My sister, Marcie, is an artist and an art teacher. She sells some paintings, but the majority of her income comes from teaching art classes at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. Since covid-19 hit in early March, the Smithsonian has been shut down and her classes have been cancelled.
As a contractual worker, she doesn’t get a paycheck when she doesn’t work, so she’s been trying to earn an income by teaching classes over Zoom. One of her more popular classes has been the Tiny House class. Each student builds a small house, usually starting with a milk carton and uses papier-mâché to create their own personal vision of a home.
Last month at the culmination of two of her classes, she decided to host a “Tiny House Tour” over Zoom so her students could share their creations with each other and friends. When I watched the video, I was blown away by the tour, hearing the students discuss the choices they made about the kind of house they had built and the materials they incorporated in creating their visions.
I realized that each house was an expression of something important to the creator. It is truly art. And more often than not, there seemed to be a lot of love woven into their choices.
The first house, the Sewing Machine House, was built by my other sister, Loretta,
so I know more of the history than she mentions in the video. She incorporates sewing machine parts and other notions you’d find at a fabric store to build the house. But I see this was more than a way to use up odds and ends. Sewing has always been important to my sister. Our mother taught sewing, my grandfather was a tailor, and my father worked in a tailor supply store, so the house was a connection to those people in her life.
Jane expressed her love of travel creating two houses that were travelogues of places to visit — a Fado House inspired by her trip to Portugal and a Southwestern Adobe House.
Meredith created an amazing apartment building of where her daughter lives in Manhattan with Chez Les Rats. She used it to connect with her daughter she hasn’t been able to see for months because of the coronavirus. I love the tiny details like the Amazon package on the front stoop and the tiny sunbathing rat.
Marcie exhibited her own recent creation, the Rock Creek Park House which expresses her love for the park where she and her husband hike (wearing masks, of course).
All of the houses in the video are delightful. I enjoy seeing color and material choices and love hearing the artists talking about how and why they designed their houses.
I got permission from Marcie and her students to share the video with you. Please watch it, and if you don’t have time to watch the whole video, scroll through to see a sampling of the different houses.
If you are interested in taking the Tiny House class, or any of her other classes, here is a link to the information about her adult classes If you are interested in taking the Tiny House class, or any of her other classes, here is a link to the information about her adult classes: www.marciewolfhubbard.com/...
and classes for children and teens: artwithmarcie.mystrikingly.com
Though Marcie seldom posts, she is a member of Daily Kos and has attended some of the Virginia/Maryland/DC meetups.
