Friday Art Group Projects

One of the highlights of our summer has been our Friday morning art play group with my friend Suzy and her three kids. We take turns coming up with a project and hosting. In addition to the art projects, the kids play and we fix ourselves a gourmet lunch (PB&J or mac and cheese for the kids :-). Not too shabby. Here is a round up of our projects so far.

Week 1: The gyotaku project I posted about earlier.

Week 2: Glow in the dark art. This project was more or less a bust from a finished product perspective, but the kids had a lot of fun doing it. I totally subscribe to the theory that art should be about process more than product anyway, so it was still a cool activity. The *idea* was to draw a picture with neon crayons and then paint over the entire picture with black tempera paint. In theory, the drawing in crayon would have resisted the black paint and the picture would have "popped" out from the black paint. We just had the wrong materials...turns out real neon wax crayons are pretty hard to find. (A google search turned up just one source...ebay, below.) 

That is what we should have used. Instead we used the Crayola Twistables Neon Crayons, which are much less waxy, closer to colored pencils than true crayons. So they didn't work as well in resisting the tempera paint.

 

Also the washable black tempera paint was more like a navy blue than true black. Even though I am so thankful for the innovations of "washable" art materials at many key junctures (thank you Elliot for choosing washable markers when you decided to draw all over our sheets and comforter!) they often just don't work as well as the real thing. So, this project is one that I would try again with better materials next time.

Week 3: Giant Self Portraits. An oldie but goodie. We traced the kids in "action poses" on butcher paper and then let them paint their life sized self portraits. This was a big hit from the process perspective. We traced the kids and handed out paint and they really took it from there. I was really impressed that Oliver decided to paint green and blue stripes on his shirt, which was what he was wearing that day. Other notable features he chose to highlight were his Sketcher sneakers that his friend Mark insists are skateboarding shoes (Mark's Sketchers may well be skateboarding shoes, Oliver's I picked up at a consignment sale and I think are just regular sneakers. Oliver thinks they are super cool anyway.) He also drew his leg bones, his underwear, and his penis...so, there you have it, all the important parts accounted for.  

Week 4: Eric Carle-inspired poppies. This was a fun lesson as well as a project. The kids are all familiar with author and illustrator Eric Carle's books (The Very Hungry Caterpillar; Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? etc.) Suzy showed them some examples of his work and explained how he creates his signature collage technique. Eric Carle doesn’t just paint his pictures, and he doesn’t just cut out paper to form his pictures, but he does both!  He paints beautiful pieces of paper and then uses those as his “palette” to cut out and create collages for his fantastic illustrations.  (Learn more about his techniques in his own words.)

The kids then used red and green tempera paint on newspaper to create their color palettes. They experimented with creating various textures by rolling spiral pasta, dragging toothpicks, and racing matchbox cars across the wet paint. We put their sheets of newspaper out to dry for an hour while we had lunch. Afterward, the kids traced and cut out petals and leaves for their poppies. Suzy had already cut out cardboard centers for the flowers. They glued the petals to the cardboard centers and then the whole flower to a stick they had each found outside. Lastly, they used a glue stick on the center of the flower and sprinkled poppy seeds on it. Viola! An Eric Carle-inspired poppy. Oliver was exceedingly proud of his creation.

   

Week 5: Faux Batik. This may be my favorite project yet. I came across this technique when I googled "batik for kids." This post on the Artist Woman's blog is two years old but some how is enjoying a minor resurgence around the web right now. In the past few weeks I have seen a bunch of other postings referring back to her original post. (Check out Teacher Tom's Tibetan Prayer Flags his class made...awesome!) Anyway, the Artist Woman link above describes the technique in detail so I won't repeat it. Suffice it to say, you'll need Crayola Gel Glue, acrylic paint and some fabric. We chose pillow cases but then when I saw how huge they were I decided Oliver would do better with a slightly smaller canvas. I cut a smaller square out of the pillow case that I will stuff and sew it back up into a little pillow.

