Alina's Adventures

If you are in Amsterdam...

Don't miss the exposition of "Accent From The Wound" by Remus Pușcariu and Alice Gancevici (my cousin). Remus and Alice also happen to be Gnome's godparents and I wish she could see their exhibition in person. I console myself with the thought that others will be there to witness and report on how Alice and Remus are expanding on the avant-guarde movements in Romanian theatre and arts.

Alice Gancevici (RO) and Remus Pușcariu (RO) form a collaborative duo. With a background in visual arts and theatre directing, their interest lies mainly in the critical, yet poetic reading of historical artifacts and their contemporary counterparts. They were participants in the MFA program at the Sandberg Institute and are involved in co-running Bucharest AiR, an artists’ residency in Bucharest.

Festival of Choices
Graduation Show of the Sandberg Institute
June 17-21 2015
Opening June 17, 6-9 pm

tegenboschvanvreden is very happy to announce the upcoming presentation of Alice Gancevici and Remus Pușcariu. Their exhibition Accent From The Wound is part of the Festival of Choices, the Graduation Show Master of Fine Arts of the Sandberg Institute, that takes place at different venues in Amsterdam.

Gancevici and Pușcariu focus on theatre, as a carrier of a very particular, rooted set of conventions. Theatre draws much of its cruxes (like any form of fiction) from what two centuries ago was to be named a willing suspension of disbelief — that process by which we ignore any resemblance to reality and allow ourselves to suspend our judgment of the implausibility of what is perceived. Between us and theatre there is something like a treaty by means of which we agree that what is exposed on stage, far from being dangerous, becomes domesticated, thus serving as an instrument of our power to act. As we agree to it, we gain the power to act by way of willful surrender.

The exhibition joins together several works, all dealing in different manners with issues orbiting the notion of control —of self and others— as experienced through the means of theatre and theatrical tropes applied in everyday conduct and decision-making. Present in the show are a deconstruction of obedience training in canines; a document of a re-enactment, pertaining to historically suppressed policies of oppressive regimes and minority population management; electro-activated muscles; and a staging of two actors in a repetitive attempt to escape the theatre by embodying the characters of an alpha and omega dog. 

The selection brings forth an abstraction of a broader research into power structures, structures for distribution of control/command or lack thereof, catastrophes (natural or so-called man-made), domestication, usage, conditioning, oppression and obedient matter. It’s purpose— to reflect on the supposedly goal-oriented nature.

Still life from the sketchbooks.

Gnome's 2D and 3D sketchbook exercises.

We started with a lesson the previous day in 2D and 3D shapes. The final product was a mushroom, such an easy thing to draw and demonstrate the difference between dimensions.

Gnome's fantastic bowl of fruit. 

Then on to a still life: a bowl of fruit, the simplest sketch exercise ever. But a favorite at the world's smallest, messiest castle. 

Gnome added cherries and she couldn't resist from including a mushroom as well-- "even though it's not a fruit, mommy".

Prophet's rainbow bowl of fruit.

Prophet included strawberries alongside her cherries. She worked very hard to cross-hatch the colors. She wanted them the color pencils to "hatch so much they made the paper shiny."

Meanwhile, the Eldest revealed his portrait of Simon the dog. Impressive. The cock of head really gave me a sense of Simon's character, perhaps affable, interested, slightly gooofy, ready to play.

If only school was sketching and creative writing all day every day...

Watching a tulip open.

Bunica and Bunicu both sent flowers for v-day, and we've been watching the tulips open up a little more each day.

It makes for the perfect sketchbook prompt, this slow and steady tulip story.

We played with words as well, adjectives describing the different tulip faces (shy, tender, gallant, curious, delicate, etc.) and verbs to describe how the tulip occupies space in the world (shrug, bend, waver, falter, assert, transfigure, unwind...).

Prophet complained about not being able to hit the right shade of crimson in her sketchbook- not finding "the tulip's hair color"- so I encouraged her to cross-hatch a few shades of red, purple, and orange colored pencils but she was still not pleased with the final result. Perhaps you can get the picture without a picture? 

Best TPT Freebies Series: Art and art history.

 

Art Lesson: Value (Art Outside the Box)
Art Doodle: Warm Up (Art Chick)
Art Elements: Space and Shape (Art Outside the Box)
Rainbow color and color wheel lesson (White Tiger Renee)
Art Elements: Color and Pointallism (Art Outside the Box)
Rainbow Roosters Art Project (Purple Paintbrush)
Math and Art: Fraction Pizzas (Art Outside the Box)
America's Southwest landscape art lesson and video (Deep Space Sparkle)
Crayon pop art lesson (Art with Mrs. Smith)
Helen Frankenthaller and the Art of the Stain (Art Lady)
Art Lesson: Shading and shadow (White Tiger Renee)
Art Activity: Patchwork names (Tim Donnelly)
Egyptian faces art project (Deep Space Sparkle)
Principles of Design: Proportion and Review (Whitney Panetta)
Abstract monotype printmaking for youth (Jessica Barber)
Gabriel Moreno art nouveau style pencil portraits (J Thomas Uhl)
"Guess It" game (Little Thinkers) Use the word as an art prompt.
Art history timeline (Art Teacher Diaries)*
Franz Marc's "Fate of the Animals" (The Art Curator for Kids)
Van Gogh art history cut and paste (Joseph Lemien)
Toulouse-Latrec art history cut and paste (Joseph Lemien)
"Gallery of the Louvre" art history cut and paste (Joseph Lemien)
"Say NO to Nazism" pop neorealist drawing lesson (Art Lesson Plans)
MOMA virtual lesson and field trip (nearpod)

 Note: An asterisk (*) indicates a foldable which can be used with an interactive notebook or lapbook. Most of our science, math, nature study, creative writing, and global study work is composition notebook-based. A tilde (~) indicates a printable book, or emergent reader.

Cadillac Ranch.

Visiting Cadillac Ranch just outside Amarillo, Texas is supposed to be a celebration of the American roadways, highways, drive-all-night ways. But it is also an art installation created by the Ant Farm Collective as a tongue-in-cheek pawn to consumerism and kitsch. And there are other things it can't help having become...

Barbed wire keeps us from arriving in clumps, spilling through the metal gate in torrents.

And fake plastic flowers remind us that wildflowers grow in muted shades here- the cost of brilliance being early death and dessication. It takes a few prickles to survive the Texas winds.

We walk but the kids can't help running towards the Caddies. There is something moving about the ten minute walk up to the installation. Something like standing in line on Sunday, waiting for communion.

The way in which one woman sidled slowly up to the cars, staring at them as if grieving, changed the way I looked at the ranch itself. It is not a landmark or a pit-stop so much as it is a pilgrimage, with all the religious connotations and all the attendant devotions.

The devout bring their own cans of spray paint and paint pens, leaving their mark, knowing better than the hope of being remembered.

The littered cans clench the artistic value for me. Cadillac Ranch would be so much less powerful without the piles of waste and refuse, the leftover costs of religious pilgrimage, the way we subvert the earth in the name of one god or another.

I tell the kids how much I love it. Prophet scowls for a second, then says she doesn't understand how "those cars fell like that on their noses".

I marvel at the way in which the neon aesthetic is simultaneously soothing and jarring.

We are pilgrims of Cadillac Ranch. Unlike other religions, this one leaves us free of shame and brimming with hot pink.

30 crafts to try inspire and enlighten kids this summer.

1- DIY summer wall hangings (Handmade Charlotte)

2- Animals made from tape (Carla Sonheim)
Envisioning geometric forms in animal bodies.

3- Cardboard primary color paintings (Art Bar)
Recyling cardboard to explore color.

4- DIY woven wall hangings (Honestly WTF)

5- Nature collages (Picnic)
Nature's shapes and patterns as impetus for art.

6- DIY branchlers (Home Heart Craft)
Each tree is a life and a series of stories.

7- Vegetable stones for the kitchen garden (Playfull Learning)

8- 5 step DIY seed tape (P & G Everyday)
Saving seeds from one season to the next.

9- DIY plastic bag jumprope (Childhood List)

10- DIY berry picking baskets (Captain Crafty)
For blueberry picking days.

11- Spoon oil how-to (3191 Miles Apart)
For telling stories while polishing wood together.

12- DIY twirly garden stakes (Kokstradgard)

13- DIY firestarters for camping nights (3191 Miles Apart)
Each fire begins with a circle.

