Some say everything happens for a reason. I especially appreciate that saying when I’ve made an error. Try as I might, those typographical mistakes (typos, in the lingo) always sneak into a publication.

This last issue, pengwen committed the cardinal sin of typos: A wrong name.

It was Amy R. Mathis who was the photographer to record so beautifully the St. Paul Church windows, stained glass work by Donna Deckard (another one whose name I have misprinted…)

If it is as they say, then the mistake was made to allow me to share with you a brief glimpse into this lovely, extraordinary young woman’s life. I had the pleasure of talking with Amy recently over coffee at Martha’s Black Dog Coffeehouse.  That interview is ….

But there’s actually another story which precedes this story, one of those events which seem to fit right into the working hypotheses:

I had, as stated earlier, featured stained-glass artist Donna in the March, 1999 issue of Steppin’ Out. At the time she was working to complete the St. Paul windows. I had  wanted to feature the windows and had even promised minister Rev. Judy Romero-Oak that I would. But here it was, 2003 and I hadn’t.

While that thought might have been in some back corner of my mind, it certainly wasn’t the morning that I actually set up the project.

I had, in fact, simply called my Mother, as I do every morning. But rather than my mother picking up the telephone, it was Rev. Judy. Well, God works in mysterious ways. (Okay, God,  I’m thinking, okay, okay I’ll Do It!)

Then we could hear my mother picking up the phone, “hello? Hello?” The phone lines were totally messed up and she couldn’t hear us.

 Since I’d already gotten a hold of the Rev. Judy, though, I figured it best to take advantage of the situation and set up a photo session. It was she who suggested that Amy Mathis would be able to take on the task and Amy who did such a beautify job, as can be seen in the April/May 2003 issue.

Lincoln – Kelly Phillips is understandably pleased to say that the Lincoln Schoolhouse Gallery and Art Center opened on Nov. 2, 2002, after three years of intensive renovations and rehabs to this historic structure in historic Lincoln.

The 1935 WPA building is impressive even in this haven of historical structures. It sits back from the street, a carpet of grass muffling the sounds of vehicles and tourists. But any thoughts of by-gone years and rowdy children which may have been called up from the sight of the belfry, disappear when you walk into the new Gallery’s main room.

The polished wooden floors reflect the artwork on three walls.  Works by ………

Bronze figures  embellish the center columns which march toward a small stage at the east end of the main room. The stage, while small, is beautifully done and functional, with dressing rooms on each side and a curtain that hangs begging to be used.

Two doorways on the south end of the room lead to the hallway and two smaller classrooms on the west side. Toward the east are the commercial kitchen, a larger room which can be used for workshops and meetings, and the office.

The building was a school until 1954. Since then it has housed a foundry and the Earthly Greens pottery shop. But not much had been done in the way of preservation before Kelly and husband Joe Phillips took on the project.

“I was drawn to the building for some reason,” says Kelly, “I knew exactly what I was supposed to do.”

Renovations included  a new roof and new ceiling, totally rebuilding both the east and west walls, new plumbing and new electrical wiring throughout. New plaster and paint were applied on the inside as well, but Kelly did keep a bit of the building’s artistic past: preserving the ceramic wall insets which meander up some of the corners.

The kitchen, she recalls, didn’t even have a floor when they first purchased the building.

 A cabinet maker was commissioned to rebuild the windows to the original specifications with pulleys to raise and lower them.

Kelly says she was impressed with the quality of workmanship and the friendly and professional nature of those worked on the schoolhouse. “I met all the right people, everybody was just wonderful, so professional.” Don Ward of Capitan and Vantage Construction did the renovation with Don Ward doing the adobe work.

Kelly adhered strictly to the school’s past in structure and ambiance but when it came to the south patio, they got to play a bit.

“I didn’t really think about it,” Kelly says. When it came time to finish the back. “I said let’s bring in some sandstone.”

“Don (Ward) said, ‘how do you want to do this? What pattern do you want?’ I said, ‘I don’t know,…. How about a sunburst.?’” Kelly recalls. “He’s an artist, I didn’t even realize it. It’s beautiful!” she says describing the finished patio.

The project was quite a job, a week-end avocation for the Phillips who have an established business in Midland, Texas. “It took three years but I enjoyed every minute of it,” Kelly says.

The Lincoln Schoolhouse Gallery and Art Center is available for lease for receptions, performing arts productions and workshops/seminars.

The Gallery is open Thursday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm. Cille Dickinson, a long-time Lincoln resident, is director. Call 505-653-4934 for more information. Visit the gallery online at www.lincolnschoolhousegallery.com

Lincoln County – The annual Lincoln County ArtLoop will wind its way around the northern edges of Sierra Blanca the weekend of July 12 & 13. In what has become an annual tradition, 16 artists in rural communities open their studios to the public.

Taking the ArtLoop is visually rewarding both from the magnificent art work of these artists and because of the magnificent artwork outside your vehicle windows as you drive from one place to another.

After a short hiatus, Earthly Greens returns to the ArtLoop in its new location in Lincoln. Formerly housed in the schoolhouse, the gallery of Ronda and Randy Dougherty now is located a bit east of there. The Dougherty’s established a national reputation for their brightly colored pottery and tile mosaics . Now, however, they are concentrating on their new love: glass sculpture. Their whimsical figurines will tickle your fancy.