This is a two-day project because the glue has to dry over night before you can paint it. So at first I gave Oliver the fabric square and a bottle of glue and told him to create a design. He is really into rocket ships and fighter jets lately so that is what he chose to draw. Drawing with the glue was a little tricky for him, so for the other side I had him draw his design with a disappearing ink pen (we also could have used a pencil) and then I traced over his drawing with the glue.   

The next day we painted over the fabric with watered-down acrylic paint. I was a little worried that it wasn't going to work because it looked like the paint had been absorbed into the fabric even where the glue was (where it was supposed to resist). But it came out beautifully. I guess the paint gets absorbed by the gel glue which prevents it from soaking into the fabric. The Artist Woman suggests soaking the fabric in a tub of warm water to get the gel glue off but the colors didn't run at all (since it is paint and not dye) so next time I will just throw it in the washing machine.

   

I adore Oliver's batik. I think the stars came out particularly well (he had a lot of fun with those!) and I'd like to point out his depiction of the moon and the planet Saturn (in orange). What a treasure!

Next week we are out of town, but the following week we are going to try making marbleized paper with liquid watercolors and shaving cream. I'll let you know how it goes!

The Power of Prayer

Tonight when Oliver was saying his prayers he asked God to "bless Mommy that she can have power to fight bad guys." So that either means that he thinks of me as some sort of superhero (which, admittedly, would be pretty cool), or... that my superhero skills are in need of divine intervention. Either way I thought it was pretty cute. 

Summer Storms

Around 2:00 am last night there was another bad thunderstorm. It was the worst we've had since "the storm" that brought the tree down on our house. Lighting flashed like klieg lights outside our windows and the thunder that followed shook the whole house. I'll admit, it was pretty scary! As I tried to go back to sleep I thought to myself, any minute we're going to hear crying from the boys' room. But before we heard a peep, Ryan got up and padded down the hall to Oliver's room and snuggled into bed with him.

At that moment, in my half-sleep I was so filled with love for Ryan. He is such a great dad! He knows that Oliver is still so afraid of thunder and lightning and he anticipated that he would need comforting. In the morning Oliver didn't even remember the storm, but I know that's because Ryan was there to make him feel safe. What an awesome dad!!

Model Airplanes

Two weeks ago I woke up with a feeling I dread but one that has become all too familiar during the summer. It was 7:00 am, Ryan had already left for work, and the entire, empty day loomed before me. We had NOTHING on our docket. Nothing to do...nothing that HAD to be done...no errands even that needed to be run.  Having a whole gaping day with nothing on the agenda sends me into a slight panic.

In order to stay sane I really need to get out of the house and see people and DO something.  Being at home all day with the kids is not exactly relaxing for me.  (Are we going to spend the whole day in our pajamas in front of the TV????)  For some people, like those who lead rigorous, busy, relentlessly productive lives a day in PJs in front of the TV probably sounds like not too bad a deal--for me that would be torture. By far the toughest part about being a stay-at-home mom for me at this stage of the game isn't the "work" it's the potential for boredom and grinding monotony.

Anyway, feeling like this day was already headed in a bad direction (at so early an hour!!) I called a friend to organize a playdate. She had a better idea. She told me about this model airplane demonstration at Percy Warner Park. Percy Warner is this huge park complex about 5 minutes from our house. They have miles of hiking and biking trails, an amazing Nature Center, a golf course, an equestrian center, but who knew they also had a model airplane strip?! We packed up a picnic and joined them. IT WAS AWESOME! It turned out to be one of our best summer activities. The boys were absolutely transfixed by the model airplanes. They did amazing stunts like barrel rolls and flips and flew fast upside-down. For the finale one of the biggest planes did a candy drop over the runway and all the kids ran out and grabbed candy.

When Ryan came home from work we went to the playground and flew paper airplanes until it was dark. Ryan is a crack paper-airplane builder and those planes glided on air currents like nothing I've seen before. The boys had a blast and then once it was officially dark we went to this cute little frozen yogurt place in Belle Meade called CeCe's. It was delicious and I can't wait to go back.

