A Vocabulary of Her Own, age 10

 As an artist mom, it is especially exciting to watch your child

develop her own visual vocabulary, her own style and way.

Of  course, this comes with practice and comfort with 

both materials and the forms. Such a joy to watch the magic 

happening, and not get in the way. 

A, age 10.

Drawings I find around the house

J, age 7. Inspired by a trip to the salon.

J, age 7. Inspired by a trip to the salon.

 

A, age 10.

How my 7 year old sees me, 3 pears in my mouth and 2 on my cheeks.

J, age 7.

Plywood Art

Housebuilding produces many by-products: stress,
saw dust, and plenty of wood scraps. J, age 7, turned
these into an ipod and an ipad. Do you think that apple
would have pity on us and send a free ipad if I send
this photo to them?

Some of the odd plywood shapes make interesting
paintings too.

We're Going To Be Friends

Below is a project that J's class created with

her homeroom teacher Mr. Thompson. They

each illustrated three pages and are singing it

too. What a great idea!

.

(This preview image is a drawing by J, age 7.)

A's Ladder Sculpture

Especially living in the North, Spring springs new energy,
projects and ideas...

Shortly after her family-tree project in school and the day
after her dad went turkey hunting, we found A (age 10)
busy collecting sticks. Later, I came upon this scene. She
explained that she has hung 16 turkey feathers from the
ladder she constructed, one for each of her first cousins.
She wanted to include each of her cousins on her
family-tree school project, but she ran out of time.
So, this is her Cousin Ladder Sculpture up to her
"family tree".

supplies: sticks, a small hatchet, string, scissors,
turkey feathers, patience

16 feathers, one for each first cousin.

She obviously loves her cousins!

Waxy, Reusable Creations

Recently J (6 years old) found left-over Bendaroos
(wax-covered string) that she got as a gift for her birthday,
and came up with these great little sculptures. They make
me smile, fun bursts of color and something to do in the
middle of winter. They can be used over and over again.
Although, I am hanging onto these little guys for awhile.
.

  "Ta da!" A surprise that came at a time when I needed a smile.

.

 

More bursts of color on our kitchen cabinets.

.

I went on the search for some more, but ended up getting
Wikki Stix. (I know, too much like Wiki Leaks or Wikipedia,
right?) They are a little different, but came in a large selection
of color. Not a cheap art supply, but they can be reused and
reused. It has been awhile since I have seen them get so into
making something!
.

"I don't want to stop." A (age 9).

Despite some technical difficulties, not being as
soft and pliable as they'd like, their creations turned
out pretty cool. J's review of Wikki Stix, "They are
okay, but Bendaroos are definitely better." Okay,
I will take that under advisement. Dear Blick Art
Materials, please start carrying Bendaroos.

The way kids display

Last weekend I stepped into the kitchen and the fridge was
hosting a portrait exhibit! I was impressed with the work
and the way it was displayed. And to tell you the truth, this
discovery helped relieve of some of the guilt I've had for
not doing more art-making with my daughters lately. If
materials are available, they figure it out.

Our 6-year-old's portrait exhibit on the fridge

This got me thinking about how kids choose to display
and arrange other things.  Looking around our house there is
evidence of kid-driven display. In our bathroom a "how to
properly wash your hands" colored worksheet from school
hangs above the sink. It appeared there one day, and is a good
reminder. Let's put that informational signage to work.

 Always Wash Your Hands

Bedrooms. Well, we all remember when we took over the
control of what was on the walls and shelves of our childhood
bedrooms. What they choose to display says a lot about them
and the stages they are going through at the time. Which makes
me think--it would be fun to document the changes on the walls
and shelves over the years.

Our 9-year-old's bedroom wall, 
a.k.a. her first large-scale collage

Accessing Her Inner-monkey

There is something about age 6. When else in our lives are we
so sure about what we want? When J walked into the party
supply store and said, "Here comes the birthday girl!" about
herself and then marched down each aisle on the search for
"jungley" party stuff, I realized that I am not the family's
exclusive party planner anymore. Kids can be the party
planners. We are the drivers with money and a cell phone.

