Not So Much Art, But....

OK This is just fun.  We finally had a lazy Sunday to relax.  Jermaine fans can finally get a glimpse at his mad dance skills.

Je t'aime Collage

We've been using a new tool in our home school sessions.  It's a website called Brain Pop Jr.  There are lots of creative activities, games and videos that we can use to better explain things.  They have a great social collection as well as art.  We were reading about Ezra Jack Keats since his books are among Gabriella's favorites.  She was then drawn to the idea of collaging as he often did in his illustrations.  This opened up a whole new world of possibilities!

We took a walk to the Menil Museum which is close to our Houston home to see the Henry Darger that had recently been on display.  She had noticed elements of collage in the 'Realms of the Unreal' piece previously.  Sadly, they had removed the piece for something new, but we found plenty of other not-so-common pieces by little known artists that showed GREAT uses of collage!

On the way home we collected flowers and leaves for an idea she had for her very own collage.  After several different attempts, she decided to make her first collage about her favorite subject, Maui the Holland Lop Bunny.  She took about a dozen photos of him, had them printed and arranged them the way she chose on a piece of sturdy pressboard.  Then she added some of the flowers with glue (after having them pressed over night) and added floral stickers wherever she felt moved.  A personal message at the top and Voi-La! Se Magnifique!  Collage!

Her next collage is supposed to be of us as a family and she has already taken some great photos of her and  Jermaine.  Hee hee.  I hope he'll let me post it, cause it's pretty funny :D

Rothko Chapel

Today we visited Rothko Chapel in Houston, TX.  This being my first time at visiting this unique location, Jermaine had to explain it all to me.  Apparently Mark Rothko's giant paintings of solid colors were meant to stir emotion in such a touching way, that they make a perfect backdrop for spiritual or inner meditation. A quote I really appreciated from Wikipedia that I think applies to the spirit of my blog:

 "According to Rothko, the work of modernists, influenced by primitive art, could be compared to that of children in that "child art transforms itself into primitivism, which is only the child producing a mimicry of himself."

After minutes of silence, Jermaine leaned towards me and whispered a little too loud, "I guess this could be a little boring for an 8-year old, huh?."  To which she confidently replied, "No, not really."  I love our kid.  

Piano Impatience

Often when it's time to practice piano, Gabriella will get bored with the selection and make up something of her own.  Twice her own pieces were performed at her recital.  They always start out simple, and I find them inspiring.  We may have to add lyrics to this one.  Hmmm......

Writing in the Rain

         For me, and many I know, writing has always been a healthy catharsis to cope with whatever stresses come in life.  Of course we want this for our artistic kids right?  We want her to start now with a healthy way of expressing her thoughts and feelings when they may not be so easy to vocalize.  (Fingers crossed that when the teenage years hit this will help ease the pain for us all...)

         We all know that writing needs inspiration.   What better inspiration than a rainy spring day.   Here in a house full of windows to watch it drizzle sometimes and then pour while the birds scatter from raindrops and thunder.  Here inside where the music echoes throughout and there are so many nooks and crannies to discover.

        So her assignment was - write.  Fact or fiction.  Just write about this rainy day.  Of course that is daunting when you are eight, so after getting the story started on a topic she loves, Arrietty of the Borrowers.  I thought this would be the ticket.  She seemed so excited about writing this since I know she loves the book and is excited about going to see the Studio Ghibli film.   Still, she gets frustrated.  Lightbulb!  'Why don't you go and hide anywhere in the house?!  Don't tell me where you are, you just have to be INSIDE and write for the next 15 minutes.'  Excitement ensued!  I had a winner!  Three minutes later she returns with again, writers frustration.  She likes no hiding space and fears the page, but she is showing it with irritation at the project as a whole.

      So I have resorted to the most unartistic thing I can think of.  Forcing her to sit at a desk with no music and just write ANYTHING for the next 15 minutes.  This is what she came up with....

From the Fridge - Part One

From the Fridge is going to be a new part of my blog.  Once in a while I will show you something old or new that is featured for various reasons.  I got this idea, because visitors to our home often languish here.  There is rarely empty space and the things that fill it make us happy. :)  It's just a peek at a time.  Feel free to play  'Where's Waldo' for photos of Jermaine......  

These pieces are appropriate to share this week since they are directly related to Gabriella's children's lecture on Klimt.  She seldom likes to 'color' as in coloring in someone else's work (not even coloring books when she was really little) but these were a part of the Met for the Kids and memorable - so they made the cut.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Above - Gabriella is front and center for a children's lecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, our absolute favorite place to visit.  There is always something you haven't seen, or haven't seen enough. Here they learned about Gustav Klimt and his use of color and symbolism. 

Below - After the lecture, she was drawn to the little red-headed girl who loved Degas.  Together they sprawled across the floor of one of the world's largest art museums and drew like kids do.

Love - Warhol Style  <3 <3 <3

Late Nights

Sent: Jan 27, 2012 12:37 AM

Late night creations... We have a habit of going with our creativity when it flows.  Right about now Mom and Dad are deep into projects, so when little one can't sleep, she starts a project too.

Musical Meltdown

     We all know that music is art.  This house is never quiet.  Even while doing school activities Gabriella will listen to Daft Punk, Flaming Lips, Erik Satie, then - sigh- Justin Bieber.  As long as there is music flowing in our home, it feels like home.
 