14- Wooden spoon dolls (Love From Ginger)
For telling stories on long car trips.

15- Geo decorative wall hooks tutorial (Red Thread Blog)
For hanging beach bags, backpacks, and summer outdoor gear.

16- Made with magazines challenge (Journey Into Unschooling)

17- Dye shirts and pillowcases with turmeric (3191 Miles Apart)
Bring sunshine to your pillow.

18- Candied violets tutorial (alina's adventures)

19- Decoupage leaf branches (Lait Fraise)
Inspiring natural headboards for sleeping under trees.

20- Stargazing sewing cards (Kids Activities Blog)
Nothing whets the appetite better....

21- DIY popsicle stick harmonicas (Housing A Forest)
Portable music for strolls.

22- DIY family art wall (Mood Kids)

23- DIY sunprint designs (3191 Miles Apart)
Exploring sunlight and shadow.

24- Embroidered thread notebook covers (The Red Thread Blog)
Handwork for nature journal covers.

25- Branch weaving (3191 Miles Apart)

26- DIY tiny clay planters (Merry Pad)
For gifts of flowers.

27- Simple hot water bottle cover tutorial (Rachael Rabbit)
Discussing the notion of comfort together.

28- Running stitch potholders (Peapod Fabrics)

29- Writing in wool (A Life Sustained)

30- DIY cardboard animals (Small For Big)

DIY cardboard backyard bird guide.

The spring's birding activities gave rise to a project involving an old cardboard box and a collection of bird encounters.

The male and female Northern cardinals.

YOU WILL NEED

oil pastel crayons
watercolor paints
paintbrushes
a little water
field guide to birds
a long strip of cardboard
a pencil or pen

The Eastern towhee and the blue jay.

INSTRUCTIONS

Begin by making a list of the backyard birds you've seen this spring. If you can't remember, consult your nature journal for help.

Depending on the length of your cardboard trip (we cut ours from a long box), pick the number of birds that will fit inside the allotted space. Now, revisit your list and pick the numder of birds from your list that will fit.

American robin and Eastern towhee. 

Using your bird guide and nature journal, use a pencil to sketch the birds and identify them in equidistant spaces along the cardboard strip.

Now fold your cardboard strip into an accordion-like fan so it can stand on its own later.

Then outline the birds with oil pastel crayons. Be creative and vary your colorings to include beaks and feathers if you like.

Eastern bluebird and red-bellied woodpecker.

Finally, use your watercolor paints to fill in the birds' coloring. Vary your brush strokes for color depth, and alternate colors in areas where the feathers have multiple shades or hues. 

An ex-post-facto tip from the Eldest (one he didn't follow): After allowing the birds to dry, you can go back and deepen the color a bit by repainting them. The cardboard absorbs and mutes the bluish and green paints more than the red or white, but it also offers a neat contrast for white feathers. 

Spittlebug crafting session degenerates into spitting contest.

After last week's spittlebug surprise, we found ourselves thinking, "Why note draw some spittlebugs- spittling- on a leaf?"

I provided a model and some watercolor pencils, along with a few leaves cut from used paper bags.

Prophet provided an inspiring variation, with lovely leaf veining.

The Eldest excelled in offering a blueprint.

Gnome and Little B. chose to explore their talents in a different fashion. They decided to hold a spitting content in honor of the "spitting bugs". Fortunately, there is only so much saliva one can spit across a room before insatiable thist kicks in and distracts you from the game. 

I never found who won the spitting bug contest. Perhaps it is just as well.

Geocaching for Riverboxes at the Dublin Arts Center.

After parking outside the Dublin Arts Council, we took a moment to savor the view. Then we decided to go ahead and hunt for the first geocache, a riverbox with an uncanny name, D'art's No Litter Cat Box, one that deserved further investigation.

For those unfamiliar with riverboxes, the Dublin Arts Center sponsors a series of geocaches called Riverboxes, all of which are created by local artists or artisans. You can download a Riverbox Passport and guide for free online. 

The Eldest survyed the base of a statue on the front lawn of the Dublin Arts Center. He held the printouts which included only descriptive clues (rather than GPS coordinates) to the riverbox.

Once we got within ten feet of the cache, we were alerted to its hiding spot by the simultaneous chirp of three children- "Found it!" The riverbox was filled with swag and goodies. We left our names and logged it in the Coryell Castle Geocaching Logbook.

Upon entering the Dublin Arts Center, we discovered a large, golden tabby cat curled atop a desk near the front door. For a few moments, no one else appeared- it was just us and the cat. Gnome wasted no time in sneaking a pet.

Soon, a friendly lady appeared to introduce us to D'art, the gallery cat, the namesake of the riverbox we had just discovered. The ladies offered supplications and thanks for the swag. Meanwhile, the Eldest had wandered into the art gallery. We followed suit.

In addition to the wood art exhibit, there was a funky-looking piano in the center of the room. First they gawked at it.

Then they rocked it.

Because a funky blue-polka dot piano is only yours for the playing once in life. And who would you be to refuse it?

We set out down the hill behind the Arts Center in search of our second riverbox, Riverbox of the Sun. The littlest ones took the lead.

Bunicu stops to scout out a stump.

Inside the Riverbox of the Sun, we found a collection of painted rocks and pebbles, the sort of swag that hangs heavy in the pocket. Prophet counted the pebbles before announcing that each of us could only take one so that a total of twelve pebbles would remain.

As the Eldest and I did the dull work of logging and noting, other members of the caravan argued the case for running down the rest of the hill to the bank of swollen Scioto River. 

Bunicu apparently spotted a few geese across the way, and the King noted a geocache located on the uninhabitable 10 foot island plumb center of the river. "It would only take a minute to swim across and log it......" observed the King.

Fortunately, everyone got distracted by the presence of an eerie building out back- the kind of building that ached to tell us a good, old-fashioned ghost story. Possibly the dwelling of the Scioto River rambler, a ghost known to travel with a hobo stick and knotted kerchief? If not a ghost, then at least an excellent creative writing prompt for the Eldest and his journal.

Sketchbook prompt: The spanish influenza epidemic of 1918 and musings of Egon Schiele.

Musing Egon Schiele in the sketchbook.

Reading about the influenza deaths this past year, my heart goes out to those who lost family members or friends. Today, I brought the flu virus into my sketchbook thanks to a recent dream of Edith and Egon Schiele, two lovers who perished just days apart in the 1918 spanish flu epidemic. As an artist, Schiele's lines and contours bear no equal. His early death robbed the world of the way he may yet have rendered it. 

Edith died on October 28th. Egon followed her to the grave on October 31st. 

Plan for the evening: To convince the King to play Edith and Egon as a tribute on All Hallow's Eve next year. 

Learning about the sculptures of Constantin Brancusi.

Constantin Brancusi, self-portrait, 1924.

Our introduction to the art of Constantin Brancusi (pronounced "Brun-coosh") began simply enough. I handed Gnome, Prophet, and Little B. a black and white outline of Brancusi's "Bird In Space" and asked them to use their imaginations to reveal the bird in space with a little help from colored pencils.

To use the coloring page, enjoy the free download (which includes a brief activity plan) at Teachers Pay Teachers. We followed up our Brancusi exploration with a brief study of the actual marble scuplture itself and a discussion of Brancusi's life and career.

More resources to study Brancusi with kids:

 "Brancusi, Bird In Space, 1928" (Khan Academy)
Brancusi's golden heads (Paul Kasmin Gallery)
Simplicty is complexity resolved: Brancusi and the Americans (Yatzer)
View of Brancusi's studio circa 1928 (Bruce Silverstein Gallery)

Sketchbook shapes: The shapes of a face.

The Eldest's face shapes sketchbook entry.

There are so many cool shapes in the human face.

It all began with a large oval, the shape of a face.

To make our collage mouths, we talked about symmetry.

I cut out a heart by folding a piece of paper- "How could we make this a mouth?", I asked.

The paper was folded again and Prophet trimmed the edges.

Her mouth inspired my own.

The Eldest remarked, "Prophet's nose looks like a Picasso..."

"Speaking of Picasso," I murmured, as the Eldest revealed his own face collage.

Gnome chose, instead, to use a "banana" shape for her handsome fellow's mouth.

All agreed that Gnome's face was the friendliest.

As for my face collage, the Eldest wanted to know why it read "40%".

"Because it's 40% true...."

Easy 3-D valentines inspired by our sketchbook activity.

