet on the front seatand when I arrived at my son and DIL’s home and took them out of the car, my granddaughter ran down the hill of the front yard to greet me and said excitedly when she saw them, “Oh we studied that artist! ” Later in the craft store she picked up a Starry Night Umbrella and told me it was the same artist as the Sunflowers. She’s 8 1/2 and just completed second grade Tuesday.

Thanks for the flowers, friend. I thought it would cheer you to see them in Scott’s painting.

(And that eyeball glaring from the chair is from the cover of a book that belongs to Scott’s classmate and friend, J, who told me he has checked out the photos on this blog! Cool. )

To see other responses to the weekly photo challenge click here

June 9, 2012 by Ruth Categories: Art, Garden, Weekly Photo ChallengeTags: art, art room, arts, available light, flowers, iPhone photography, nature, painting, postaday, school, summer, sunflowers, tempera paint, travel, Vincent Van Gogh 17 Comments

Tie-Dye With a New Generation

Eighth graders in the art room.

Rubber bands and string. Buckets of color. Vinyl gloves.

Bought more shirts tonight to take to school to try again.

They’ve got the hang of it. The practice.

I tell them – no design turns out exactly as planned.

Friday morning in the hallway a blur of t-shirts walked by.

I felt satisfied.

Did you ever tie-dye anything in your life?

May 16, 2012May 19, 2012 by Ruth Categories: PhotographyTags: art, art room, artroom, craft, design, do it yourself, fabric, fashion, photography, Pittsburgh, postaday, school, t shirt, tie-dye 16 Comments

Sunlight Through Paint Jars

When I teach students how to put markers away I teach them the order of the spectrum. Kindergarteners can do it! We sing a little song, red orange yellow green blue purple a few times and they line them all up in the boxes. I say, “Don’t forget the brown and black. SNAP THE CAPS!” And a box of eight markers is in pretty good shape for the next class.

Anyway, the paints were lined up in order on the counter and when I came upstairs after the buses left, I saw the sunlight coming through the jars of glitter paint we’d used earlier. I have no idea how we received a box of glitter paint but we did. The colors were brilliant and I got excited as I rushed to get my camera. Here’s what I could catch.

September 10, 2011September 10, 2011 by Ruth Categories: Art, PhotographyTags: art, art room, paint, postaday2011, rainbow, spectrum 14 Comments

Paint Splats in an Art Room Sink

Six years ago when I came to the school I am now, there were dried out paints in containers that had been moved to our school. I soaked them to reuse the containers. And when the water went down the drain, this is what was left. I taped newspaper over the sink and made a little sign. DO NOT USE SINK. I didn’t tell them why, The next day I brought in my camera, removed the newspaper and photographed the paint splats in the sink. It was really interesting to me. So this is another from the archives. Abstract expressionism.

August 28, 2011August 28, 2011 by Ruth Categories: Art, PhotographyTags: abstract expressionism, art, art room, art teacher, paint, postaday2011 9 Comments

Tag: art room

From the Archives Jan 2017

Like this:

Choosing Love

Like this:

Wordless Wednesday

Like this:

Delicious Dinner With Friends and a Crazy Surprise Ending

*Plan for the New Year 2017– contact friends you haven’t seen in awhile and make time to get together

Turns out the he was our former student at Greenfield School in 1997
(cool that he could still recognize us)

Like this:

In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Like this:

Weekly Photo Challenge: Room

Like this:

Weekly Photo Challenge: Friendship

Like this:

Tie-Dye With a New Generation

Like this:

Sunlight Through Paint Jars

Like this:

Paint Splats in an Art Room Sink

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

*Plan for the New Year 2017– contact friends you haven’t seen in awhile and make time to get together

Turns out the he was our former student at Greenfield School in 1997 (cool that he could still recognize us)

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

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Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

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Like this:

Turns out the he was our former student at Greenfield School in 1997
(cool that he could still recognize us)