So this day that looked from the outset like it would be a total wash turned out to be one of our best summer days yet!

 

Ollie & Elliot at Abby's Wedding

What handsome fellas!!

Again, these pictures are from my very talented friend Dante Williams. You can check out all his work at www.dantewilliams.com

Hilarious, just look at that scowl.  I wish he hadn't been so nervous and took that hand out of his mouth for one second!!

 

We had to wake Elliot up from his nap to get him ready for the ceremony. He does NOT like being woken up! He was pretty spaced out for a while.

 

These pictures totally capture my kids. Elliot is fascinated by the world around him, checking out the band, running around, seeing what else there is to explore.  Oliver is giving himself an ulcer worrying that Elliot is going to get into trouble.

Coming out of Hibernation

I feel like I am finally coming out of the fog that had consumed me for most of the past 7 weeks. Just a few days before the flood back in May we found out that I am pregnant. Great news, but it made our sudden relocation even more challenging. The first trimester is just pretty miserable. All I wanted to do was sleep and not think about food. I had no energy, and honestly even the smallest task seemed insurmountable.

So, it was really nice to come home from Abby and Adam's wedding in New York and discover that I didn't need to nap EVERY day (just once or twice since we've been back!) and that unstacking the dishwasher or planning something fun to do with the kids was not completely out of the realm of possibility.

Before the storm (and before I got pregnant) I had talked to my friend Suzy about doing a weekly summer art play group with our kids. I didn't think it would every happen, but we finally got that going last week. It was AWESOME!!! We taught the kids about gyotaku, the Japanese art of fish printing. This was how Japanese fishermen would record an especially large or beautiful catch. Traditionally Japanese fishermen would use ink but we used tempera paint.

We started the lesson by going to K&S World Market, the local Asian grocery. They had all kinds of fish, on ice and in tanks. We saw octopus and squid as well as sardines and red snapper. Suzy's kids were particularly fascinated by all the things you could buy in the meat department (chicken feet, duck heads, cow tongues and pig ovaries to name a few). We took our time looking at all the interesting things that we don't usually see in our grocery store. We let the kids pick out a fruit nectar to have as a treat with lunch. For lunch back at the house we picked up some delicious dumplings and noodles.

There was a minor shoving "altercation" in the frozen food isle which resulted in a bloody lip for Elliot. Tears were shed and the store manager brought over popsicles for all the kids. That was very kind of him and exactly what Elliot needed both to distract him and keep down the swelling from his fat lip.

We choose a fish based on it's interesting scales and fins and modest price tag (I think it was $1.50). Suzy gave a great and very detailed lesson on fish anatomy and then we got down to fish printing. We cleaned the fish with dish soap and dried it carefully and then painted it. The kids pressed newspaper down on the painted fish to get the impression. The kids really enjoyed it, especially the rainbow fish at the end when everyone added their favorite colors. I don't have a picture of Oliver's rainbow fish print but it's pretty cool.

Suzy is so smart and is an incredible teacher. I am so glad to be collaborating with her on this. I really am looking forward to this Friday's activity. She is planning this one so I'm not sure what it is yet.

Another activity we did recently was a science project involving making a litmus test from cabbage water. This was a lot of fun namely because it involved pouring and mixing. We cooked up a purple cabbage (you can also just grate a raw cabbage, but this seemed a bit easier) and used the cabbage water to test the pH of things we could find around the house. Orange juice and rice vinegar (acids) turned the purple water pink, baking soda (alkaline) turned it blue. Crabtree & Evelyn hand soap inexplicably turned it green and baking powder turned it milky light blue. Pretty neat. Shaving cream didn't do much and balsamic vinegar turned it brown (which I think was a result of it's strong color not it's effect on the cabbage water). We still have some cabbage water left over so we may try some more experiments another day.