We started with colored pencils, paper, regular old pencil, and the four basic shapes. The sketchbook activity required us to draw the four basic shapes and then add a vanishing point somewhere between them. The vanishing point is the point at which all imaginary lines of perspective converge. The purpose of drawing in perspective is to create the illusion of depth, and to enrich the form of your subject.

Connecting the shapes to the vanishing point required us to draw the shortest possible line from each of the corners to the vanishing point. You don't really have to draw a line from point farthest from the vanishing point on each letter back to the vanishing point. It's a superluous line- one that reduces the illusion.

Somehow, inspired by our sketchbook activity, we decided to play around with 3-D words and then add amusing items near the vanishing point. The Eldest did the letterblocking and coloring, while I messed around with graphics and possible puns.

"Hey," says me, "Why don't we just print out several sheets with the word LOVE in some neat font and get the girls to color with us?"

"Yeah," says he, "let's do it."

"Um-hmmmm," says me, looking for a font.

"Maybe," says he, "there's a little more to it. Like a project or a gift or.... a valentine?"

Sure enough. We colored the words and added another dimension. Then we searched through old photo bins for pictures we could cut and paste just beneath the focal point. The photos we chose were the ones that made us laugh- which means most of the Eldest's came from his toddler years.

It was so fun and simple. You can download the two blank pages with just the word "love" in cool fonts below. And by all means have a merry, giggle-filled blast.

3D love valentines (PDF)

Learning about oval shapes with insect collages.

In learning about shapes, I've found it easier to relate the shapes we draw to the shapes we find in nature. Every shape exists in perfect form somewhere in your backyard....

Yesterday, we talked about OVALS, the shape that looks like a stretched circle. And we built our own insect friends from circles and ovals snipped from magazines. 

Of course, I built bugs alongside the kids...

Gnome raved about her "buggies".

The Eldest would not allow himself to be limited to common shapes.

If he perceived a butterfly, a butterfly appeared.

I loved how he cut stripes for the back of one beetle.

An age-inclusive art lesson on value scales for kids ranging from 3 to 10.

It was only a matter of time.

You see, I'd given the Prophet her first sketchbook- and we spent a hour working on hatching and cross-hatching yesterday. Today, the sketching menu included an introductory exploration of value scales.... but Little B. and the Gnome staged a rebellion and insisted on getting their "own" sketchbooks.

"This isn't like a coloring book, girls. If you want a sketchbook, then you have to sit and sketch for extended periods of time....

"I kn-oo-ww..." sang Little B., "I wi-i-i-lllll..."

"Me too, Mommy," affirmed the Gnome, while trying to break a colored pencil in half with her teeth.

I suppressed a sigh. "Okay, I will make some extra sketchbooks and invite you two to the sketching circle with the Eldest and the Prophet BUT....." I paused for emphasis, preparing myself for the coming sternness, "If either of you begins that abominable whining sound, you will have to leave the circle right away."

Glances and giggles passed between Gnome and Little B. I wondered if this unexpected addition would diminish my ability to help the Eldest and Prophet develop an understanding of form and value. But there was no time to keep wondering- the gauntlet had been laid down. Art for all it would be.

After drafting cursory sketchbooks, I took out our seminal text- The Interactive Art Activity Book- a gift from Grandma Vicki and invited the kids to dip into it with me.

Each page was filled with tiny folds, corners, and booklets anticipating the touch of tiny hands. As we turned through the book, the excitement built up like the urge to use a restroom after drinking a large movie theatre soda.

My excitement grew with theirs.

The time had come for our spontaneous experiment.

colored pencils
paper (preferably inside a sketchbook)
a black ink pen

We discussed that a color has different shades, or "values". I realized I would need a little riddle or trick to keep them interested in a discussion of color values. So I picked up a red pencil....

ME: How many colors are in the pencil I am holding?

GNOME: One! (giggle)

LITTLE B.: (grin and giggle) One.

PROPHET: It's red. Red is one color.

Everyone agreed that there was one color in one pencil- it seemed intuitive. 

ME: What if I told you there were six colors in this pencil?

PROPHET: (scowling) That is a lie.

GNOME and LITTLE B. (giggling and nodding)

I can always count on Prophet for the black-and-white of any matter, including color theory. So I began to draw a value scale for the red colored pencil in my sketchbook- one in which I hatched and cross-hatched six values for red. The kids loved the trick. 

ME: Now it's your turn to do a little magic....

The Eldest created three value scales, using a tissue paper to smooth the edges between the transitions.

Gnome's super value scales.

For the younger ones, I created a small value scale using revealing three values at the top of their paper. Then I drew in three boxes for three different colored pencils and asked them to color the "lightest" shade, the "medium" shade, and the "darkest" shade. We focused on applying varying degrees of pressure to get the colors.

To emphasize the value in the colors, I asked them to draw a line with soft pressure, a line with medium pressure, and a line with hard pressure to the right of each value scale BEFORE they started to reveal the values. All three little ones blew my mind in their interest and dedication to getting those value scales into their sketchbooks. Little B, who tends to color lightly and hurriedly, was especially remarkable for the time and patience she put into her value scales.

They have earned the privilege of their art classes. And I'm not ashamed to admit the honor is all mine.

Whereupon we made fingerprint creatures and watercolor bookmarks.

Amy brought E. and A. for a long-anticipated visit today- and the kids made the maxmimum possible rumpus. Max and E. helped me with bookmarks before heading outdoors to crush berries and make potage of the sort involving buckets, leaves, and torn twiglets.

 

Max and E. work on their fingerprint animals.

Max's reindeer include Rudolph, whom we now know to be a female reindeer.

SUPPLIES FOR FINGERPRINT CREATURES

white notecards
colored ink pads
tiny fingers
black smudgeproof ink pens

 

Thumbprint dandies.

Amy's advanced degree in fingerprinting opened broad horizons to us.

Meanwhile, as the parents and older siblings slaved away in the name of crafting,
the younger munchkins managed to create a play-fort from blankets and pillows.

Then they sat and waited for the pizza man to bring the coveted cheese sticks.

There was a combination of dissension and lounging in the ranks of the small folks.

 

Max's bookmark.

A.'s bookmark, densely colored.

Micah's fancy bookmark.

Milla's colors bled into one another in a lovely fashion.

B.'s gorgeous color combinations inspired us all.

Micah's camellia preservation tactic which she says E. taught her.

Then Max, B., Micah, and E. went outside to play for a little while while Amy and I sat around and chatted. Have I mentioned how nice it was to just hang out and chat with a fellow female of the friendly and funny sort? 

Notice how they removed the bud petals to reveal the tops of the anthers?

It's pretty obvious why my kids love E. and A.- they are full of the sort of fun that just makes itself, without any prompting or planning. 

Our family trip to see "The Nutcracker".

Jenna McKerrow Wilson dancing the role of the Sugar Plum fairy with the Alabama Ballet in 2009.

Micah doesn't walk from room to room- she dances. And if I dare put on music- any music- she always gets up and finds her captivated into dancing to it, seeking the beat. So you can imagine her joy when Jenna offered us tickets to the Tucsaloosa Community Dancers' performance of "The Nutcracker". 

If any knows "The Nutcracker", it is Jenna. At the age of 11, she danced a role as one of the children in the Washington Ballet's performance. Rumor has it then-President Bill Clinton and his wife were in the audience. Before giving birth to her son, Tobias, who watched the show from the balcony with us, Jenna played the coveted role of the Sugar Plum fairy in the Alabama Ballet's performance. 

We were thrilled to see this performance for which Jenna served as Resident Guest Artist and Choreographer. My only regret is that we forgot to bring a bouquet.

B. takes a seat in Max's lap at the Bama Theatre.

We couldn't take any photos of the performance, but it was beautiful and impressive. Micah could not take her eyes from the stage. B. enjoyed the first act, but found herself feeling squirmy in the second act. Once she moved from the theatre seat to my lap, however, the squirms revealed their underlying source- a need to nap.

The King had never seen "The Nutcracker". I was surprised by how much he enjoyed it.

Micah and Aurora, her puppy- their final photograph together.

Against all reccomendations by the king and myself, Micah insisted on bringing her purse pet, Aurora, along to see the show. Unfortunately for Micah, Aurora got lost in all the shuffle. She remains somewhere in the aisles or seats of the Bama Theatre, watching rehearsals, overhearing whispered conversations, and falling asleep under the lovely ever-twinkling stars inset in the theatre's ceiling.