     As a parent I see the benefits in the lives of adults have who have developed their musical talent.  Education with music creates a balance and really does benefit in the matter of mathematics.  It may sound like voodoo, but we've seen a difference in her mathematical understanding since she has taken up piano.  We fully intend for her to continue to learn an instrument - any instrument she wants - throughout her education.

     So when she was four-years-old she walked up to a septuagenarian on a piano and stood next to her as she played.  The kind lady stopped, smiled and told Gabriella that she began to learn piano when she was four-years-old.  Gabriella just looked in awe and asked to touch the piano.  Since then she's been learning and creating little pieces like the eerie one she played today called "Dark Night." Obviously, I want to encourage this love.  The challenge I'm finding is not pushing it.  I don't want to make her snap and suddenly hate lessons like so many others do.  Like I  did as a teenager.

     Yesterday came close.  She had a typical young girl meltdown over something completely unrelated right at the time for her piano lessons.  We ended up having an emotional heart to heart in the car about how the one issue was not related to the other.  It was heartbreaking to look in those big eyes welled with tears as she said, "You promised if it wasn't fun anymore I wouldn't have to do it.  And it's not fun."  Talk about drama.  I promised her she could switch to another instrument if she likes (she's had an inkling toward drums, and that would be so cool) but we soon realized that it wasn't really about the piano at all.  She was upset about something else entirely and associating it with piano because of the timing.  Yikes.  Crisis averted this time, but I'm looking for new ways to excite her about music.  Not just to listen, but to play!

Family Photo

Once in a while, Gabriella surprises us with little gems like this.  This kind of touching display not only makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but re-enforces our belief that we have made the right decisions for our little unit.  This is us in our happy little cocoon.

I don't know what inspired it, but she often chooses to draw her people with closed eyes to show emotion.  Needless to say, I like it.

The Art of the Child

     What does that mean, "The Art of the Child"?  Well, while I do intend to share some of the actual art composed by my child, that is not the purpose of this blog.  My name is Jen and I am a mother, an actor, a writer, and wife to a popular Rock n' Roll poster artist.  My very 'daily bread' is provided by art. Our lives are pretty simple, but not exactly... traditional, and we like it that way.  Our daughter is now eight years old and I'm finding so much delight in how she responds to the world around her, especially all forms of artistic expression!
 
     So this blog will explore just that, Life Raising an Artistic Child.  I am loving this journey and intend to share with you past, present and future planned activities with our future DaVinci.  Oh yes, I chose DaVinci for a reason!  She doesn't have just one natural talent.  I believe we all start out with full potential.  We intend to help her develop all of her interested talents to the extent she desires so she will be incredibly well rounded for her venture into the big wide world.  We home school her so a lot of my posts will involve our unconventional schedule (see we are already - not traditional), and this forum allows us to provide her a whole world of opportunities in art.  I fully intend to make our explorations translatable and easy to find on the blog for anyone who would like to share in our adventures.  

     To keep true to my promise, I'd like to share a recent experience with you that I found particularly fascinating.  This spurred me on to pay real attention to what avenues our gal might want to explore for herself more fully.  As I mentioned, my husband is a renowned poster artist  which lends to us often being invited to some pretty amazing places.  One of the most recent events that was pretty large was the PJ20 (Pearl Jam 20th Anniversary Show) in East Troy, MI not far from Chicago.  (Side Note:  Great Show)  My husband was asked to make available his prints at the show and before long he had a very long line in front of his booth of fans pilfering his collection for prizes to take home.  Our little girl was patiently sitting to the side, waiting for one us to be available to walk her around the grounds yet again.   She is a Strokes fan and was actually quite mortified at an encounter we had with Julian Casablancas in which her 'humiliating mother' complimented his day-glow sneakers. "Mom don't SPEAK to him!"  ;D  (Click here if you don't have a clue who I am talking about!)  So here she resided sitting in a chair passing the time, and that is when the something beautiful happened.

    Gabriella (our little one) began to do something not so extra-ordinary for her, she drew.  And drew.  And drew.  She drew very creative and simplistic scenes of superheroes flying and dogs with cats as pals and manga-style fairies hugging.  OK, so the latter was a little more complicated, but gives you an impression of the kinds of art to which she is already drawn.  Gabriella noticed how everyone was asking her Daddy to doodle on their posters things that seemed as simple to her as what she was drawing.  So she began to lay her art out along the wall and on the floor in front of her for people to see.  In seconds people were inquiring, "What's that little girl?" and "Ooh I like that one, did you draw it?"  Then she had another pivotal moment.  A fan, actually gave her $5 for one of her pictures!  That was it.  The ball was rolling.  Before long people were paying her all kinds of amounts from $1 to $20 just for one drawing and asking her to sign them.  It was remarkable!  By the end of the night she proudly marched up to her Dad and told him she made $85 with her drawings.  He was floored, but not totally surprised.  We have an artist, but may also have a hustler...


     So stick with me!  I will post pretty regularly about our adventures and experimentations with art and exploration.  If you have comments, or suggestions for things we might like to try - please post here. I want this to be a fun ride for all of us!