The flat prairie of Northern Illinois vanished into vistas of rolling hills and tall bluffs, under a blue sky.
I’d wandered into the Midwest’s Driftless Area. During the last Ice Age, glaciers advanced from the north and flattened out much of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. The Driftless Area, which includes much of Southwestern Wisconsin but also parts of Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa, avoided this process. The effect of this process is that, driving through Illinois, you seem to take a turn and find yourself in a completely different kind of country. As I approached Elgin, Iowa, on Saturday afternoon, I climbed the cliffs outside Dubuque, excited for yet another workshop.
I arrived with plenty of time to set up. Shane, the library director, greeted me at the door. He was as excited as I was for the workshop, and in no time the room was filled with drums and painting supplies.
Because the summer reading theme this year is “Read, Renew, Repeat,” Jerry and I have been exploring “Found Art” through our Paint A Drum workshops! In “Found Art” the artist takes an object from everyday life–a used coffee canister, for instance–and claims it as a work of art, often modifying it in the process. In this case, we take used, hollow canisters. Kids add construction paper, paint, stickers, and other decorations, and make their own unique drums.
Kids started to file in, and started to paint. Two boys began by painting their construction paper with thick stripes. One girl painted grass with flowers along the bottom of her paper. One little boy painted a green tractor. When they finished painting I helped them glue their paper to their drum. Then they added stickers and more decorations.
As the workshop wound down, I started our drum circle. A few kids hadn’t managed to finish their drums after an hour, so I gave them some of the rhythm instruments we brought with us: bongos, sticks, and even a triangle. After a lively drum session, I helped the kids finish their last few drums.
As I picked up from the workshop, Shane talked about some of the things they had planned for summer reading. He seemed especially excited about bringing a naturalist in, to talk about lizards and other native Iowa wildlife. Exploring local ecosystems is a powerful way to demonstrate the interconnectedness of living things, the way that microbes, plants, insects, reptiles, and mammals all coexist together.
It can also turn a long drive into Iowa into an even more rousing adventure. I headed for home. Maybe it was the afternoon spent making art, and seeing inspiration on the kids’ faces, but as I drove away the hills seems alive, and the cliffs held the promise of new, beautiful landscapes to be created.