B. and Milla get a photo with the nutcracker.

Jenna currently teaches at Knollwood Ballet in Sylacauga, Alabama. When she is not teaching, dancing, or spending time with her handsome toddler, Tobias, Jenna serves as President of the Board of Directors for the Alabama Dance Council. We are so grateful to her and Scott for our memorable ballet experience. And we are also grateful to the ushers at the door, who did not remove us from the theatre for lack of those enormous hair bows which appeared to serve as uniforms. 

Why the need for wrapping paper led me and the kids to verge on playing a round of exquisite corpse.

I'm blaming it all on my peers. Blaming and crediting, that is.

It's hard not to serenade Joel and the editors of BIG magazine for assuming that kids play "exquisite corpse" on a regular basis. And hard not to love them for providing the impetus to surrealize the munchkins.

On this dreary December day, I decided to try out the art-play project on their website. The goal was to nurture unbridled creative play while abadoning any personal aesthetic that kept parents from "letting go enough" to meet kids in the space of their wildest imaginings. Thus entered their idea for a collaborative ocean.

I had four munchkins ready to reveal the ocean to me. So we chatted as I mixed the watercolor paints (and then diluted them with added water so they would last longer). We created greens, blues, turquoise, purples, and deep aquamarine blues. All was ready to converge...

Start working on the same large piece of paper together following your child’s lead and fill the entire page as the imagined middle of the BIG ocean.

As we explored the medium (in our case, craft paper), we drafted a conversation to map our journey. In this sort of play, words make a fantastic vehicle deeper into the fantastic. Conversation also promotes collaborative teamwork and co-visioning. I took note of the available conversation starters and improvised with a few of my own.

ME: "So, what are the colours, patterns and FEEL of your ocean?"

ME: "What kinds of brush strokes evoke the ocean most to you?"

ME: "Are there any sounds you want to make as you paint the ocean?" 

We closed our eyes and made them as we painted...

ME: "Uh, well... guys, I hate to be a party-pooper but I'd like to listen to some music as we paint. Is it okay if I put on some stormy ocean sounds?"

It was absolutely silent. I found myself happily ignored as they focused on painting.

ME: "What colors do you find in the deepest areas?"

ME: "Do you like the deeper areas?"

ME: "What excites you most about the ocean? Use color and strokes to reveal it."

B.'s fish ventured in the deepest areas because she "didn't wanna be scared".

We also alternated between thick brushes and skinny brushes to emphasize the varying textures of the sea and the way sunlight causes it to sparkle or thicken.

Max's self-identified fish was no less than a sleighback rado.

An ocean devoid of creatures would not stand with this crew, so they set about (at Max's direction) creating their own signature fish- a fish that looked most like themselves as they imagined their fish selves to be.

Micah's handsome, two-sided fish obscured by my lame photography.

Milla's fish was a tiny golden minnow.

B.'s fish pulled up to chat with the minnow.

Two handsome ocean dwellers hanging out.

Joel and his friends at BIG offered three free big boats and characters to set out on a voyage across the ocean to visit different cities. In their words:

You can make your own B.I. G (Bravery, Imagination, Generosity) characters to captain the boats. Or you could even collaborate on your B.I.G characters by drawing them as three fold ‘Exquisite corpse’ drawings.

What adventures happen when the storm comes and the boats capsize under ocean?

What worlds do your characters visit and what city are they from?

Alas, the ocean dwellers were far too involved in their fish games to entertain the prospect of bringing more creatures into the fold. Perhaps our collaborative ocean will expand to include human beings and their boats tomorrow... You just never know.

Using markers to explore patterns.

Max decided to doodle some "edgy embroidery patterns".

Intrigued, Micah asked him to "teach" her how to make her own patterns.

Milla stood by and offered constructive criticism of their efforts.

Pinka took this opportunity to poop on the kitchen floor.

This is why- if you had shown up at the Castle in the past thirty minutes- you would have found me on my hands and knees, scrubbing the tile floor with a sponge while singing along to Chris Cornell's Songbook. "Call Me A Dog" suited the scene perfectly.

A pair of eyes art project.

Preparing to begin our holiday crafting bonanza, it was the right kind of morning for an experimental art project. A few months ago, I found a few neat notebooking pages on a Dutch website and decided to save them for later use.  One of these pages was completely blank, except for a pair of eyes in the center of the page.

Passing this page to Max, I asked him to create a "visual context" and story for the eyes. The result is the "Library Ghost" you see below.

As for the story about our libary ghost friend, it is currently at the drafting and daydreaming phase (my favorite phase in any art project). We'll see if Max decides to tiptoe into the hallowed halls of final drafts.

Love letter #111: Ringo Atelier, a French hub for the artistic output of little people.

I fell inlove with Ringo, and thought I'd share a few of the lovely how-to's, accompanied by my "creative" translation of the French instructions. Yes, this means I'm of the "translate the spirit rather than the literal word" school... Forgive me when I misread the spirit. 

Ringo's cardboard garage

Imagine your garage as cardboard. Now cut a shape that will be a roof. Give free rein to your desires and your imagination. Imagine the shift from ground to roof to create a park on the terrace. Add a large window with a little transparent plastic. Then cut cardboard shapes and fold them to fashion columns and a gas station. As you make your cardboard garage, remember that it is possible to design and build something from 100% recycled materials. 

Ringo's still life 

More appropriately translated as "dead nature", Ringo's still life project focuses on broad color blocking and expressionism. To begin, choose an object that you will observe for your still life. Think fruit, plant, bouquet, cups, etc. Then select three or four colors of thick pastel crayons in flat. The colors don't need to match the color of your object; instead, focus on making sure the colors go well together. Then draw what you see!

Ringo's sack clothing

Look around the house and studio for plastic bags, brown bags, crepe or tissue paper, and other packaging or wrapping papers that include patterns. Cut small scraps or shapes of colored paper in basic shapes. Also assemble colored stickers, scissors, and glue sticks. Now create your own outfits from the found materials. Have fun inventing matching characters.

Ringo's balloon portraits

Blow up a few balloons and use permanent marker to sketch faces on them. For a dinner party, consider drawing a portrait of each person and attaching it to their chair as a placemarker.

Ringo's marker blot dots

Have fun with your pens and blotting paper. Place a colored felt on the blotter. When it permeates the blotter, create mixed colors by asking other markers next to the first "spot". This mix will have a pretty and aged effect. Continue creating colored dots until you have a pattern you like or until the dots resemble a specific outline or evoke a feeling.

Ringo's folded paper circles

You will need one sheet of colored paper (or leftover paper bags) and one sheet of plain white paper. Starting at one end of the colored paper, fold it over to create a crease that measures about 5mm to 10mm, then fold it againso as to bring it forward. Continue doing this all the way along the length of the paper at 5mm intervals. Then cut two half circles from the folded sheet; now cut each half circle into two halves. you découperas in two. Compose a circle and then glue it on the white paper while varying the direction of the folds.

Additional inspirations from Ringo

Confetti-covered tshirt 
In the manner of David Hockney 
In the manner of Josh Blackwell
Sketch the rest (with printable PDF)
Your own design book (with printable PDF)

Adrian Ghenie and other fantabulous Romanian artists on the post-Ceausescu art scene.

Adrian Ghenie’s “Pie Fight Interior 8.”

Twenty five years after Ceausescu’s lightning-quick trial and execution on Christmas Day, when most of the artists were in grade school, they retain a special brand of pragmatism, cynicism and dark wit. Their output — somber, intellectual, haunted by history and laced with gallows humor — reveals the psyche of a country sentenced to grapple with its past for decades to come. Ghenie’s thickly worked canvases depicting what look like melting faces have drawn comparisons to the work of Francis Bacon, but his titles making reference to pie fights lend the works a layer of slapstick. Muresan’s video of dog puppets evokes the human potential for brutality. The Romanian critic and curator Mihnea Mircan, 37, summed up their generation as “allergic to utopia.”

In this spirit, they navigate success in a post-Communist environment, where for decades most any achievement required working with the regime. “I trust myself better than I trust others,” Serban Savu, 35, says, explaining the self-reliance he and his colleagues have developed. “Nobody helped us to construct the art scene.”

Read this for the rest of this fascinating story.

Handmade Holiday event to benefit Books 2 Prisons Project.

Though I'm not going to have a table this year, it's a wonderful group of people whose actions benefit the community at large in silent, unassuming and very important ways. Mark your calendars and bring family or friends to do a little holiday shopping that supports local artisans as well as the Books 2 Prisons Project.