Not much was jungley enough for her in the party store, so we
decided to make our own jungle of monkeys and lions from
markers, colored pencils, and Benderoos (wax covered string).
Her friends at the party added to the jungle branches. The up-
side-down one on the right is the birthday girl's monkey. So
amazing what they can come up with uncoached, and without
examples--through accessing her inner-monkey!
 

Benderoos added colorful and jungley details.
(Okay, I am done using that word now.)

After the party was taken down, she wrote thank yous 

and sent the lions and monkeys to her friends that made them.

Framed!

Brought to you by 6 and 9-year-olds with frames and a camera.

Work what you've got!

When our niece stayed over last weekend, I was
I was kicking myself for not having more paper or
canvas panels to paint. Of course, it didn't take us
long to find something... How about boxes and an
old frame?!!

Great practice mixing new colors, not straight from the bottle.

I was thinking about using spray primer on this,
but A convinced me that she wanted to paint it
as it is. It turns out that the design on the box added
to her painting. There are so many great colors
and typography on the boxes, why not leave some
of the original design as part of the new one? And
a great chance to talk about and notice packaging design.

A free standing painting.
Ah, I seriously am not organized enough to plan to

use a Honey Maid box for our Making Honey blog...

just noticed that now! Wow, sweet!

Circular Designs

I've been fascinated with circular designs through history
and cultures lately (mandalas, kaleidoscopes, etc.), so A & J
have helped come up with some ideas.

They started with their baby photos in the
middle of the kitchen table, and then worked their way out.
To me this is a memory wheel, showing the layers
of time as they have played and grown.

We collaborated on these, first with tracing an ice cream pail

lid. I demonstrated radial symmetry, and then they had

fun trying out the woodless colored pencils and creating many

shapes and lines within a color scheme. (No, Prismacolor is

not paying me for this endorsement... maybe they should!!)
.
Sometimes it really helps kids (and adults) when they have

a format or way to begin on the empty page, more easily

allowing creative ideas to sprout. I have a feeling that there

will be many more circular designs forming around our place

yet.

Another circular design! Recently, A brought this compass rose
home from school, a project from her 3rd Grade Social Studies class.

Kid-made Coloring Pages

I love to see what kids come up with when given a black

pen and some blank paper. This time I photocopied my

8-year-old's drawings into coloring sheets, leaving a

little empty area for her friends to add their names,

their own designs, etc. Her little sis is having fun adding

to the designs too!

First Memories

I remember sitting in the Spring sun in our small
front yard, my first vivid memory, before we moved
to the country. I sat at an angle on the small hillside,
feeling the warmth of the sun and grabbing at the
new grass. That same warm yellow-green of supple,
uncut grass still brings back this time when all was new
and fresh in my eyes.

Now my daughters show me fresh views of their
worlds every day, and I often wonder what their
strongest childhood memories will be.

Idea Books

Kids are idea machines. I am quite jealous, to them a
creative block is not being able to find a pen or pencil! A
great place for ideas to form is in notebooks/sketchbooks.

I have no idea how many books we have purchased from the
dollar section at Target... nothing fancy, just something easy
to carry around. Actually, my daughters prefer the lined
notebooks; again, the kid-friendly, low-pressure factor is
what is most important. We have journals in the car,
bedroom, living room, toy box--everywhere.

They begin as empty books and end up filled with drawings,
poetry, math practice, tic-tac-toe games, autographs, kid-made
surveys, illustrations of things wished for, documentations of
recent events, etc.

J (age 5) shares a recount of
Captain Underpants and the Bad Guy.
(Captain U is a series of silly kids books.)

"This is our cats eating."
(Would love to see this as a painting!)

A's Rainbow Girl scaring away a cloud.


So far, the car seems to be the place
where the ideas flow best. (A, age 8)

Hmmm, wonder where we were when she
practiced her letters on this page! (J, age 5.)