Rhythm and Canoes

Earlier this week we set out on a little adventure to meet up with some friends at the Eiteljorg. We went straight to the interactive section of the museum to play store and stagecoach.


We also found something new that struck my little ones' fancies this time. Instruments. Each took their turn striking a chord on their instrument of choice. After a lunch break, our friends left and Audrey asked to stay. We had a little time, so I asked if she wanted to head back downstairs to play. "No. I want to see the exhibits," she said.


Since we had to pass a totem pole on our way to the exhibits, we began there. I explained that every totem pole tells a story and read her the story of this one about a young man who saves his starving village by killing a sea monster and wearing the monster's magical skin to catch fish. Then, to my surprise, when I asked which section of the museum she wanted to walk through she chose the contemporary art.


We began with this installation, Wach-Nee (Canoe Form) by Truman Lowe. The piece is supposed to create the feeling of being underwater as a canoe passes overhead. As Audrey led me from exhibit to exhibit, we wove our own story of walking underwater and the things we would see and feel beneath our toes.


She stopped at each exhibit, asking me to read about each one until I told her we had to go, and promised to bring her back. Once home, I handed her a piece of paper and asked her to draw her story. Like all stories, it changed from the original telling, and the retelling in the car, and by the time it found its way to paper and crayon, it had been reborn into something new - the only detail that remained being that the bottom of the body of water was a layer of rocks rather than sand or mud. Story recorded, we moved on to the adventures that lay in wait, as all of us with a story do.



(Audrey and I are the two figures with the crazy hair standing at the side of the water. Yes, in this version of the story we are no longer in the water. Why? Well, that little figure outlined in blue on the right-hand side of the paper would be a shark. I'm not really sure how we transitioned from walking barefoot in a freshwater creek with minnows to standing at the side of some water scared of a shark, but there you have it. As for all the blue ovals? Those would be the rocks. Stories change. Rocks are forever.)

Room With a View

Lately, our patio door looks a bit brighter. Santa left some Crayola Window Crayons in Audrey's stocking this year. Something about that big clear canvas has our little artist returning again and again to add one more object. This week, it's been things you can find in the sky (with the exception of the little men in glasses, I'm not really sure who or what they are). I would love to tell you that these new art products are letting mama make dinner at a leisurely pace with time to kick back with a book afterward, but ahem, the art (at least at our house) doesn't stay on the windows. A trail of red and blue fingerprints (and crayon bits) find their way to the baseboards, the floors, the kitchen chairs, the table, the rug, and the walls, creating a bit of a mama scrub-fest after each new studio session. But our little world, those energetic hands, and our overcast January days have suddenly gotten much more colorful.

Portrait

We created a little art today. Off-the-top-of-your-head, unplanned art. I drew silently, while Audrey narrated her work. She drew a round body, then two circles: "eyes." She drew two pointy objects: "these are ears." She sang out something like woosh, woosh as she drew arms and really long legs. Soon, a line protruded from the top of the head. "It has one hair." She made a sphere around each eye. "I'm making glasses. It's you," she said. I just may be an M&M from outer space.

Mama, 2010

And All the Rest

Rather unintentionally, I think we managed to work in the rest of the colors on the color spectrum today. I had volunteered to cut papers into strips for an upcoming VBS craft project. As I worked, Audrey and Nathan got busy with projects of their own, turning the scrap paper and scrap food (expired pasta and sprinkles - who needs glitter? - dropped off by my parents) into art (or just something to tinker with, six-month-old style). Somewhere over the rainbow might just be our kitchen table.

Doodle Me This

Don't you love those earliest pictures - networks of lines, circles, and dots. Audrey created this little guy over the weekend. We had put down a couple paper grocery bags (when I forget my cloth bags, I always grab the paper bags for their artistic possibilities) to protect the table from stamping. The stamping of a card finished, we began doodling on the bags. I love how the same simple shapes can create such different little creatures. I love the confidence with which little ones draw. Most of all, I love the stories - that these are not simply lines and circles, but creations with motive, background, and thought. From what I remember this one above was a rather mean guy, with loads of arms for dirty deeds like snatching others' presents. Who knew an orange crayon could do all that?

*What are those crayons, you ask? They are called Crayon Rocks, made of soy and designed specifically to strengthen little ones' hands. Love them. Thanks for the gift, Aunt Ashley!

I Heart Art (and Hopefully Baby Brothers)

Remember our outdoor painting on Thursday? Well, we were painting with purpose. A friend who recently became a mother of two shared an idea she had heard with me about introducing a new sibling into your toddler or preschooler's life. She was encouraged to have her son pick out a gift for his new brother. Then, when his brother was born, the older sibling would also get a gift from the baby. I thought this was a great way to make the baby's homecoming seem more personal and something to which Audrey could look forward.

Then, I ran across this post on The Artful Parent, which led to this tutorial about doing glue batik with children. Enter a little cotton newborn shirt (with a few stains on it, what better reason to paint it?) amongst a pile of garage sale clothes given to my mother. A plan was born. If picking out a gift for her brother would help Audrey to feel a special connection to him when he came home, how much more would that gift matter if it was something she had made herself?

So we got supplies and got our hands dirty. You need to use a specific glue for this project - Elmer's blue gel glue that is washable. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find the glue during our one-stop shopping adventure before the project. Not wanting to stop at another store, we ran across blue gel glue sticks and bought those. Shirt and glue in hand, the project is a simple one (but takes some time):

1. Draw on the shirt as you wish. Audrey drew some random marks and then I helped her draw a heart on the back of the shirt.