Why we love the The Alabama Blues Project.

 

There's Max with his harmonica, his new best music-making friend, thanks to the Alabama Blues Project Summer camp. I can't say enough about this experience.

The CS Monitor carried an article describing the Alabama Blues Project as a "change agent", and we are inclined to agree. And add our own exclamation points. Here's the background:

The Alabama Blues Project was co-founded by Bond in 1995 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. It is now a nonprofit group directed by Paula Demonbruen. This year, it began providing instruction in five Tuscaloosa after-school programs, in addition to its blues club for children and programs in other schools in Alabama.

In July Ms. Demonbruen led the annual summer Blues Camp in Tuscaloosa. Former camper Jonathan Blakney, 20, came back to help teach.

"It comes out of African music," he says of the blues. "Some of the African beats and rhythms survive."

Field hollers, spirituals, work songs, simple ballads, and shout and chants were among the 19th-century forms that evolved into the blues.

Mr. Blakney and Blues Project program director Cara Lynn Teague describe how early blues players made homemade instruments. Wires were hung on a wall to create a stringed instrument, a plow handle attached to a washtub and strung with rope became a washtub bass, and tobacco tins were used to create a harmonica-like instrument.

At the summer camp, the children learn about specific blues musicians. Lowell Jeff, 13, gives a report. "This is about Microwave Dave," he says. "His first gig was in a local church in Texas."

  

You can hear blueswoman Hattie B. clapping just behind us- she's been part of the Tuscaloosa blues community for a long time and she made no secret about how much she enjoyed this event.

Thanks to the inspiring art teachers which worked with the kids on visual representations, the walls were of the performance hall were lined with self-made album covers for each of the music artists present. 

Here's Maggie Slough's amazing self-portrait.

Max poses with his awesome album cover.

Max's band warms up for their performance.

Yes, we're going to do it again- and again... for the incredible combo of local history, music, and art.  Max is still nagging me to sign him up for the fall session, and homeschoolers who have an interest should contact Cara because I know they are currently planning to work with homeschoolers more, and our excitement makes a good incentive. The website is mere mouse-click away.

Chasing adjectives with acrylic paint.

Milla and I spent the afternoon playing with acrylic paints and a pad of paper made from mangos. Since each piece of paper was the size of a post-it note, we ended up with a pile of tiny "paintings" and a new game to play on a lazy, sunlicked summer day.

Since Milla peppers every conversation with fantastic adjectives, I thought it might be fun to engage them at the level of paint and brush. So we took turns. First, I told Milla to paint something "tired" or "sleepy". She immediately reached for the black paint tube and covered a post-it in jet black. 

Then it was Milla's turn. She wanted me to paint something "oldy". Old? No, "oldy". So I quickly painted the "oldy" pear above. Milla looked at me with her crinkle-eyed, dimple-doused grin and immediately declared my success- "It's an oldy pear, Mommy!" We laughed and then Milla told me I should eat it. Clearly, acrylic paint does not taste ripe or even "oldy" so I politely declined.

When I told her it was her turn to paint again, she insisted that I continue while she picked another adjective. This time, she picked the word "juicy". I responded with the tomato above. Milla quickly stomped her two-year-old foot and declared that "apples are not juicy".

When I explained that the apple was in fact a tomato, she stared more closely and nodded- "Okay Mommy, tomato is juicy". Then we got distracted by a very clumsy grasshopper who kept jumping and landing on his side in the grass. The day fluttered by so quickly that we never had the chance to wonder if it was dissolving rather than flying.

Now, a boisterous southern thunderstorm soaks our garden and brings so much water that the rain barrel overflows.

I am grateful for the moments of half-emptiness and stunned by the moments of half-fullness. Sometimes life is more beautiful than this little mind and heart can bear.

Loving Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires: The guys who give Walker Percy.

(Photo credit: The End of Irony)

A few years back, I saw Lee Bains in his former costume as a Dexateen or something in-between. Bains' pulsating stage presence reminded me of how Bruce Springsteen used to fill out his jeans in better days. After returning to Birmingham in 2008 following his New York college days, Bains joined the Dexateens, "a Tuscaloosa institution whose raggedy union of cock-eyed rebel pride and forward-thinking fury proved to be the perfect apprenticeship for a confused Southern boy, raised on Skynyrd and schooled in Faulkner".

Bains continued to play with them for two or three years, including the Hardwire Healing album, before the band itself crawled off in different directions. But Lee Bains isn't going away. And the sparks are now flying with The Glory Fires, a Birmingham-based band whose chemistry sizzles with Bains' paprika-inflected growl.

Granted, he had me at "Walker Percy". Though we parted ways when Bains lets the girl who got away get away with way too much, including his Percy. After scratching my head, I was relieved to discover that the Percy was safe on a shelf in their relationship space.

What girl ever forgets they guy who introduced her to Walker Percy? Not this one. Shoot, I married him.

Now our shared shelves are stacked with everything he ever wrote as well as books he may have gotten around to writing. Our most recent daughter's middle name is "Percy", a tribute boure for 9.75 months of hot Alabama afternoons. She is steeped in bonfires and honeysuckle vines.

In an interview, Bains talks about that Walker Percy book:

 I guess I think “Everything You Took” is pretty Southern sounding. Hah. The reasons I mentioned Walker Percy were: one, I really did lend my girlfriend a Walker Percy novel that still sits on her bookshelf, and, two, it’s an opportunity to establish a context. When I was in school studying literature, I relished those moments when the writer makes an allusion to the Bible or Shakespeare or Dickinson or the Velvet Underground or whatever. It’s an opportunity to see the artist as being in conversation with other artists.

In the song itself, a church choir would not be out of place. The conversation with cultural context involves more than literary references- it involves a form of ransom. Bains suggests that he would give up some very important "things" for her "mercy".

But baby we've been leeping this little fires so long burning
I don't think I'd be a fool to think that they'd last
Go on keep my tshirts
Well you can go on keep my books
Each small hope that you give me
Makes up for everything you took
You can keep my Walker Percy
You can keep that Tshirt my brother got that time he saw the Ramones.." 

In his songwriting, as Bains explains, he speaks for himself:

I think it’s dangerous to speak for other people. Even if you have good intentions and are trying to speak for some forgotten segment of the population, you wind up effectively silencing that group by putting your own words into its collective mouth.

If you haven't had the pleasure, I suggest you make it priority this summer to spend at least one firefly-laden evening with Lee Bains III and whatever he's cooking. Good, homegrown stuff.

Don't miss Cory Pennington's video for "Ain't No Stranger".
Hear them live online at the FMA.
See what the folks at the Rolling Stone prefer. 
Watch "Opelika" live and acoustic in the Well That's Cool studio. 

Smitten with flower press.

I found a charming little flower press on sale at Barnes and Noble and decided it was absolutely necessary for our learning this summer. It's unusual for me to be enchanted or inspired by a brand, but if it happens, it tends to be French brand. In this case, Moulin Roty.

Even the cardboard box is too lovely to toss....

The history of Moulin Roty began in 1972 when a group of 20 odd friends were searching for a common project that would provide both income and way of life. In the small French village of Moulin Roty, the friends decided to purchase an old mill that has fallen into ruins. They renovated the mill bit by bit so that their families could move in and live there together as a commune. The adventure began with screen printing and craft items (lamps, jewellery, decorative items . . . ) and ended with a worldwide commune brand. 

In 1980, Moulin Roty opened its doors as an official Cooperative (SCOP) in order to "ensure the development and the durability of the company". This status helps board members conserve the founding values of the brand : solidarity, sharing and respect. The French cooperative movement offers much to emulate and inspire its American counterpart.

Then, in 1988, a fire destroyed the entire workshop at the old mill.  The designs, stock, files and machines were completely lost. Moulin Roty moved to Nort sur Erdre, 15 kilometres away and decided to begin from scratch. This new start also gave added importance to the design and sales aspects of the company. The latter kept its status as a cooperative but became a public limited company (SA) in 1991.

In 1996, a Hungarian-Romanian gentleman by the name of Arpad Kovacs got involved in the creative aspect of Moulin Roty. He designs the large majority of their wooden games and toys thanks to the company he founded in his native village in Romania. The company offers work to 150 families and possesses unique know-how that has long been forgotten in France, especially with regards to wood and wicker.

In 2000, the first subsidiary in Great Britain is created and a strong web presence for Moulin Roty emerges.

