April Vacation 2018: Terra Incognita (Ages 6 to 16)

World Tree

RL McNulty 2018

Micron pen, colored pencil & digital ink

The April vacation adventure will be held at the Landing YMCA in Brunswick, for all ages (6 to 16). The program will run on Tuesday, April 17 through Friday, April 20, from 9 AM to 4 PM. After hours will run from 4 to 5:30 on Tuesday through Thursday, and until 5 PM on Friday.

The adventure is "Terra Incognita," the unknown lands. These are the lands marked on the edges of old maps, the unexplored corners of the world where monsters dwell. These unknown lands are growing, while the known lands are shrinking. The Detectives race against time to uncover the reason before their memories of the known are lost in the mist.

Pull at the rhumb lines of this adventure, and a whole network of world tree myths emerge, with the fearsome Three at its core. Do the Detectives have the courage (or folly?) to visit the Dread Three?

Our project this week is one of my favorites: Origin maps. Each participant should bring copies (not originals) of photos of the people, places, animals of their lives. We'll be mapping out our journeys with a bookmaking project.

We will host a Friday presentation for parents at 3:30 PM. This will be an exhibit of the group's origin maps.

Dragonstones, Doorbells and Texas Dudes

Sea serpent and a crab by O. Van Soest (Age 10)
Colored pencil and Micron pen on paper

The final week of adventure opened with the smallest enrollment of the summer--two brave adventurers who faced the threatening mists of Terra Incognita on their own. It's amazing how much suspense can be created with only three of us. We were able to take the story further and deeper, so we were "off the page," improvising new material, more often than we were "on the page."

The Dragon's Eye Ventures Facebook page has an album of beautiful photos from the week--the shadowpuppetry was especially stunning. A delightful sea chart was created by one of our two artists, complete with a whole array of hilarious sea monsters. The origin maps were simple in shape and design, yet full of wonderful photos of family journeys.

Here are just a few of the things the three of us learned during this final adventure:

1)  Dragons are not always willing to part with their dragonstones, even for a good cause--like saving the world. World's End may be someone's idea of a good time.

2)  Doorbells don't always signal welcome guests, and even the lords of the underworld can make a foolish mistake. ("Ruh roh ... is that a dragonslayer at my doorstep?")

3)  And finally, the next time you decide to become Bob Marley the Texas dude, make sure the mist isn't listening. Mist has an impeccable ability to mimic any creature. You may find yourself coming back to haunt you.

A week of laughter, fun and wonderful solutions to every challenge thrown by the mist.

Origin Maps for Terra Incognita

Origin map by Raphael Foye

I love entering uncharted waters with the Dragon's Eye detectives. This summer, Terra Incognita: The Unknown Lands brought us into new territory with an exploration of eight world tree myths. We had one basic art project for the entire week: The origin maps that each child constructed for the final challenge of the mystery.

We started with a map of the map--a plan that laid out the design of the book. The books trace each artist's journey from birth until today, with the center block representing either their birthplace or their earliest memory of place. The different branches of the book then follow the journeys from that place, with pockets to hold special memories, people, pets and other secrets that hold special meaning.

The books were stunning--and I'm so pleased to share pictures of them on the Dragon's Eye Ventures Facebook page. I've been imagining this project for almost five years now, slowly working on the ideas behind the case and testing different ways of making the bookmaking accessible. So it was deeply satisfying to see the group's enthusiasm and commitment to the project.

Most satisfying was the final game, where the individuals each shared their book with the others. The attention the group gave to one another was wonderful to see--and the books were truly stunning as they unfolded in such interesting and varied ways.