2. Let the glue dry.

3. Paint over the dry shirt with really watered-down acrylic paint (it will almost have the look of paint for water colors). Audrey chose orange paint for her brother's shirt and loved just splattering the paint on. Between the random glue marks and splatter paint job, the shirt looks a little tie-dyed.

4. Let the shirt dry.

5. Soak the shirt in hot water to remove the glue. A little of our paint washed out as well.

6. Wash the shirt and wait for the arrival of a cute little boy to wear it.

Audrey really enjoyed this project, and I think as she learns to write her letters and numbers, it will be something we revisit often, graduating to bottled gel glue rather than the glue sticks as she gets more adept with her fine motor skills. Until then, we wait. For more sunny days that made this project that much easier to clean up. For motor skills we know will come. For a little boy in an orange shirt.

Art Sticky-Style

I was perusing my friend Jenny's blog, when I noticed a collage project she had completed with her daughter. The work area set with some full sheets of paper, scraps of material or paper, and a bottle of glue, she let her toddler loose to create in any way she pleased.



I'm not going to lie, we hadn't tried glue yet because, frankly, I was off to invest in a mound of wet wipes just thinking about it (and I'm the sort of parent who usually forgets to pack the wet wipes, doesn't carry hand-sanitizer, and believes strongly in the 5-second rule). My child isn't one to use just a dab of glue per piece. She, ahem, has her own style. But after some encouragement from my friend, who told me about the Ooey Gooey Lady, who focuses on learning through play (which is about the only kind of learning that stuck with me) and encourages glue bottle squeezing for the development of fine motor skills, I was off to the school supply aisle to give this a shot.

And, the project was a success (even if I did start muttering the mantra "fine motor skills, fine motor skills" halfway through). Audrey loved it and was fully engaged until we had to stop. I couldn't help but be really intrigued by the art she created when left to her own discretion. I didn't expect the layering of felt and paper that she seemed to favor. The mounds of glue, well, that I expected.

Her art complete, I whisked it outside to dry, using large rocks or planters to hold the papers down. That still-fresh glue resting on those papers was too enticing to keep close by. But she wanted to check on their progress all day. I see more of these projects in our future. Now I just need to get a picnic table, and make an artist's smock - definitely an artist's smock.

Masterpieces

I love that every abstract picture paints a complete story for a child. I love that when you ask a child if they can paint a dolphin (a skyscraper, an airplane) the answer is always, "Yes. Yes I can," followed by a reaching for the brush. If only we could hold onto that optimism, bottle up that confidence that our efforts will always result in a masterpiece, and hand those bottles out to our adult selves who need to relearn how to finger paint. Here's to you and your everyday art.

Chalk Walk

Yesterday, we participated in a Chalk Walk at the library. Each child is armed with a couple plastic baggies of chalk, a small carpet to protect their knees from the hot asphalt (which Audrey, of course, disregarded), a pre-drawn square "frame" (We monopolized two squares. Oops. What can we say? Sometimes our art is too big to be contained in one small box.), and their imagination. What comes next is a little chalk-meets-pavement magic.



Followed by a walk (wearing 3-D glasses, if you prefer) to admire your work and the work of your fellow chalk artists. So without further ado, we bring you some summer art (Audrey's favorite, showcasing a dog, is at the end). Enjoy!

The Last of the Easter Handmades

I'm not going to lie. I just finished the last of my Easter handmade gifts. Just. As in today - two days after Easter. They still have to make it into the mail, which will hopefully happen tomorrow, but with me, you never know. I did manage to get Audrey's and one for her cousin done in time for Easter, but these last two stragglers (made for my God kids), well, you know. A birthday gift needs to be tucked into the package, too, for the child whose birthday was, ahem, today. Are you detecting a pattern?


So just what are these gifts? Easy-to-sew drawstring totes. I cut out two pieces of fabric (I believe they were 8" x 6"), serged the edges (could just as easily keep them from fraying using pinking shears), stitched up the three sides, ironed on a small square of interfacing at the top where the drawstrings would enter the bag, stitched two buttonholes on top of the interfacing side-by-side about a 1/2" apart, turned down the top edge an inch (also serged) and topstiched it down. I attached a safety pin to the drawstring (recycled from an old shopping bag) and fished it through the buttonhole pushing it through the inch-wide casing and out the other buttonhole. I tied a knot on each end of the drawstring to keep it in place. Then, I embroidered a small piece of cotton fabric that I had serged the sides of, pressed down the edges and topstitched it to the front of the bag (this is the part I was finishing today) to make a tag - because when you are little, everything is a little more special when it has your name on it.



Why were totes in order? To hold these crayon rocks, of course, which I found here. Made from soybeans and specially designed to strengthen the muscles in tiny hands preparing little ones for handwriting, they seem like all-around winners (although we've noticed that our dog thinks they are treats). Oh, and they look like Easter eggs. Now if only I could get the Easter Bunny to turn back the clock so the postman could deliver them on time. Hopefully, the two little ones receiving these gifts won't mind if I drag out the celebration just a little bit longer.

Paperwork

Today is one of those days where everyone (including the dog) has an appointment this afternoon. So before we resign ourselves to car seats and seat belts and the important going-ons of the day, we thought we'd settle in at the kitchen table, take a deep breath, and have ourselves a scribble.


Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~ Pablo Picasso