September 8x10 collage for Paper Whimsy Calendar 2009

Hello friends...here is my September collage for the calendar project. I was kind of stressed about this piece because it is going to be printed in our PW Calendar for the year and I didn't want to disappoint anyone. I have been thinking about it and working on it for several weeks and am finally pleased with the results. Hope you like it too.

I knew from the start that I wanted to use a school theme for September. I know most kids now start back to school in August but in "my day" we always started after Labor Day weekend. Mom took us shopping for that new first-day-of-school outfit...got a new book bag and new shoes...just like this precious Whimsy in the photo.

The schoolhouse is a gel transfer created from a photo I took of the one-room schoolhouse in my home town. The schoolhouse has special meaning to me...several years ago my dad and some of his old school buddies got out the photos they had of their country school and had an architect draft blueprints to build an exact replica at the museum. To the best of their ability and memory, this is it and I love it! It's filled with old books from the 1930's along with school desks and original slate chalkboards and a school bell (found at another old school that was on someone's farm in Monroe County).

My great-grandfather helped build the first school in the 1930's and my dad helped build the replica in the 1990's. I am so proud of both of them and all they have done to promote education in my home town. Throughout the year, school kids from all around Iowa take a tour of the school, ring the bell and sit at the desks while the "teacher" (docent) tells them all about school back in the day. They bring their sack lunch and get to write on the chalkboard...it's definitely hands-on and they love it!

Here is my rendition of what the school would look like in the land of Whimsy... you can create your own story of what she will find inside. Will you enter? Thanks for allowing me to share the story...