THE ART POST

FLASHBACK! April, 2012.  Who is that chubby-cheeked imp?

Well, here it is, folks - I finally got everything organised for a bit of an art post.  I'll get to that in a moment, but first - an update! This week flew by, and despite having the schedule thrown off by Juniper being on school break, it was actually a whole lot of  fun. Most of the days were glorious and sunny, so the kids and I went on almost daily biking adventures (that is, me hauling both kids behind me in a trailer - bonus exercise!), there was a morning that Juniper went into work with Clark (wherein she worked on her own "PhD" while listening to Raffi's Christmas album), and, as I'll describe further on - there was a morning where I brought Juniper with me to open studio at the clay centre and showed her how to use the wheel.  

We finished the week off by having some friends over for brunch (which also necessitated a last-minute frenzied house clean, which was hugely needed), AND - wait for it - Linden successfully slept in his big boy bed!  This was aided by an added bed rail, a significantly reduced amount of snot, and no sleep-over with Juniper.  Progress.

So - on to the art!

1. Juniper's Art Show

Early in April, Juniper's preschool hosted their annual art show, where the whole building is turned into a gallery showcasing the kids' art projects from throughout the year.  Juniper had a large array of pieces up, and it was hugely fun to be able to wander around and find it all displayed so nicely.  I think I took photos of everything, but of course I won't share it all here.  I will, however, put up some of my favourites.

Linden and Juniper waving at the welcome sign

"Alaska's Two Bears"

A panda, of course

Black bird and nest

Sewing

Scary Dragon!

Dragon's Playground (wood sculpture)

"Me and a Bear in a Forest" 

2. Pottery

Originally, I thought I would just add a few pictures of some of the completed pottery pieces that I've done since starting classes at the new Falmouth clay studio in January.  It was actually pretty frustrating at first, coming back to pottery after a 10+ year hiatus, but after I got the feel of it again, it has become a bit of a passion (obsession?).  I love it!  I had forgotten how much I love it.  I'm still learning, of course, and often have sketchy results, but the process is pretty amazing. 

Anyway, when I was trying to decide what Juniper and I should do on our "girls day" on Thursday (Linden still had daycare, but Juniper didn't), it occurred to me that there was an open studio on Thursdays that I was just never able to make because I was always working on my thesis. So we got our things together, and off we went. Juniper LOVED it.  She threw three bowls on the wheel (with a *little* help from me), and also made a couple of snakes and turtle. We were there for over three hours, and totally blew threw lunch by mistake, but we were both having so much fun that we lost track of time.  I hadn't thought to bring a camera (and still didn't have my replacement phone), so my fellow potter, Amber, took some shots and sent them to me.  I'll have to remember to post pictures of the completed bowls whenever they get through their final firing.

Showing Juniper the ropes

Giving it a try on her own

And here are a few of my finished pieces, (mostly caught in use!):

Medium-sized bowl (with some homemade granola)

Large-ish citrus bowl

Canister and Lid, using sgraffito technique for design

Clark's beer stein (a gift promised at Christmas time!)

One of my favourite bowls (and no, it doesn't usually hang out on top of the sewing machine. but it is kind of an interesting shot, non?)

Table-top cutlery holder (or drinking glass) 

3. Linden's Art
Linden does a whole bunch of (pretty much entirely) non-guided drawing and painting at home, but since starting daycare, he has been bringing home some "projects".  I included a few of  them here because I thought his descriptions of them were pretty hilarious.

a)
Tara: Oh, nice!  What is this one, Linden?
Linden: It's some flowers and trees.
Tara: Lovely!
Linden: No, wait. It's clouds. And it's raining.
Tara: Oh, I can see that.
Linden: Ummmm, no.  It is just some balls of white stuff and some other things that I stuck on the paper.

b)
Tara:  How about this one, Linden?
Linden: That's not mine.
Tara: What do you mean?
Linden: That's Juniper's.  Juniper did it.
Tara: Well, I think it is yours. It came from your school, and it has your name on it.
Linden: Nope. It's Juniper's.

c)
Tara: Oh, I can tell what this one is!  An umbrella and some raindrops.
Linden: Nope, it's not an umbrella.
Tara: Ummm - Ok, then - what is it?
Linden: I don't know?
Tara: Really, Linden - I think it's an umbrella.
Linden:  NO! NO it is NOT an umbrella.  It is just - something. A thing. I don't know.

4. Juniper's Art: Intervention and Evolution

Finally, I just had to add a couple of examples of the evolution of Juniper's key concepts when it comes to drawing. I had to add them, because I wanted to give examples of what happens when a well-intentioned mother intervenes in said evolution, rather than letting it take it's course.

Example #1: People.

For a long time now, Juniper has been drawing classic kid-style people: a big head, with arms and legs sticking right out of it (no body or neck). They are all variations on something like these:

"Beautiful rainbow hair" (with cheeks and a chin, if you were wondering about those extra circles)

A portrait of me, if you couldn't tell

Then, one day - because I just couldn't resist - I nudged Juniper a little when she was drawing. "Hey, Juniper", I said in a conversational tone, "have you ever noticed that your people have no bodies?" She looked up at me, and back down at her paper, and exclaimed "you're right!  And no necks, either!"  A lightbulb had gone off.  I patted myself on the back, until she righted the situation by coming up with variations on this theme:

That's right - she went from drawing cute, kiddie-style head/body people to penis people. What had I done?  Luckily, the necks eventually calmed down a bit, and her current portraits are much less phallic:

Clearly, this is Clark

Example #2: Colour

You think that I would have learned my lesson on intervening, but shortly after the neck and body debacle, I stuck my nose in again.  Juniper had just finished her most recent drawing of an osprey (she has been drawing ospreys non stop since they returned to our neck of the woods recently), and I complemented her on it, but then added "just out of curiosity, why make everything one colour? Wouldn't it be more interesting if you used all those other beautiful colours as well?" 

Osprey, with a fish in talons, flying toward nest

Osprey in nest, with a bunch of eggs. Someone climbed that ladder to steal the eggs, but the osprey pecked at him and scared him off.

I had thought that maybe she would make the beak orange, the nest brown, the fish red (or whatever), but she interpreted my suggestion completely differently: 

Rainbow Osprey!

So, the lesson I have learned? I shall stop butting in, and let her make these realizations and discoveries for herself from now on. Really and truly! Also, it is pretty cool how differently we interpret some seemingly basic concepts.

Phew!  That is enough art posting for one day.  I shall leave you with a cow. Check out that udder! Have a great week!