John Marshall - Keynote Speaker

John Marshall of Covelo was the keynote speaker at the Mendocino County Arts Summit in Gualala January 13, 2006. We were so impressed with his eloquent remarks, we asked his permission to share them with a broader audience.

My name is John Marshall. I'm originally from a small town between Sacramento and Elk Grove, called Florin. With the mentoring and encouragement of friends, teachers, and community members, I decided to go to Japan at an early age to become an apprentice in the traditional arts. I have practiced my form of textile arts for the past thirty-five years,
moving to Mendocino County, Covelo, twelve years ago.

One of my favorite hymns sung at Temple while growing up is called the Texture of the Life We Lead, and goes something like this:

The texture of the life we lead,
We weave in colors all our own.
With pattern bold or softly laid,
We weave as we have grown.

This has been a guiding concept in my life. I interpret the words to mean that the actions I take have an immediate and measurable impact on my own life, on the well being of those around me, and of the health of the
community as a whole. It is my own personal responsibility to improve my own lot in life, and by extension those near and dear to me.

I work with natural dyes and natural fibers as a personal health choice - I love my line of work and want to continue to be able to pursue it my entire life. By keeping my own surroundings clean, I help to keep my neighborhood clean and my valley clean. While selfishly motivated, the ramifications of these choices do impact my community. A healthy community is a joyous place in which to live and work, allowing me greater satisfaction in my own life.

Extending this concept of responsibility, I also firmly believe that each of us is obliged to actively work to form our communities into a wholesome, welcoming environment. Covelo has a very modest Chamber of Commerce. I was attracted to participating on the Board because of its mission statement: contrary to most chambers of commerce, our mission statement clearly charges us with working to improve the physical and emotional well being of our citizens, believing that a healthy environment will attract appropriate business.

Our future is in our children. A healthy community begins with healthy children. Currently we are working with a school population drawn from a very high percentage of dysfunctional families. Children who often have no interest in learning and have a difficult if, not impossible, time envisioning a realistic, and positive, future for themselves.
How can we remedy this self-destructive malaise? Our religious institutions and schools work hard to reach the children, but if the kids themselves aren't motivated what hope is there?

I am convinced that the road to knowledge and health for all members of our community is through the Arts. Participating in the Arts helps to improve language and motor skills. Art requires the participant to develop a sense of balance, of logic, and of place in the world. The Arts are the ultimate culmination of Science, Math, and Philosophy - the ultimate expression of our essence as human beings.

Specifically, how can we address these issues?

Through a volunteer program in Round Valley we have set some very basic goals: If our children see no future for themselves, perhaps it is because they lack practical experience and guidance in cause and affect, in long
term planning, and in deferred gratification. I'll offer one simple example we currently have under way. In Covelo, we have the Eel River Charter School. It is part of the public schools system and is required by charter to keep a student body reflective of the diversity we find in our school district. Pat Southard's kindergarten class took a field trip to Live Power Community Farm, a bio-dynamic farm in our valley, to pick young branches from a basket willow tree. From these we made cuttings and the children were taught about hydroponic propagation. We watched as the rootlets formed, discussed the cell divisions taking place at the tips of each root, and how the same sort of cell divisions were taking place in their own bodies to help them grow. This led to discussions of nutrition and what actions we can take to foster a healthy, fully functioning body and brain. When the cuttings were ready to be transplanted we chose a site on the Blackberry Festival Grounds, across the street from the school. Placing a wooden stake in the ground we decided to distribute the cuttings to form a circle. But exactly how were we go about this?

First we had the kids line up at random and then lay down - their feet still following an imaginary straight line. Each child chose a partner and took turns gathering leaves and laying these leaves end to end to represent the prone length of each child in the class. What would happen if we took the leaves of this bar graph and made each line equal in length to find the average height of the class members? With each child laying back down in their original position we were surprised to find that not one child was of average height! Now, if we added just one adult to the average, how would that change things?

Taking this average height length, we cut one string for each child and tied it to the stake, first with two opposite each other to form halves of the circle, two more to form quarters, and so on. Since we didn't have an even number of participants we wound up with a gap. Each child then dug a small hole and planted a cutting where they had stood. Since we had three times as many cuttings as children, we also discussed how to divide a space into thirds and each child planted two more starts. What a beautiful circle!

Since each branch came from the same tree, all cuttings are genetically identical, which lead us to discussing genetics as a concept relating to our families and our gardens. In the ensuing months, while waiting for the young
trees to reach toward the sky, Mrs. Southard taught her kids simple weaving projects in preparation for the day we would be able to begin weaving the pliant willow.

Can you guess what our project is to become? A tree house! The genetically identical starts allow the woven branches to meld together year by year as the rings increase the diameter of each woven strand. The gap formed early on has become our front door, and a small section that died is now our back door. The flowers that have sprung up within the walls are our house plants. From the beginning we were very clear about “building” a house.

From the inception of this project, the goal has been to teach deferred gratification, working as a community, and pride in our home. And along the way foster a keen delight in the rewards curiosity and research have to offer.

Several years have passed, the children have studied various types of alternative housing around the world, built a geodesic dome in the school yard to be used a green house, and will be working on projects to test the strength of various building materials, from paper to concrete. When our house is eventually harvested, we hope to have it travel to other towns to show what can be accomplished with patience and team work. Therefore, we will soon begin classes in business marketing and promotion. Our goal, and hope, is that the house will be finished by the time these kids have graduated eighth grade and are moving on to high school.

Throughout the project we have continued to emphasize that everyone who has participated will forever remain part of the project. Some of the kids have moved over to the other elementary school, some will leave the valley, some will wind up in Juvenile Hall, but no one can take away from them their participation in the project. We don't need to embrace every member of our group, but we do need to recognize and respect their unique contributions and their membership in our family.

Growing up in a largely rural environment such as Mendocino County, offers many advantages; foremost in my mind the opportunity to thrive in a community of familiar and well wishing neighbors, allowing each and every member to have an immediate and measurable impact on their surroundings.

How can we as parents, as teachers, as leaders, as artists, share our skills with our neighbors to enrich the social environment of our county? What unique and personal skills do we have to offer to help even one child
reach their full potential?

Round Valley is certainly the most comfortable and inviting place I have ever lived and I hope for each of you the same experience. Mendocino County offers so many wonderful opportunities for us all. And I look forward to the
discussions this afternoon.

Thank you.

To learn more about John and his work, visit his website:
http://www.johnmarshall.to