At 11:00 every morning, Kathy Warwick puts on her gloves and mask... and picks up her hammer and chisel.
"I thought, what do I want to create for my neighborhood," Warwick said. She decided an outdoor art class was just the thing. "And the shelter in place is the perfect opportunity. I see people walking by."
Neighbors wave and stop to watch progress on her latest sculpture; a rabbit. Last week, she carved a 62-pound limestone heart.
"Looks like some of the regulars are coming down the street," Warwick's husband, Jerry, said while sipping coffee from his front-row seat. "Under a shade tree, watching the artist work. Fun stuff!"
While Warwick worked, 8-year-old Halston and 4-year-old Valen Miller walked up with their dad. With a little hand sanitizer, they got a hands-on lesson on how to move a heavy block of stone without lifting it. They used pipes and a board to roll it down the sidewalk.
"To see the kids light up," Warwick said. "They're learning something new, but it's not like school. They're learning it because they're being in the middle of it."
Warwick's front yard classroom includes math problems, outlining how much limestone weighs per cubic foot, asking passers-by to guess how much the stone on her block weighs.
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"It says limestone weights 150 pounds per cubic feet. How much do I weigh," Adam Miller read aloud to his young sons. "We'll do that one at home, how's that?" Hint: too heavy to lift on their own.
Warwick said she'll continue to share her open air classroom as long as she's 'working from home'.
"I am living the perfect life. I get to carve," Warwick said. "The whole point of life for me right now is joy."
Warwick's first completed COVID classroom sculpture is a heart called 'Loving Kindness'. It's up for auction right now. Warwick said 25% of the sale will go to the charity of the winning bidder's choice.