Others included in the ArtLoop are: Judy Benson, beaded jewelry; Barbara Culler, paper quilling; Maggie Doyle, weaving; the Doughertys, glass; Jan and Dave Houser, photography; Darcy Holmes, quilting; Bill Kerr, painted ceramics; Zoe de Negri, silver jewelry; Karen Pritchett and Todd Shelby, pottery; Madeleine A. Sabo, painting; Gay Speirbhain, folk art; Ann Templeton, painting; Pamela Topper, sculpture; Susan Weir-Ancker, ceramics; Dee Wescott, painting; Jake Wolfhart, leather;

For more information, visit www.artloop.org or call the Ruidoso Chamber of Commerce, 257-7395.

Los Lunas – “If we are to reach real peace in the world,  we shall have to begin with children.” – Gandhi

Dr. Jeannine Perez uses that quote to begin her book “Peace in Any Language: Celebrating Our Diversity.” The book, published by Humanics Learning Publications in 2002, is a teacher’s guidebook based on her theory that “peace begins with inner confidence coming from an awareness of self and others.”

But it was the practical application of these exercises – or what she calls “recipes” for teaching children to value themselves and each other –that won the 2003 Regie Routman Teacher Recognition Award, a $1000 grant from the International Reading Association given to one teacher in the United States each year.

The award was based on Perez’s 35-page daily journal of teaching experiences, philosophy, successes, failures and anecdotes.

Her husband, Alberto Perez who owns and operates The Book Mark here, is understandably proud of his lovely wife.

Jeannine, however, is much more interested in talking about “her” kids – the school ones. And, as a matter of fact, didn’t attend the award ceremony in Orlando, Fla., this spring. One of her young colleagues at Acoma Schools went in her stead. “It was an award for the school, too,” Jeannine says.

She was in Colorado helping to deliver her son’s first son.

Jeannine and ‘Beto moved to Valencia County some eight or nine years ago from Illinois. She laughs as she recalls how they landed in this area: She had flown out in search of jobs and was immediately hired by the Vaughn school district. But where would Alberto set up his book store? Well, locals said, there’s Roswell or Albuquerque.

So they searched for a location with fewer commuting miles and eventually purchased land south of Belen. For the last five years, the couple has spent weekends building a straw-bale home, a beautiful hacienda now on the market.

Three years ago, Jeannine quit her job as a special education teacher at Los Lunas and began a job teaching fourth graders at Acoma.

It wasn’t an easy decision to quit after school had begun for the year and it wasn’t an easy job: She was replacing a male teacher who had gone on medical leave for surgery and never came back. When she walked – or rather was gently pushed into – the classroom at Acoma,  the scene could have been directly from the movie “To Sir with Love.”

Chairs were flying, she recalls, kids were stabbing each other with pencils and there were plenty of foul-language insults flying as well. She had figured the job might be difficult but didn’t realize how difficult:

Of 20 students, 16 were boys. It was October and they hadn’t had a teacher yet. They looked at her with resentment. “Here comes an Anglo to take away their toys and make them study,” she recalls.

That first day, all she did was try to “keep them in the room and try to keep them from killing each other,” she says.

When she arrived for work the next day, her principal told her: “Did you know there was a pot riding on you – whether you’d come back or not?”

She pulled out all the stops, reached into her teacher’s bag of tricks to gain the confidence of these students. “I bought fish for the room, took in  an old computer which I used as a reward…. Little by little they started coming around.

“By Christmas, I knew they there turning around: They were giving me gifts – mostly gifts they’d stolen from me earlier in the year.”

The most touching thing, she says, was that “these boys who gave me gray hair,…kept coming into my room saying ,’can you be a fifth grade teacher? Can I be in 4^th grade again?”

Jeannine has traveled to various countries on teacher exchanges, including Russia, Japan and China. She uses pictures, items and her experiences she has gathered as learning tools to teach.

This past year her students had pen pals in Russia, Japan and Wichita, Kansas, which is just as foreign a culture to them as the other places, she said. But her students seem particularly interested in her travels to China, where she was among the often-maligned minority peoples there.

Her job at Acoma has highlighted for her the difficulties these children face in keeping a pride in traditions while balancing the computer-age world of games and web-sites.

On her way to work, Jeannine passes some ruins which the students, she said, call “Ghost Town.” She had studied the empty doorways and shadow-play of light on those walls and finally asked the Acoma Governor for permission to photograph the ruins (Photography is not allowed on Acoma without permission.) She invited an elder to talk to the students about when he lived in the “Ghost Town,” and what it was like with no electricity, etc. Then using her photographs as a visual aid, she had the students draw pictures using the ink stones from Japan to make the gradients in the black and white pictures. A small grant helped pay for the canvass and pencils. They also wrote stories based on their imaging “if they lived there what it would be like.” Some of the children, she said, wanted to set it in the future, so there are some sci-fi stories as well.

Jeannine travels three hours to four hours daily to and from work – the longer time when she drives to Albuquerque to swim. And she runs two miles along the canals daily for exercise. She began the Corner Fabric Craft Shop in a corner of the book store so that she could be stocked up for her various fabric-related crafts which she enjoys creating.

She and Alberto are planning to retire in a couple of years, a thought that is both exciting and sad for her. “I’ll miss my kids,” she says.

Several years ago, Jeannine was in a car accident and about a year ago had to have a hip replaced as a result. The Acoma school district is poor and most of those who live and work there are poor as well. “The teachers gave me their sick days –thousands of dollars of sick days– so that I could get the operation,” Jeannine recalls.

“Their generosity – they’re family!

“No peace in the world without peace in the nation.

No peace in the nation without peace in the town.

No peace in the town without peace in the home.

No peace in the home without peace in the heart.”

Tao Te Ching

Jeannine Perez, it seems, has peace in her heart. That she and others like her are teaching the youngsters may be the most encouraging sign in an otherwise often discouraging world.