There are certain kinds of people who can handle antique stores. I know the difference because I have sisters who cannot stand the musty smell or the idea that other unknown people have used these items. When I was little, we would sometimes go for long afternoon drives on Sunday, and just meander around not going anywhere in particular, but looking at things, and taking … Continue reading Dusted off, and Fluffed – Spruced, and Dolled up
For some reason, I want to start at the end this time and work my way to the start. We did an Art Excursion today. The last thing we did was go to the Butte Creek Mill in downtown Eagle Point (a favorite destination) for ice cream bars. It is still chilly in Southern Oregon, so we walked with our treats to a little bench in … Continue reading Dreamy, Sparks Flying Day
It has been a crazy day. Bean started out doing some artwork out of my What Your Preschooler Needs to Know book – with lots of paint and colors to keep him occupied while I got a turkey into the oven. Most of the time, Scott does the cooking around here. It’s safer that way. But today he had 5 estimates, and so he asked me to … Continue reading Art Wednesday has Never Been So Decadent and Delicious
After a great first day back home for mom -Art & Music Day out exploring a gallery, and then playing and riding bikes, and getting filthy dirty, “As Boys Should Be,” claim my boys… we had only a few minutes after dinner and cleaning up to watch an incredible video of a Speed Painter. The cool thing about these deals, is that you have to … Continue reading Speed Painting with Astonishing Results
Since I am no longer working full-time at a regular day job, but at home with our farm and our tree service, my preschooler, and my 3rd grader… I am able to pick Ben up from school on his Early Out Wednesday each and every Wednesday, hopefully, and go visit an Art Gallery for Art & Music Day! We started out with Ice Cream cones at the … Continue reading First Wednesday Gallery Visit
For starters, this was supposed to be finished yesterday, when it was still Vincent Van Gogh’s birthday. It is a whole lot of thoughts mulling around about being an artist, and what it means to feed that. The other morning, on my first morning of not getting ready for work in an office, I found myself sitting and staring out the window at the front … Continue reading Sitting and Staring, and Starry Starry Night
That’s right! We have a big plan. Nothing quite as big as this, but big for us. We want to paint the ceiling of our laundry room in honor of Michelangelo’s birthday, March 6th, 1475. This year the date sort of took us by surprise. All of a sudden, it was March 6th again. Next year, we will have more time to plan. We will … Continue reading Gorgeous Works of Heart & Laundry – in Honor of Michelangelo
Last night, before bed, Ben drew a quick picture with a sun in the corner that was so pointed, angular, and symmetrical, it made me think of Art Deco. Happily tonight was Art & Music night, so we checked out some Art Deco images on Google, including plenty of architecture like the Eastern Columbia building (above) and some Erte statuesque costume designs as well. One … Continue reading Art Deco, Jazz and a Kitchen Table Coloring Session
The other day, I was reading Billy Collins poetry and he started one with the Paul Cézanne quote, “With an apple I want to astonish Paris.” It only took a quick Google search to find that he did a lot of still-life paintings of apples, baskets of apples, apples and wine bottles, apples with skulls, and this pile of skulls. My boys love skulls and … Continue reading Art Mash-Up with Puzzles and Skulls
Just thinking of the word Perspective tweaks my brain a tad. There are so many points to consider. Last night, my boys and I worked on the idea of a Vanishing Point in art. We looked at some YouTube videos of learning to draw a scene based on a single vanishing point, and all the lines you should draw across the scene to make sure … Continue reading Spatial Relationships on a Flat Surface
Yesterday, Ben and I had the amazing privilege of meeting Reginald, the owner of Ravenswood Leather in Medford, OR. I had visited them the day before and seen the knights helmets, the leather gear, the bows and arrows, and pirate stuff and thought this would be the kind of store Ben would get a kick out of seeing. Also, I’d told them that he has made his … Continue reading Playfulness in Art and Work that Keeps our Hearts Young
We are not staging a revolution. But I read an article by Lisa Russell today on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation blog, Impatient Optimists, which had originally been posted on HuffingtonPost.com, and it struck a chord. We have talked at our dinner table about how the problems of the world will be solved by artists who can combine math, science, creativity, engineering and passion. … Continue reading Young Artists Making Revolution Irresistible
My husband likes Heavy Metal, and periodically feels cursed to know more lyrics than he should to the songs from “South Pacific.” Luckily, he understands the importance of diversity in our musical education of the boys, and was mostly on board with listening to Dave Brubeck piano jazz during dinner prep. He would have preferred Reggae or Classic Rock, but jazz was the deal this evening. Today, … Continue reading Dave Brubeck for Dinner, Walt Disney Animation for Dessert, Late-night Snack of Welding.
