Drawings

Do you ever have those moments with your kids (if you have kids) where life seems to be plodding along normally and then suddenly, triggered by any ol' ordinary event, you really notice how they have changed? I had one of these the other day with my oldest. We hadn't done much drawing together over the past few months--some painting and some craft work and even some coloring but not free form drawing. She got it into her head that she wanted to draw her whole family the other day. While I was ironing, she did just that. Each member of her family was drawn on a separate sheet of paper. I knew what she was doing and I was peacefully ironing like 500 yards of fabric and not thinking much of it (my mother-law-law introduced me to the idea that ironing could be calming--peacefulness and ironing never went together for me before her). Then she came in bearing her drawing. Each family member was uniquely depicted. I had her youngest brother in my arms, her father had a hysterical moustache, and her other brother had ears that stuck out of his head with straight lines. What was most astounding for me is that she drew human-like forms. Some of us had bodies, others had arms and legs coming from our heads, and we had expressions too. And I was nearly struck dumb by how my child could depict her world in this way--how her interpretations are uniquely hers--how little (and how much) I have to do with it all.

January 23: Wet on Wet Watercolor Painting

Before we came down with this terrible flu (which kept me away form the computer yesterday--darn I missed a day in January!), we tried our hand at wet on wet watercolor painting. I did some reading about this technique in Heaven on Earth a few months ago and wanted to learn a little bit more about it before experimenting with the kids. I ordered Painting with Children and there it sat on my bookshelf until a rainy January afternoon.
In Heaven on Earth, Sharifa Oppenheimer suggests introducing colors individually and using only primary colors for young children. I tried to only bring out red but the kiddos caught a glimpse of the blue in waiting, a tantrum was ensuing, and this is exactly what I was trying to avoid on this particular afternoon so out came the blue. Because we have already done much painting with tempura paints, neither N nor H was used to the softness of this experience with water and color.
While it took her some time to settle in to the painting, N ultimately enjoyed it, pushing her brush back and forth across the paper, lightly and then with more force. H, who enjoys artistic activities for only a short amount of time, spent more time with his work. The larger size of the brush was good for his small hands. I also purchased some good quality watercolor paper for the venture; the stuff is worth eery penny. I am looking forward to trying this again with the kids this week...

January 16: Creative Hearted

A good friend of mine has just put together a site for mothers and fathers to share their creative energy/endeavors online with one another. The idea is for us, those of us who are immersed in the day to day "work" of parenting, to care for ourselves in a way that involves expressing our creative energies. Hop on over to Creative Hearth and check it out.

One Summer Night

My husband, who took guitar lessons a couple of years ago, got out his guitar after dinner on a humid evening last week. The song that came out of his mouth was improvised and hysterical (something about family members and being on the potty). Funny how kids take to music so well--they first began by dancing and then found instruments from around the house to join their Daddy in the music-making. Then, before we knew it, a block village was being erected at the feet of their father. A wordless transition and an amazing one at that. For me, it was a real-life, right before my eyes example of the ways which creativity begets creativity.

Family Art Night

I read about Family Art Night about a year ago in Amanda Soule's book The Creative Family. The idea is such a good one--a gathering of the whole family to participate in a creative process. For us, the best time and night seems to be Sunday after dinner. We are filled from a weekend spent together with friends and family, and we are a tad bit anxious about the days to come--a seemingly good creative cocktail. Last week, we each drew a picture to be hung up in the new baby's room. This week, we made a banner entitled, "A Day at the Beach" depicting the morning we spent at the so VERY Jersey shore. There areairplanes and beefed-up life guards, knitting needles and pregnant mamas falling down on our piece of work. Norah's watercolored imaginings, Harvey's wandering crayolas and Brian's sketchy sketches--all of them make me smile.

Art Therapy

The recent and upcoming transitions that our whole family has undergone (a move across the country and back again, a new baby, some family strife, etc...) have taken their toll on the whole family and, most noticeably, on our daughter. She has recently begun experiencing tremendous rage and it has been manifesting itself in some pretty problematic ways.

We have been working with her on ways to express her emotions. I recently got her this book at a garage sale. Harvey has proven more interested in it than she is though. We have also been using this to talk about Mama, Papa, and Baby bear's emotions, and how they impact each other.

Yesterday, our friend, an Art Therapist, suggested that I have Norah paint rocks different colors--one for every emotion that she might feel.

We are storing them in a bowl right now, but we plan to put them in a special place of hers. Maybe these will keep help to keep her grounded. In general, I do find that giving children an outlet to express themselves creatively is liberating. Surprisingly liberating. If I keep my mouth closed while they are painting on plain white paper, for example, it is amazing the images, and the names for them, that they create. A few days ago, Norah was drawing small dots all over her paper, "These are song circles, Mama," she says. Song circles?! Wow, if only we could all access this kind of energy regularly. What a healthy place we would live in.

Practicing

I am practicing a lot these days with my new camera. I am completely out of my league but I am having so much fun. I accidentally push buttons and twirl things around and occasionally my new best friend refuses to function, mad at my incompetence. Then I simply outsmart him with the "turn off and then turn back on" maneuver, he forgives me, and we get along just fine again.

Making Play Dough!

A good friend of mine reminded me of the wonders of play dough and children this morning (honestly, the only real memory I have of the stuff outside from making spaghetti with a plastic contraption is eating it, and eating a lot of it, but that is another tory...). So, with an empty afternoon on our hands, we headed to the store for our ingredients and then embarked on our mission.

I found the recipe for homemade play dough here. The whole process took less than 30 minutes, and, as it turned out, the making of it was more fun than the playing with it. Harvey spent most of his time throwing the final product on the floor and Norah spent her time shrieking with frustration at Harvey for throwing it on the floor. Ahhhh... all in a day's work.

petitcollage

I just got one. I just got one. I just got one. I have been waiting for months and months and months to get one of these wooden collages from the etsy seller petitcollage. I waited so long in fact that the prices went up, but I feel certain that the piece will be worth it. I love her whimsical work. It is really so perfect for Norah's room.

I have been an on and off etsy addict since my brother's partner and my friend Marla told me about the site a few months ago. Like everyone else, I love looking at my seller's favorites, and their favorites, and so on and so on. I discovered etsy before I discovered the blogging world though, so I did not have nay real direction and ended up finding loads and loads of nothing. now that I am more familiar with some of the sellers, I waste less time on the site and have a whole lot of fun. I'll post a picture of the collage when it comes in.