Abby and Adam's Wedding

http://dantewilliamsphotography.blogspot.com/2010/06/abby-adam.html

Ok, I just got so excited when I noticed that their professional photographer, Dante Williams, put some pictures from the wedding up on his blog. Check out that link. They are awesome. Although, I must say, curiously lacking in the Oliver and Elliot department (really, I hope that will be rectified soon, they looked so cute! how could he have missed that?!?!) Dante was a good friend of mine from highschool. It was fun to see him at the wedding. I hadn't seen him since freshman year in college.

Anyway, somehow I don't have any pictures of the wedding weekend myself. Ryan and I were both in the wedding so we were more than a little busy but I so wish I could illustrate this post with some pictures. If anyone has photos, please, please send them to me!!

Abby and Adam got married on Saturday, June 5. The wedding weekend got kicked off in grand style with a backyard barbecue at their house. Ryan was the grillmaster extraordinaire. We had all sorts of kebabs and our favorite grilled corn with honey-chipotle butter. YUM! It was just the Winkel/Ford parents and siblings, plus bridesmaids and groomsmen and their significant others but it was exactly the right mix of people to be fun and high energy but also totally relaxing. We brought our favorite Raleigh babysitter, Beth, up for the wedding. She very ably kept the kids entertained riding trikes and jumping on beds downstairs once the party kicked into high gear (actually they were evidently in a much higher gear than any of us given all the soda and candy they were sneaking!!)

The next day my mother's friends hosted a girl's luncheon for Abby at the Carriage House on the Upper East Side. My mom has the most amazing group of friends from her college days. These women have known each other since they were 18 and are just the most interesting, beautiful, smart, loyal and caring group of women. I adore them. They are the reason I chose to go to a women's college. I saw these enduring friendships that started for my mom at Manhattanville and I wanted that, too. In addition to "Les Girls", they invited two of my aunts and my dear godmother, Ann Woodward, who, having only known my mom since grad school (1973) was a relative newbie!! Anyway, the lunch was great, filled with good food and conversation and tear-jerking toasts.

Friday night was the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner at the Maritime Hotel. The dinner was held in their rooftop terrace. It was so 1960s-South Pacific-retro-funky. We had a lovely dinner and then danced the night away once the DJ started spinning. My Brennan cousins really know how to party and totally whooped it up. We finally went home at 11:00 but I suspect that they shut that place down.

Saturday morning Abby and I took a jaunt to Chelsea Market to procure provisions for a bridesmaid's lunch that I was supposed to host at her house. I had some rather conventional ideas about what we would serve but Abby came up with a much better option in the form of delicious antipasto and other savory delights from the Italian market. We had a lunch with the bridesmaids and a few other of Abby's friends from college/camp/medical school and then it was a mad dash to get hair and make-up done and into our dresses before 4:00. Adam and the groomsmen were over at the Maritime Hotel getting ready in the swanky honeymoon suite.

The wedding was at St. Jospeh's church in the Village. Abby wanted to walk (so as not to wrinkle her dress) but it was so HOT. Luckily, just as we were leaving her house, we caught up with one of the buses they had rented to take everyone from the church to the reception in Brooklyn, so we were able to hop right on! It was pure serendipity.

The wedding ceremony itself was beautiful and blessedly short. Oliver did a great job as ring bearer (even though he had one hand stuffed in his mouth the entire time down the isle...it was better than at the rehearsal when that hand was down his pants!) My favorite memory is of my mom smiling and clapping for the newlywed couple as they walked back down the isle after the ceremony. She looked so pretty and had this look of pure, exuberant joy on her face.

After the ceremony we boarded the double-decker buses and headed to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden for the reception. They had cocktails out in the garden by the reflecting pond and dinner and dancing in the conservatory. It could not have been more perfect (I know, I feel like I am gushing and being completely hyperbolic, but it is true!) It was just an amazing, beautiful, completely happy occasion. Ryan and I have this really wonderful memory of leaving our wedding reception just on cloud 9, thinking that it was just the most perfect, magical night. We feel the same way about Abby and Adam's wedding. It just seemed to glow from within. We know they felt it, too...can't you tell from their smiles!?