And just to think that the Moulin Roty Botanist Set is 72 dollars worth of beautiful... We'll just have to use that cardboard box to make our own... In the meantime, even the coloring pages delight us.

Right-click to open full-size printable.

What we found by getting lost.

We spent at least two hours driving through back roads in Alabama, getting lost or, as Micah put it, "even loster".

But we also found a place to which we will return once the King the free time to burn with us. Driving through Helena, lured by the running water, we stopped at Buck Creek Park.

Google map it: 776 2nd St, Helena, AL 35080

Micah picked a fresh clover bouquet that made it back to Tuscaloosa and to the castle table-top.

Always the most generous human being in the twenty-foot garden, Micah carefully distributed a dandelion to each of us, reminding us to wait and "all blow together for the fairies".

Max and Micah took off their shoes and socks for the first toe-dip of spring. Max reported that the water was "freezing ice-cold yipppeee."

Then everyone sat on the grass and thought about Frances, my canoe, and how she must be eager to kiss the creeks right about now.

Finally, we headed back to the spaceship to begin the long journey through the ozone-eaten stratosphere supposedly protecting our home.

But not without giving in to the giggling call of the creek just one more time....

Goodbye gorgeous green treasure. We'll be back before summer fades your colors.

V is for Van Gogh.

Since Max is studying Van Gogh and Micah is officially 5- and therefore, in her opinion, "ready to do Van Gogh", I created two pages for her alphabet notebook on Van Gogh and the letter "V". You can download your own copy directly below.

V is for Van Gogh (2 PDF pages for your alphabet book)

In addition, we played the online diorama game to prepare all three munchkins for creating their own Van Gogh dioramas per the worksheets above. It was fun, and I reccommend it.

Camille's Diorama Online Activity (Van Gogh Museum)

PRINTABLE TEACHING MATERIALS FROM VAN GOGH MUSEUM:
An Artist's Struggle Teaching Package (PDF)
An Artist's Struggle Cut-Outs (PDF)
An Artist's Struggle Answer Sheet (PDF) 
Van Gogh's Letters: The Artist Speaks Teaching Package (PDF) 
Naturalism: Illusions of Reality Teaching Manual (PDF) 

PRINTABLE LEARNING FREEBIES FROM AROUND THE WEB:
Van Gogh Notebooking Page (Harmony Fine Arts at Home)
Van Gogh Sky Notebooking Page (Harmony Fine Arts At Home) 
Learning From Van Gogh's Textures (Meet the Masters) 

Love letter #94: Zlesa's blog.

I am inlove with something Czech called Zlesa. This something, of course, has a someone behind the curtain. 

Jana Kloučková Kudrnová, creator and curator of Zlesa, is a graphic designer and illustrator living in the woods near the Czech town of Olomouc. You can find more of Jana's creations and imaginations at her online shop or at Atelier 101.

Oh how I wish I had found this card to give to Milla before we began weaning! It is just perfect and addresses this important, delicate communication between mother and child. I'll make it up to Milla, however, with this delightful potty-training chart and reward game.

The printables and activities are geared more towards preschoolers, but they inspire anyone to make and appreciate beautiful tiny things. Take a peek and enjoy. I've been to the Czech Republic and not everyone is as neat as Jana, so there is no "national excuse" for some of her loveliness.

CUT AND PASTE PRINTABLES
Cut and paste face fun 
Perfect faces puzzle game 
Seasons printables  
Toddler closet labels to cut and paste in closet
Leaf gluing craft  
Cutting practice kite fun  
Pirate paper dolls to color and cut
Castle character paper dolls to color and cut
Vacation book for paper dolls 
Snowgirl cut-out coloring medallions 

COLORING PAGE PRINTABLES
Princess coloring page
Bacily coloring page 
 Food Not Bombs coloring page 
Color the hair activity page 
Insects coloring page  
Mushrooms coloring 
Leaves coloring
Animal color and draw  

GAMES, DIY, AND ACTIVITIES
The best treasure hunt ever imagined 
Castle marble run fun  
Button war game  
Ice flowers
River stone play 
Pebbles puzzle play 
Carboard aquarium
Montessori play ideas 
Button animal play 
Printable exercise dice 
Woodland memory game printable
Postcard play with printable
Driving play with printable license
Pretend grocery shopping game with printable 
Act-out-the-animal cube printable 
Sequencing cards printable 
Spring 1-6 counting puzzle printable
Weather wheel printable 
Mod paper doll printable
Dangerous plants booklet printable 
Forest matching puzzle printable
Baby mother animals flashcards to print and play 

Lo and behold, a new sign.

Apparently created by Max and hung in the bathroom this very morning for the purpose of protecting Vanilla's drinking water. I found the visual worthy of powerpointing.

Studying drama at home: It all starts with the Greeks.

Patrick and I performed a skit we wrote for Bunica and Ratpaw last weekend, and we have another original skit waiting in the wings. I foresee a Coryell Castle Theatre Troupe on the horizon. Now to train the youngest actors....
These castle-dwellers crave the visual side of learning- and it helps to have coloring opportunities for the girls when Max's educational content is too much for their ears.

So here's the handout with the three types of plays from ancient Greece followed by a PDF printable version.

Three Types of Plays (PDF)

Please please please take a few minutes to either 1) listen to Morrissey or 2) cultivate your inner thespian today. I can help with the second but the first is a personal matter.

A brief study of Vincent Van Gogh's self-portraits, circa 1888-1889.

Self-Portrait by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

Van Gogh’s artistic career was very short, only ten years; but he made 800 paintings in that time. Sometimes he would paint through the night with candles stuck in his hat brim for light! Unfortunately, he sold only one painting during his lifetime. But this did not dissuade him from believing that his art was worthwhile.

What colors do you see?

What shapes?

What kinds of lines?

What is in the background? Why?

How real does the artist make things look?

How does the painting make you feel?

Do you like it? Why or why not?

To explore the context behind this self-portrait- as well as two others- you can download the free worksheets below. Please don't try to make money off of them unless you are too poor to own a personal computer. But please do enjoy them- and learn alongside your little ones.

  Emotions in Painting: Van Gogh's Self-Portraits (PDF)

Don't miss the opportunity to Make A Van Gogh Style Self-Portrait with this printable acivity from the National  Gallery of Art which provided the information for the worksheets I made.

Love letter #92: Literary tattoos.

Oh what a fantastic way to relive good books. Contrariwise introduces more literary tattoos than you have shelving space. Also browse-worthy is Unique Tattoos From Around the Globe,  Needles and Sins, Bailey Hunter Robinson, Meditations in Atrament, Allen Tattoo, Swallows and Daggers, Tatoologist, and Tattoo Road Trip.

A few of my favorite inkings from today's brief foray, the kind that won't come unstuck....

Among my favorite tat subjects right now:

Edward Gorey drawings
Egon Schiele sketches
Emma Goldman
Dr. Seussisms
Unicorns and narwhals
Kurt Vonnegut quotes
Hannah Arendt quotes
Still life black and white pen drawings
Wittgenstein quotes

And, of course, there's the partner tattoo.

"A Poem of Friendship" by Nikki Giovanni.

Gradina by Maria Surducan, a Romanian artist and illusrator

We are not lovers
because of the love
we make
but the love
we have

We are not friends
because of the laughs
we spend
but the tears
we save

I don’t want to be near you
for the thoughts we share
but the words we never have
to speak

I will never miss you
because of what we do
but what we are
together

Mysterious moths also pollinate flowers.

Moths never get the attention they deserve for their mysterious ways. So we are learning about moths as pollinators and poetic muses today. For information on how to paint a chickweed moth as lovely as the one above, skip down to the links at the end of this post. 

Moths As Pollinators (PDF)

More moths to chase:

Like A Moth to a Flower Handout (Pollinator)
"the lesson of the moth", a poem by Don Marquis
The Lesson of the Moth Worksheet (Beacon Learning Center)
Differences between a butterfly and a moth (Ehow) 
Phaelaenophily, moth pollination (Wikipedia) 
Let's Paint the Chickweed Moth tutorial (Let's Paint Nature) 

The beard in history.

The best things in life have beards. The kids and I decided to learn more about beards today because it seems like all the settlers and pioneers we've been studying wore beards. In fact, history vibrates with the echo of fantastic beards and chops on the faces of seminal figures, including religious leaders.

