art
Painting Copenhagen
A few months ago, the 79 year old Director of Transfusion Services at UC Davis Medical Center gave me the most amazing brown leather mailbag I could ever ask for. This bag was obviously well loved, and I felt completely undeserving. In an effort to not just send another thank you card (she has also made me a scarf and some gloves), I decided I would paint a small scene of Copenhagen instead. So, I did. I still need to decide how I would like to frame it, but I am hoping to give it to her by her 80th birthday on December 9.
artBEAST Studio
Yesterday, we finally had the opportunity to take Kennedy to discover artBEAST. ArtBEAST is a drop-in kids exploration studio which allows children (and parents) the opportunity to explore an open studio and various thematic rooms throughout the building. The open studio is on the second floor and has many tables for the kids to explore, without the constrained formality of a class setting. Birdseed for dumping , play-doh for shaping, moon sand for digging, clay for sculpting, a wall of glass for painting, tables for crafting, and numerous easels for painting allow kids to discover each room freely, with out being confined to the one-task class sessions. In addition to the second floor art studio, the basement level provides opportunities for the exploration of music, drama, and make-believe, while the third level has a space for infants, a room for building, and an area for birthdays etc… The backyard space features a great water table, two large sandboxes, and a bakeshop.
The best part, Kennedy absolutely loves it and all proceeds go back into artBEAST or into the Tubman House, a free, 18-month transitional living program for Sacramento’s homeless, parenting youth.
Zampano Tank | Misha Lulu Shorts | Zara
Painting in the Backyard
This last weekend I decided to revisit painting with Kennedy. A few months back we started painting with watercolor, and that was great, but I should have known that finger painting would have been a total disaster. I think it was one of those situations where I was really excited to have her finger paint, and she was completely against it. The minute the paint hit her fingers she kept saying “dirty” and getting really upset, so we had to throw in the towel. For whatever reason in my brain, this manifested to me believing that she really didn’t like to paint. I was so relieved when I put out a plate of paint in Sunday and she just went for it. I think she asked for me to reload the plate at least four times, and she probably painted every other page in the notepad. It could also be that Wish bear and Tenderheart bear (her muses, of course) helped a little too.
A Portrait of the Kids
Kennedy’s 1st Masterpiece
A few months ago, I started taping a large piece of paper on the coffee table for Kennedy to draw on whenever she pleased. What I found was that if I left a few crayons on the table, she would draw on it intermittently throughout the day. After a few weeks of that, I decided to cover the whole coffee table with one piece of paper, and leave it there for a month and have it framed. We had needed some sort of art in our living room, so this worked out perfectly. The only caveat is that we weren’t going to treat it as something sacred. While she did the drawing part, I still put my feet on it, put my overflowing coffee on it, and generally pretended as though it wasn’t there. Below are the progression photos through each week.
Week 1: I thought she made a surprising amount of progress the first week, with pretty uniform coverage all over.
Week 2: She continued to make progress here and there, but without as much zeal as she has the first week; however, I did manage to spill a few cups of water and some coffee. Go Mom!
Week 3: I think this photo appears like it should be before the last, but that is just because of all of the water and such that we spilled on it. I don’t think I have spilled that much in my whole life.
The end result:
