Would you die
for a bright and wild world
with a child and a pie?
Fletcher’s favorite part of homework lately has been the weekly writing of a poem using spelling worlds. I don’t know what it is about these poems that tickles me so, but I think they are fabulous – and totally Fletcher.
Would a clown talk to your lawn without a sound?
Give him a crown and he will.
Fletcher brought this drawing home to me on Friday. In art class at school they discussed this year’s PTA Reflections theme The Magic of a Moment, and then drew pictures of their own magical moment. Fletcher’s was of the two of us snuggled in bed watching television. And as silly as it may seem, that nightly ritual is a magical moment for me too. Each night after we read and tuck Lola into bed, Fletcher reads on his own for a while and then sneaks into my room for some extra snuggles and a dose of reality tv. We watch The Voice or Survivor and talk, just the two of us. If that’s not magical, I don’t know what is.
Posted in art, little things
The kids are off from school for spring break this week, so yesterday we headed downtown to the SCAD museum for a little looking around. I love that my children are museum kids. I love that they go automatically into the hands behind the back museum stance when looking closely at something. I love that they are open and curious and interested in understanding what they are seeing. And I love it when they have strong reactions to the art they are seeing, as was the case with the new exhibits we encountered yesterday.
The kids always love the video room, though Lola Gray was a oddly fascinated and terrified by Bill Viola’s The Crossing the last time we were there. Now SCAD is exhibiting 3 videos by Sigalit Landau, an Israeli artist who Raymond saw at the 2011 Venice Biennale. The main work showed a pair of boots, heavily crusted with salt from the Dead Sea. The boots were placed on a frozen port in Poland and filmed over the course of a day as they slowly melted the ice and sank from view. Lola was fascinated. We watched the video through 4 times and only convinced her to leave with the promise of lunch.
The second exhibit to elicit strong reaction was by South African artist Jane Alexander, but the reaction here was not so positive. Alexander makes these amazing human/animal hybrid sculptures which she then places into real landscapes and photographs. Both the photos and the actual sculptures were included in the exhibition, and while Fletcher wanted nothing to do with the creatures from the get-go at first Lola thought it was a wonderful game. We would select a photograph, then go in search of the sculptural figure from the image. But after a few minutes, Lo started to walk slower and skirt around a few of the figures. Finally she confessed they were too scary and she wanted to leave. “I can’t stop looking at them.” she whispered.
And that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?
I don’t know that these kids are going to grow up to become artists. I don’t even know that I would want them to be artists if I had a say in the matter (which I obviously do not.) But I do want them to grow up with an appreciation of beauty in all it’s many complex forms. I want them to maintain that sense of fascination and wonder that comes along with viewing incredible things. And once again I am so grateful to SCAD for the opportunity to visit with these works and share them with my children right in my own back yard.
Along with friends Oliver and Michelle, today we ventured out to the Ogeechee River Canal to view an art installation by SCAD Fibers students. Turns out we got to participate in the process as well, and the kids had a ball wrapping trees (and occasionally each other) in twine for the better part of the morning.
It’s not every day you get to attend the opening of a new museum, much less one that opens with spectacular works by Liza Lou, Bill Viola, Kehinde Wiley, and Nick Cave, not to mention stunning fashions by Oscar de la Renta, Diane Von Furstenberg, and Manolo Blahnik. But the opening of the new SCAD Museum of Art offered all these and more.
Fletcher was most enthusiastic about the Nick Cave video, Raymond about the chance to meet Kehinde Wiley, and Lola loved Liza Lou’s intricate bead work and Bill Viola’s video, The Crossing, which simultaneously terrified and thrilled her.
Not bad for a Wednesday night.
Posted in art
Despite the drama of our playdate with Camille this week, there were also moments of fun. To beat the heat, we took an outing to the Jepson Center which was blissfully cool and kept the kids entertained for hours. We should have been doing this all summer!
Back at Christmas, some friends gave Fletcher and Lola Gray a box of Yummy Dough edible play dough. It looked cute, but in the holiday rush it got shuffled to the back of a cabinet and all but forgotten. Until yesterday, that is, when we were looking for a fun Sunday afternoon activity.
