Napa Valley Opera House & Redwood Middle School

Here we are back at the Opera House. And here are some of the students who attended. I think these delightful young ladies were from Redwood Middle School. They came up to have their books signed and to strongly encourage me to write a sequel to SHIFTY! We took this picture to keep reminding me to write a sequel or companion book. Seeing their sweet faces and remembering all the student and professional artists I met that night will certainly inspire me when I'm in the midst of writing and rewriting.


I met Redwood Middle School's After School program teachers and several of the student artists.
Here is the Teacher's Statement and some of the truly wonderful planter boxes created by the student artists. Take a look and also take a look at the video made by the Napa County Office of Education and the Arts Council Napa Valley to see the students in action. At the end of the video is the Napa Valley Children's Chorus, too!

This planter was on wheels! And there's Lester!

Here is the other side of the planter on wheels. Soli would approve!

Love the colorful peace symbols below and how Lester keeps showing up again and again.

A couple of weeks after the event, a friend who attended surprised me with a gift of the red-heart planter above. Sweet! I'm using it to keep my CD's organized and every time I see it, it makes me smile.

Below, here's Lester again. Maybe Lester needs a book of his own next? Love the colorful flowers and use of buttons and objects on the Shifty-themed planters.


These two are also cool, as were the rest of the student-made planters. See the video for a view of a few more. I could have spent hours taking pics of them all and reading the artist statements.


Are these the work of student artists? Or professional artists? I'm not sure. The pictures got all jumbled on my camera, I was so excited to see them all. Either way, I love all the colors and designs and how different artists interpreted various characters, themes and scenes in the book. If you are one of the artists of any of these planters on this page or any other blog pages here and want credit for your great work, please comment below and I'll add your name. (Students, please ask your parents' permission of course)
If you bought of the planters at the auction, please comment which one. I'd love to see pics of them in their new homes, too!
The day after the Opera House event I spoke at Redwood Middle School. The venue this time was the school library, so there were not nearly as many students as at Harvest Middle School, but they were equally well-prepared, they had great questions and were very enthusiastic.

Napa County Reads Shifty: More Amazing Shifty-themed Planter Boxes

Family and friends have been asking to see more Shifty-themed planter boxes created by professional and student artists that were auctioned at the Napa Valley Opera House to support literacy by Napa County Reads. I'm happy to share the following pictures. You can see my earlier posts about Napa County Reads and more totally cool Shifty-themed planters here, here, and here.

Toby Gewertz is the artist of the amazing planter box above.

Soli loves to drive. How cool is this planter-on-wheels by Gary Snethen?

I was overwhelmed and touched with how unique and beautiful each of the planter boxes were. I loved seeing what parts of my novel spoke to the artists and how the artists brought scenes, settings, characters and themes to a different media.

When I was writing SHIFTY, I was just trying to capture the story the best I could--to bring Soli, Sissy, Martha, and Chance's story to life on the page. Seeing parts of Shifty's story brought to life in these planters was unexpected, wonderful and truly inspiring!


I'd love to match up the artist names with each of the boxes. If you created one of these planter boxes or know the artists' names, please comment, and I'll add them. Thanks!

This colorful planter box must have been inspired by Sissy's fortune cookie early in the story which said, "Keep a green tree in your heart and a songbird will come."

Below is a pic of Soli/Shifty depicted as a shape-shifter Coyote by artist Hugo Corro. See Hugo Corro's artist statement, Sissy as a rabbit, and more views of the planter box here.


I tried to take lots of pictures at the Opera House event to remember them all, but I was also meeting many amazing people that night and I was just a little bit nervous about my upcoming talk. So if you were there at the Napa Valley Opera House and you took pictures or bought one of the planter boxes, I'd love to see your planter in its new home, see more pics or hear why a particular planter "spoke" to you.

If you are one of the artists who participated, thank you, THANK you for depicting Shifty's story. The artists' statements were amazing too, but the lighting posed a challenge in getting pictures of the artist statements without too much reflection. You can see a few of them in the preview here.

Forecast: More Shifty-themed planter boxes coming soon.

And please comment below. What are your fav's and why?
Are you one of the artists? Please tell me which box you created and share your artist statement. And if you bid on one of the boxes, please tell us what drew you to that planter box. Thanks!!

SHIFTY-Themed Planter Boxes--SNEAK PREVIEW!!

Here is a sneak preview of some of the amazing SHIFTY-themed planter boxes and the equally amazing artist statements. A few of the planters are already on display at the Napa Main Library. I was so touched to see them and read the artists' thoughts on what parts of Shifty's story inspired them to create their art. These SHIFTY-themed planters will be displayed for silent auction at the free Napa County Reads Public Event on Wed. Oct. 27th at the Napa Valley Opera House. Learn more about 2010 Napa Reads SHIFTY! here.

Wow, just wow!
Take a look.

Here are the two long sides of Emily Freiman's planter box.

And here are the 2 paintings on the shorter ends of Emily's creation.

Here's another colorful planter with an artist statement by Darlene Meltzer.

I'll post some more (sneak preview) planter box photos tomorrow.
They are pretty amazing, don't you think?