Welcome to The Chic Assignment for August 2019!
Chic Assignment no. 1 Scott Joplin's Ragtime music- Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer
We are departing from classical music this month to explore the world of Ragtime through the wildly talented Scott Joplin. Joplin is most famous for his pieces, The Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer (chances are, if you have a piano student in your home, they have played The Entertainer). I am going to leave a few videos for you to listen to here.
Here is an actual recording of Scott Joplin playing The Maple Leaf Rag (!)
Here is over an hour and a half of Joplin's music, The Best of Scott Joplin.
I will go over Joplin's biography more in the check-in later this month.
Chic Assignment no. 2 We are going to explore the artwork of Childe Hassam
I wanted to choose an artist I didn't know much about for this month's assignment so I could discover a whole new world of art. I looked up artists who were alive and creating around the same time Scott Joplin was, and came across Childe Hassam.
From The Smithsonian American Art Museum...
Hassam spent many summers on Appledore Island off the coast of Maine. Every year, he and a circle of musicians, writers and other artists made an informal colony based at the home of his friend, the poet Celia Thaxter. In Thaxter's gardens and on the rocky beaches, Hassam used the flickering brushwork and brilliant colors he had adopted in France to capture the spangled light of Appledore's brief summer. This painting evokes the leisurely, seasonal rhythms of America's priveleged families in the last years before the Great War. A beautifully dressed woman shields her face from the sun; she looks down and away, as if absorbed in the song of a sandpiper, the island bird that inspired Celia Thaxter's most famous children's poem.
I am leaving a link to this website where you can see more of Hassam's exquisite work. Let me know which piece moves you. I'll share my pick with you during the mid-month check-in.
Chic Assignment no. 3 The art of letter writing
This month we are going to take up the lost art of letter writing. Write a handwritten letter and send it off in the mail to a friend or family member. Think of how neat it would be if 10,000 letters were circulating this month delighting 10,000 recipients!
Receiving a handwritten letter these days is so rare that the person you write to will be so pleasantly surprised. Don't worry if you don't have fancy stationery, any paper will do. I would love to know updates about your letter and how the recipient reacted. Be sure to let us know in the comments.
Chic Assignment no. 4 Prepare your wardrobe for the transition in season. We are headed into fall and our Southern Hemisphere friends are headed into spring. It's time to transition our ten-item wardrobes to the upcoming season. I plan to have some content on my YouTube channel walking through this process. As for your assignment: this is a great time to assess your wardrobe from this season to decide what works and what didn't. What should stay and what should go and how you plan to store your out-of-season items going forward. It's also a great time to start planning for fall.
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Childe Hassam is also new to me, excited about exploring his works!
ReplyDeleteAlso eager for your upcoming vlogs, watching you go thru the wardrobe decision process - seeing your thoughts and reasonings as you go! I need to see/hear this repeatedly to really understand. I also love your week of outfit videos.
I used to exchange hand-written "BOOKS" to my far-away best friend, and also had lots of penpals. Also, for decades I used to write daily in my personal journals, all which helped me be quite articulate in my thought processes... and curbed the need to articulate verbally to other people. Hmmm perhaps I need to start that up again? haha
Love the assignments, can't wait to get started.
So happy with the Scott Joplin and Childe Hasdam picks--long time favorites of mine and now I will be back paying them special attention. My favorite--reading on the porch. In spirit and colors, so reminds me of summers at my Grandmothers'.
ReplyDeleteThe Entertainer is a piece that I learned to play on the piano when I was a child, and still use as a warm up when I get the itch to practice (I’m so rusty). My best friend from high school and I exchange birthday cards (our birthdays a few weeks apart in June/July) and Christmas cards every year with long, handwritten letters to catch up with each other as we live very far away from each other. We have been doing this for more than 30 years now, and getting “my birthday letter” is one of my favorite things I look forward to each summer. It makes getting older easier. ;). I’m looking forward to planning for my fall wardrobe, but it is so hot right now, it seems very far away. Thank you for these monthly challenges.
ReplyDeleteThis is just to say that More Love Letters website has some very good letter requests for August! Ewa
ReplyDeleteHi Mrs. Scott,
ReplyDeleteI'm also a SAHM and Charlotte Mason home educator. This morning I happen to send a letter
to the Instagram friend that recommended your youtube channel to me. How ironic! I didn't even know that was one of your chic challenges for this month! :) We are listening to Joplin now and we love him. I know nothing about your artist pick and that is WONDERFULLY exciting. :) It's still hot in Wisconsin also and what a good idea to get a jump start on my autumn wardrobe plans. I have not yet jumped into the 10 item wardrobe, but I love all your tips and just the encouragement to get dressed nicely each day and put on my apron. LOVE all of your videos that I've watched recently.
Dear Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing me to both Joplin and Hassam. I am delighted! :-)
Have a lovely weekend.
WR
Hassam is a new artist to me but Joplin a favorite. This is one of my favorite pieces, I have heard he wrote it after the death of his wife. I enjoy and look forward to the Chic Assignments every month.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/SskkUtimyLI
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteThank you for joining in on the Chic Assignment for August! I am particularly excited for this month's assignments as I will be learning more about Childe Hassam. I am so enthralled with his artwork. I appreciating you checking in and look forward to reading your updates!
With love,
Jennifer
Hello Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI am acquainted with Childe Hassam because I am from Boston where his painting "Boston Common at Twilight" is very famous. It depicts a 19th century dusk in winter at the Boston Commons and even today and if one knows a Boston winter, it can make you shiver. The composition's light is exactly as it on a winter afternoon. My grandmother had a postcard of the painting on a bookshelf in her hallway.
wow so much for your family and friends to know more about you
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teenager I loved to play ragtime music. I still love its happy energy. I watched your video today about the Chic assignments, but just yesterday, before knowing them, I wrote short letters for my nieces and nephew on a small pad of beautiful stationary and mailed them off with gifts. Last time I visited, my nieces just loved my pretty fan (I carry a fan with me everywhere for those moments when I am suddenly the only person in the room who is hot). I used to collect fans and display them so I have lots to choose from. I sent a fan for each niece with her letter wrapped around it. I have been smiling since learning this was a chic assignment!
ReplyDelete