Art Processes

two hundred and eighty

I’ve learned over the years that when inspiration strikes there’s not much I can do other than wait it out.

Today, the leaves that had fallen outside the Post Office caught Catherine’s eye. She carefully collected up red, green and brown leaves into a neat pile. Her plan was to take them home and use them to make a “picture of a rose. You know, the red leaves will be the rose, the green will be the stem and the brown can be the dirt.”

These bursts of inspiration often lead us to having several collections gathering dust in the back of the car, but don’t always lead to a finished art project. I was thinking of those times as I tapped my foot waiting for these leaves to get collected. How many dry, crumbly leaves would I be cleaning out of the car later on?!?

In the end, I am always glad that I wait it out. Today we did see the rose picture finished. Usually, though, we don’t end up with a final product.

With all of this collecting and art (or non art) I am forced to consider which part of the process is the most important, after all? The inspiration? Experimenting with raw materials? The end result? And who should be the one to make that decision?

Faerie and Witch

So many things to love about this photo:

Esme’s look.

The cobbled together costumes from items found in our dress up box.

The ‘basket holding device’ that Catherine fixed up.

and best of all

The hand holding.

Hullabaloo

two hundred and seventy three

Hullabaloo is one of my favorite kid’s games. It is fun to play, keeps the kids active and (and this is the big one) they can play it on their own! These girls (ages 3, 4 and 5) initiated the game, set it up and played all on their own today. Awesome.

We’ve had the game for a few years now and have enjoyed it at home, but recently another mom brought their’s to the playground. The kids loved it and I’ve taken to bringing ours as well. It had never occurred to bring, what I considered an indoor board game, to the park, but it has been the greatest thing.

In addition to the little girls above, today saw rounds with 6 and 7 year old boys and 10 and 11 year old girls all added to the mix. There was tons of laughing, hugging and funky dancing!

I love finding (or being shown) new ways to use the things we already own. Bringing this game outside was like buying a whole new game and the new setting brought about a renewed excitement for it.