 

Max often explains to people who mistake him for a girl that he likes having long hair because all his heroes have long hair. When pressed, he mentions Mozart, Jesus, and Led Zeppelin. This brings to mind the fact that long hair for men is not de rigeur these days- and those boys or men who choose to cultivate it are put on the defensive for their choice. Apparently, history is the record of how girls have long hair and boys have short hair- at least, that's the consensus among the chatty types in Tuscaloosa.

So we're studying beards in history- beards as costume, status signifier, artifact, relic, and so on. If one of the best people in your life boasts some hair on their chin or cheeks, consider adding him (or her) to the National Beard Registry. Or just drop by and get inspired (as we did) by illustrious beards, including those from the Lake Eden Arts Festival.

More beard appreciation in alphabetical order:

Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the USA
 Antonin Dvorak, Bohemian composer
Auguste Rodin, French sculptor
Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president of the USA
Charles Darwin, English naturalist
Charles Dickens, British novelist, journalist, and author
Charlie Daniels, American guitarist, fiddler, and singer-songwriter
Confucius, Chinese teeacher. politician, and philosopher
D. H. Lawrence, British novelist, poet, and playwright
Dan Duggan, American hammered dulcimer performer
Devendra Barnhart, Venezuelan-American singer-songwriter and visual artist
Erik Satie, French composer and pianist
Frank Zappa, American musician, composer, and recording engineer
Frederick Douglass, American author, social reformer, and statesman
Friedrich Engels, German social scientist and  political theorist
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist and essayist
Galileo Galilei, Italian physicist, mathematician, and astronomer
Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian general and politician
Giuseppe Verdi, Italian Romantic composer
Gustav Klimt, Viennese artist and Secessionist
Jesus of Nazareth, Judeic prophet, Muslim prophet Christian Messiah
John Brown, American abolitionist and insurrectionist
John Wells, master of The Field Lab
Karl Marx, Prussian-German sociologist, economist, historian, and philosopher
King Henry VIII, British royalty and ruler
Louis Pasteur, French chemist and microbiologist
Maurice Sendak, illustrator and author of children's books
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French artist and Impressionist
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer and conductor
Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president of the USA
Saul Kripke, American philosopher and logician
Sir Walter Raleigh, English aristocrat, poet, and explorer 
Thelonius Monk, jazz pianist and composer
Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch post-Impressionist painter
Walt Whitman, American poet and saunterer
William Shakespeare, English dramaturge, poet, and playwright
William James, American physician, psychologist, and philosopher
ZZ Top and the million dollar beards

Meanwhile, the munchkins are drawing beards on various coloring page characters. I have a feeling that several dolls and stuffed animals will not make it through the evening without aquiring a beard..... 

Beard Doodles (PDF)

Learning about 3-dimensional shapes.

We are looking at 3D shapes and figures today, so I directed the kids to one of the paintings on our wall (by a Romanian artist) as an introduction. Since Micah found it simple to see the triangles, I asked her to look for "triangles with storage space inside them". Max quickly jumped in with a lecture on pyramids, which bought me time to prepare for the morning and refill my coffee cup.

Everyone (save Max) was eager to begin coloring and singing, so I borrowed a lovely creation from Lil' Country Kindergarten, a poem-song about 3D shapes. 

3D Shapes Poem (PDF)

As the ladies colored, Max counted all the 3D shapes he could find in the painting. We also talked about the emergent shape- the spiral or circle in which the village is organized with a church at the center. This is a very common development pattern for Eastern European towns and small villages. Usually, you will also find a well or grazing commons near the church, reflecting the historic understanding of public goods prior to industrialization. 

Finally, Max explored an online geometry lesson in which he was asked to "guess an object by its shadow". This allowed him to play with the properties of 3D figures in an indirect manner. He enjoyed it so much that he rushed off to write a journal entry about it.

A Jacques Ellul collage composed of his words and other images.

Jacques Ellul might have appreciated the irony involved in my tech-mediated consumption of his writings. I certainly appreciate any irony that comes my way (unless it is of the mean-spirited variety, which seems rather dull and pathetic). And it never hurts to expand your horizons to include a few interesting Christian anarchists of the un-selfrighteous variety..... My apologies in advance for any way in which the advertising below might be disturbing. Many of these ads were actually considered "extremely succesful" by marketing experts.

The primary purpose of advertising technique is the creation of a certain way of life. And here it is much less important to convince the individual rationally than to implant in him a certain conception of life. The object offered for sale by the advertiser is naturally indispensable to the realization of this way of life. Now, objects advertised are all the result of the same technical progress and are all of identical type from a cultural point of view. Therefore, advertisements seeking to prove that these objects are indispensable refer to the same conception of the world, man, progress, ideals - in short, life.

One of the great designs of advertising is to create needs; but this is possible only if these needs correspond to an ideal of life that man accepts. The way of life offered by advertising is all the more compelling in that it corresponds to certain easy and simple tendencies of man and refers to a world in which there are no spiritual values to form and inform life. When men feel and respond to the needs advertising creates, they are adhering to its ideal of life. This explains the extremely rapid development, for example, of hygiene and cocktails. No one, before the advent of advertising, felt the need to be clean for cleanliness' sake. It is clear that the models used in advertising (Elsie the Cow, for instance) represent an ideal type, and they are convincing in proportion to their ideality. The human tendencies upon which advertising like this is based may be strikingly simpleminded, but they nonetheless represent pretty much the level of our modern life. Advertising offers us the ideal we have always "wanted".

As Munson says "In peacetime, morale building aims at creating among the troops the state of mental receptivity which makes them susceptible to every psychological excitation of wartime." And this "receptivity" must also be installed in every other human group in the technical culture, and especially in the masses of the workers.

"The Technological System" by Jacques Ellul (PDF)

We must be convinced that there are no such things as 'Christian principles.' There is the Person of Christ, who is the principle of everything. But if we wish to be faithful to Him, we cannot dream of reducing Christianity to it certain number of principles (though this is often done), the consequences of which can be logically deduced. This tendency to transform the work of the Living God into a philosophical doctrine is the constant temptation of theologians, and also of the faithful, and their greatest disloyalty when they transform the action of the Spirit which brings forth fruit in themselves into an ethic, a new law, into 'principles' which only have to be 'applied.

If man--if each one of us--abdicates his responsibilities with regard to values; if each one of us limits himself to leading a trivial existence in a technological civilization, with greater adaptation and increasing success as his sole objectives; if we do not even consider the possibility of making a stand against these determinants, then everything will happen as I have described it, and the determinates will be transformed into inevitabilities.

Value Scale Worksheet for young artists.

Max explored value using his colored pencils today. "That's SO COOL, Mom", he insisted. True enough. With a little physics lesson on the side. DIY.

Value Scales Using Lines Worksheet (PDF)

Playing with pastels playlist.

Pastels have been the order of the day- from my strange neon pastel nape to the pastel candyland on black construction paper. No pastel play is complete without a playlist....

NEW DELIRE- Serge Gainsbourg

BORN A MAN- Clem Snide

WALKING MY GARGOYLE- The Gothic Archies (mp3)

BUNHILL FIELDS- Amor Dias

STORY OF AN ARTIST- M. Ward

A series of concrete and shape poems.

"The worldWordis..." by Jean-Francois Bory (b. 1938)

 

"Example 2" by Jean-Francois Bory (b. 1938)

 

"Brancusi" by Jiri Kolar (1914-2002)

"Wave/Rock" by Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006)

 

"Wild Crab" by Mary Ellen Solt (1920-2007)

"Manifesto" by Paul de Vree (1909-1982)

"Estangement" by Vaclav Havel (1936-2012)

Kentuck for Kids Around the World Series.

On the third Saturday of each month, kids who live in or near Tuscaloosa have the opportunity to immerse themselves in global art and culture thanks to the Kentuck Museum Association. This month offered an artistic and cultural exploration of Japan, home to our sister city.

Saturday, February 16th from 12:00 pm tp 3:00 pm, join the crew for an exploration of Ghana.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate Unit Study: Portraits.

Here's what came of our Character Study Sketch of Calpurnia Tate. You can download the handout right here.

Experimenting with colored pencils and crosshatching techniques.

After chasing triangles around the house and head, Max and I decided it was time to learn some new "techne" (pace Jacques Ellul) with our colored pencils. We started by noticing how color basically "covers" the white or colorless space on a sheet of paper. Usually, when we color with our colored pencils, we cover the space in tightly-scribbled lines which go back and forth.

Crosshatching allows to to vary the depth, hue, and richness of the color by essentially recoloring the same area in a different direction.

Cross hatching uses lines coming from 4 completely different directions. But you can also use just one layer of lines, or 2, which some call 1/4 hatching and 1/2 hatching respectively. Each different kind of cross hatching provides different shaded values and influences how much additional color will penetrate the existing color. 

My tessellated beast.

We decided to use tessellations to create some shapes and figures. Then we sketched our tessellations onto white paper with lead pencils and started using plain old colored pencils to color them in.

For the multi-colored spaces, I used 3/4 hatching and 1/2 hatching more than cross hatching because I wanted a messy scribbled effect- nothing too clean and pristine.

The element of play never left our drawing session; both of us were clearly playing around with the effects of this technique on color and light and the third dimension.

"Fire Flower" by Max

Max really enjoyed "making the colors richer" so he tended to complete his crosshatches and then go around the borders to clean up the lines.

His tessellated worm (though misspelled by yours truly lazy) certainly looked "richer" and more colorful than our past colored pencil play. 

St. John on Patmos: A Bosch study and emulation.

After yesterday's exploration of Hieronymus Bosch, today we took time to focus on just one of Bosch's pieces- "St. John on Patmos". Patmos is an island off the coast of Greece which serves as a longtime home to the Monastery of St. John the Divine. This monastery is a fortified Eastern Orthodox monastery which also goes by the name of the Monastery of St. John the Theologian. During the Renaissance, one of the popular subjects commissioned by religious and wealthy patrons was that of Saint John on Patmos.

Bosch's painting shows the patron saint, John the Evangelist, of the monastery. It is believed that John wrote the book of Revelations while sitting on the island of Patmos. Max used the 30 second look activity to introduce himself to the painting, and then spent a large amount of time trying to decide if "that demon is supposed to be scary or not". Certainly, the demon looked quite friendly and rather duck-like in Max's gouache-painted version.

The temptations of Hieronymus Bosch.

Here is the background visual slideshow I created for Max to present Bosch's uber-dark view of the world- a view quite prominent in the Middle Ages. Of course Max took the darkness in stride- "Poor Hiero, he must have been really sad. I think he didn't spend enough time in treehouses when he was a kid....."

Hieronymus Bosch Printable Profile

The profile can be downloaded and printed (need I even bother to say this is free) and the extension activities at the bottom should get Bosch in and out of your skin before you can say, "Bosch was bummed by the world".

The art of Igor Popov.

Igor Aleksandrovich Popov (1927-1999) was a Soviet artist who passed away a decade after the dream of communism was laid to rest in Russia. Fairly unknown in the West, Popov's art expresses the theme that a true understanding of one's country exists only if one knows his nation's history and if he is deeply aware of such concepts as "parental home" and "native land."

By the end of the1960s, Moscow as a theme had become the painter's major artistic quest. But rather than painting the teeming city he sought the quiet places of Moscow, contemplative environments that fostered meditation. More and more he painted his studio with its ascetic furnishings as a representation of his own spiritual world. Unfortunately, very few of these paintings are available online.

In 1970, Popov was awarded the prestigious Silver Medal from the USSR Academy of Arts for the series of portraits, Fishermen of Galich. Galich is a town in Northern Russia. Igor Popov went to Galich to do sketches together with Vladimir Stozharov. 

Our Yard by Igor Popov, 1964

This is the yard of the apartment house reserved for artists in Bryanskaia Street in Moscow. Popov was keenly aware of social space and how it was used in the Soviet Union. Social planning, much like the current trends in urban development, focused on shared social spaces in which people could interact and cultivate communal ties. The standard design of many Soviet apartment buildings included an inner courtyard with grass, a few trees, several benches, and perhaps some swings for hyperactive children and their exhausted mothers.  Over the course of 24 hours, different generations would make use of the courtyard for different purposes. Our Yard depicts the use of this planned social space in a positive light.

Before Work by Igor Popov, 1966

My favorite painting by Popov is the one above, which also depicts a use of social space on the way to work in the Moscow subway. There is a loneliness that hovers between the passengers, whose newspaper act as defenses against human interaction, reminiscient of the way in which our iPhones stand between myself and my neighbor in the grocery store check-out line.

View from Vorobyovy Gory, Moscow by Igor Popov, 1960's

The kids and I looked at Popov's paintings and discussed them. Then Max wanted to watercolor his own map of Moscow, a "Moscow that I love" map.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. What does Popov seem to say about the relations between city people in his paintings? How does he say this?
2. What colors does Popov use in Before Work and to what effect?
3. How does Popov present Moscow? Why?
4. How does the View from Vorobyovy Gory make you feel? What does Popov communicate as far as feelings are concerned in this painting?
5. How might an artist reveal affection or specific feelings in a still life or landscape painting?
6. How do Popov's paintings ask questions about what humans need to exist and thrive? What answers, if any, does Popov provide?

The tale of Saint George and the Dragon told through paintings.

Saints played a prominent role in medieval Christian devotional practice. The faithful regarded them as protectors, and they petitioned them for all kinds of assistance. The story of Saint George and the Dragon inspired countless pieces of art during the Middle Ages and on through the present day. The Belles Heures, an illuminated manuscript by the Limbourg brothers which we studied yesterday, contains 35 suffrages (texts recited in honor of a particular saint), each illustrated with its own miniature. This is the miniature for St. George and the Dragon.

The chivalric ideals of the later Middle Ages are embodied in the beloved story in which Saint George, the patron of knighthood, saves a princess from a dragon. The Limbourgs rendered the anatomy and movement of George's horse with great fidelity, while the depiction of the wholly imaginary dragon betrays less precision. A few questions that Max and considered while gazing at this painting:

How do the Limbourgs show that Saint George is a saint or a holy man?
What does the castle in the background suggest?
What does the mark on St. George's shield represent? Why did the Limbourgs include it?
What does the dragon resemble?
What can we conclude about dragons in the Middle Ages from this piece? 

In 1470, an Italian artist named Paolo Uccello revealed his exquisite Saint George and the Dragon. Uccello had a special interest in mathematical perspective, and they way in which he uses perspective in this painting creates a strange, magical scene. Notice how he contrasts the patterns of curved shapes on the right of the painting with the pointed shapes on the left. I'd be curious to see if your little people notice that Uccello seems to have left off two of the dragon's feet- unless, of course, he was depicting a dinosaur. 

Point to round and spiky details. Observe the contrast.
How does Uccello use red and white colors to link the princess and George?
What is unusual about Uccello's dragon?
How does Ucello's dragon compare to that of the Limbourg brothers? 
What kind of creature does Uccello's dragon resemble?
How does the princess look in this painting? What is she doing?
How does the princess' role differ in the two paintings?

Chase those butterflies where they lead you
The Legend of Saint George, abstracted from The Golden Legend text
Mar Jiryis and the Dragon, a Palestianian version of the legend 
The Legend of St. George, as recorded by S. Baring Gould
The legend as told in Baden 
St. George Killing the Dragon by Bernat Martorell, c. 1434-1435 (PDF)
St. George and the Dragon by Raphael
St. George and the Uffington White Horse as told in England 
"The Birth of Saint George", a ballade collected by Thomas Percy
"St George and the Dragon", a ballad collected by Thomas Percy 
Elizabeth Kostova fictionalizes St. George as the killer of Vlad Tepes 
Saint George protecting the sheep 
Explore dragon anatomy with online interactive from Animal Planet
St. George's Day coloring pages 
St. George and the Dragon Teacher's Notes for Paolo Uccello's painting (PDF) 
Follow the Piper's opinion on the legend 
St. George and the Dragon Free Unit Study from Homeschool Share 

Illuminations in the 1400s.

Our history venture this morning scrolled back to settle on the art of illuminated manuscripts. It started with some questions that Max asked yesterday about "patrons" in the arts and why they existed. To find an answer to his question offered an opportunity to hop aboard the time machine and share the journey in a slideshow. The information in this slideshow was garnered from the book,  The Art of Medieval Manuscripts by Krystyna Weinstein,  as well as the excellent website called Garden of Praise. 

The Limbourg Brothers Questions (PDF)

ACTIVITY:  Use pencils and watercolor to paint a portrait of the Limbourg brothers as they might have appeared. Before you begin, use a white crayon to write his name on the paper and paint over it in dark paint for a resist effect. Make sure to observe the clothing of the time and include them in a scene that would be popular in this time period.