Thanks to my son’s take home Scholastic News magazine, I learned that November is National American Heritage Month. For Language and Literature night tonight, I pulled a free printable from TeacherVision to learn about Picture Language used to communicate between tribes. Both the boys tried their hands at telling a story with just the main points, without the filler words, and with only simple drawings. We … Continue reading In the Corners and Cobwebs of Every Civilization…Were the Poets and Artists
Yesterday afternoon, just as I was getting ready to leave work, just as my husband, the tree guy, was dropping off our boys so he could run do some estimates, I got the news. I got the news that a wonderful mom and mommy blogger, Barbara Curtis, had died suddenly. My dad sent me the letter that her husband, a tree guy, wrote. I had … Continue reading I Try to Combine Grieving with an Adventure Walk
Talk about going through the motions. Grown-ups never cease to amaze me, and not always in a good way. Last night we trick-or-treated with our kids for two hours in a Kid-friendly neighborhood where houses were decorated, pumpkins lined sidewalks, and some houses even had creepy music piped out into the street. It was everything a kid could want for Halloween. Except that we walked … Continue reading Night of the Living Oblivious
I asked the boys today what their favorite part of the Fall Season is, and they started mentioning all the bright colors of the trees. Before we knew it, we were in the middle of a gigantic art project. I pick up these enormous sized papers at Costco – they give them to me for free when I tell them I’m working with young artists … Continue reading Keeping Little Hands Busy while Daddy is installing the Wood Stove
There are so many gorgeous colors in the world. I am drawn to colors and the juxtaposition of colors, the interesting array of possibilities, the “World is our Canvas” mentality, and splashes of brilliant color all over the place. I am one who will find beauty in even the dullest landscapes, by seeking out a tiny spot of color. On Saturday night, I dreamed a … Continue reading I Dream in Mass Quantities of Color!
Even better than cloud busting, Ben and I imagined a dragon in the fog this morning. Do you see it? Continue reading Dragon-Shaped Fog
Yesterday while driving back from a meeting, I heard Phillip Phillip’s song “Home” on the radio. I car-danced like crazy to that song at a stop light and couldn’t wait to get home and share it with my kids. From the moment he first auditioned for American Idol last year, I was cheering for him. That boy has music flowing through every fiber of his … Continue reading Dancing Crazy Barefoot in the Kitchen
Brothers, out in the country, with no one else around for miles, become best friends out of necessity. I think there is nothing more fun as a mother, than seeing my boys play together. They fight too. It’s a constant roller-coaster of highs and lows with them. They either ride their bikes all up and down the quarter-mile driveway, through the back field, over jumps … Continue reading Friends Ride Over Jumps Together
This is not the scene from SYTYCD – it was just the best semi-related picture I could find! It has been a long week. One thing I love about when the days start getting shorter, and the kids aren’t running around outside until almost nine o’clock at night, is that we can start doing Friday Night movie nights again. It doesn’t seem right to close the … Continue reading “Mommy, Can I Dance in a Dumpster?”
Tonight was a gift, pure and simple. It was an Art & Poetry night, and I had big plans for both the boys with new books to share with each of them. But first, Ben needed to get his Math homework done. This has been a challenge for his entire life of school. He is in 3rd grade, and as smart as he is and … Continue reading Picasso, the Apple-Faced Man, and Fireworks
Ben’s painting We were so excited about the start of school this year. Ben has said he hates school since first grade. This year, his teacher seems to be into Art, and we were incredibly hopeful. Yet, when Ben got off the bus, he was morose and discouraged. It was only the first day, so that’s a lot of just going over expectations, and showing … Continue reading Art & Music – First Day of School
The last day of summer, and the last day before school started, we visited the Art Gallery and working Studio of Living Opportunities. This is an organization in our town that works with the mentally disabled. All the artists are challenged. Yet, in this place, they are known as the artists. They refer to themselves by the art they are most known for… “I’m the … Continue reading Field Trip – Living Opportunities Studio