At first we were sure we must be doing something wrong! The package comes with four bags of powder, a plastic syringe, and instructions to mix exactly 20ml of water into each of the packs of powder. (I thought the syringe part was very weird, but the kids loved it!)
We did as instructed, and this is what it looked like . . .
But we kept kneading, and kneading, and kneading. And amazingly, it turned into this!
The kids had a great time making their creations. Fletcher made a few “glowing power orbs” of swirled colors as well as a great sword – and then just as quickly as he jumped into the activity he jumped back out and was done. On to the next thing. Lola Gray, however, could have done this all day long.
I know I have said this before but she really amazes me. She works with an intensity that is incredible to watch. Her end product is great, but I’m not suggesting she is a prodigy by any stretch. She just gets this incredible focus that we don’t really see with her anywhere else.
She seems to see things differently than other kids. When I asked why a person she had made only had one eye, she looked at me like I was nuts and told me that the other one was on the other side of his head. Duh. And yesterday when I explained that I wanted to move this great little painting she did because I was afraid in the kitchen it might get water splashed onto it, she told me it was ok if it got splashed because that might make the colors fade and then it would look like a Roman painting – her reference there being to the amazing old frescoes we saw last summer in Rome. What five year old thinks like that?
Anyway, the Yummy Dough was a big hit. We baked our creations in the oven, and while I wasn’t crazy about the taste (I thought our home made play dough cookies tasted much better) the kids loved them and gobbled them all up. Perfect.
Most of the time, if you are looking for my daughter you can find her where ever there are crayons.
Or colored pencils, or pastels or paint or clay or pipe cleaners. The girl is an art machine.
Sometimes she draws with two hands at once . . .
Sometimes we don’t quite know what to make of her. Sometimes I am convinced she is an artist in a way much more intense, much more real than her father and I. That worries me some. But I love it. And I love her and all her incredible, bizarre creations.
Posted in art
This year, the kids are going to participate in the PTA Reflections program, an arts program encouraging students to explore a theme through visual arts, writing, dance and music. This year’s theme is “Together We Can . . . “
Entries are due soon, so the kids and I sat down this afternoon to work on their pieces. They both decided to take photographs, which surprised me a bit since Lola is so pro-painting/drawing. But we had a great time, and I think they came up with some great shots. Now we just have to narrow it down to a single entry for each of them . . . .
Lola’s interpretation was: Together we can “just hang out.” She didn’t skip a beat, just grabbed a few of her favorite stuffies, hung them from the freezer handle, and grabbed the camera.
I think I like this last shot best, but I’m not sure if Lola will agree with me.
Fletcher’s interpretation of the theme was “Together we can explore new places.” He decided that maybe, working together, we could even discover new worlds with aliens on them! That led him to take his Star Wars figures into the back yard to photograph the aliens. He was so serious about it – and he really wants his piece to be picked to move on into the regional competition! I’m not sure where he gets that competitive streak . . .
Lola Gray also “wrote” one of her songs while we were taking photos. It was all about things we can do together, and how when we work together we can go faster and build taller . . . I’m going to try and get her to sing it again tomorrow and will try to write it down so she can enter it as a poem.
Posted in art
Tonight the kids and I read Ballyhoo Bay, a really great little book that we happened to get in a box of Cheerios. Gotta love this free book in a cereal box thing – so much better than a cheap plastic toy! The story is really sweet, about an artist turned activist who saves a beach from being destroyed by a fancy condo development. When we finished the story we were talking about the importance of art and artists and how art can change the world. And Lola Gray looked at me and said “Artists like you, Mommy.”
My daughter called me an artist.
OK, yes, I have a Masters degree and I’m a college professor and I’ve exhibited my work all over the place . . . but this is the first time that my daughter has recognized me as something other than “Mommy.” And it felt nice.
Posted in art, photography
Discover the wonder of nature the UNSETTLEMENT project Playborhood
