Art is Messy

It is. In fact, sometimes it is very messy, and it is easy to use that messy-ness as an excuse to avoid playing with art supplies.

First you have to drag out all the supplies, then you spend time doing the project, and then, just when you think you are done, the adorable little artists lift their finished masterpiece off of the table and reveal this:

"Gah!!!" Oops, I mean, "Nice work honey. Now would you please hang up your project and then bring me the box for the pastels, and the broom, and a hot soapy rag, and ... oh, no, your shirt is a mess, could you get a new one ... no, wait, please don't touch the walls, quick run to the bathroom and wash up and then and then help your sister ... then come back here and hopefully we can get all of this cleaned up before Daddy gets home from work."

When my kids were tiny I used to tape their art paper directly to the wall of our shower, strip them down and let them make all of their messes right there. Then I could wash them and the tub all at the same time. Unfortunately, they have grown out of that stage, but I still want them to have the freedom to create messes, despite my general loathing of the clean-up process.

So I created a group. This is my new solution to everything. If I can't be accountable to do it alone, I drag other unsuspecting parents into my plight with me. We meet every month, study an artist, create a mess (that isn't in my house) and they all stay to help me clean it up before we leave. Sketch has been a God-send this year.

Ha, take that messy art projects!

Pip-squeak Photographers

I realized recently that my kids can take photos that I can't. They look at the world from a different angle (quite literally) and people just act differently when a kid points the camera at them rather than an adult.

Sometimes the results are beautiful, like this photo that my son took a few years ago. People's faces brighten when they are looking at a child. Gone is the "CHEESE-I'm-staring-at-a-camera-please-let-me-out-of-here" look. Instead you get this:

Sometimes the photos are intriguing. This one is of a tree root I have stepped over at least two thousand times. My daughter decided it was the home of a tiny imaginary family.

And sometimes they are just plain fun (okay, bizarre would work in this sentence too). Check out the hilarious perspective. :o) Big toe or head, which one is bigger?

So I'm learning. I vow to hand over the camera more often. Maybe there will even be photographic proof that I attend our family vacations and holiday events. *gasp!*

Making Medieval Swords

While getting together for our "The Door in the Wall" book group this week, we made the easiest, cheapest toy. Foam swords!

We took pool noodles and cut them using a large kitchen knife into quarters (first lengthwise and again widthwise). Then each long piece was cut into a point at one end. Another pool noodle was cut into 2 inch circles. We pushed the blunt end of the first piece through the circle piece. That's it. Two pool noodles easily made 6 swords.

We have been playing with these things for days now, and not one has broken, poked an eye out, or cut off an offender's head.

Broken Crayons

We love crayons. The bright colors, the smell of the wax when you open a new box. They are so simple, and so fun! We color with them, like they are designed for, but we do lots of other things too. Remember the old shaved-crayon-ironed-onto-waxpaper craft? How about crayon candles or leaf rubbings?

Then there is crayon paper peeling - this is a huge activity in our house. I will come downstairs to find the entire floor beneath our table littered with tiny flecks of colored paper, and only one page partly colored in.

By the way - yes, my kids are wearing white fabric scraps in that photo - they were pretending to be "Romans soldiers who fight the bad guys" I would explain it more, but I never did get the whole story.

Like every other house containing young kids, our house has hundreds, okay, maybe hundreds of thousands of broken crayons. We are creative - we love to play with our art supplies - but crayons break, that is just part of the reality of life.

There are dozens of websites out there telling you the exact procedure for reusing crayons. Simple. Fun. Recycling.

I thought we were pretty creative with our old crayons . . . And then I saw the work of Herb Williams:

Kinda' puts the tool of preschoolers in a whole new light doesn't it.

Childhood Flashback

Shrinkydinks!!!  Remember these?  They are funny plastic sheets that you can color on and then bake in the oven so that they shrink and harden.  

My sisters and I used to LOVE making shrinkydinks when we were little.  We would work contentedly with our special colored pencils, faithfully cut around each and every detail of our smurf or unicorn or whatever, and then sit directly in front of the oven while Mom baked them for us.  

Such a simple little craft - but SO MUCH FUN!

My husband, who I often tease for saving every shred and scrap for sentimental reasons, saved a box of shrinkydinks for the past 25+ years, knowing that they would one day be fun for his own little kids to play with.  Well, I hate to admit it, but he was right.  Not only was it fun to do such a fun and nostalgic craft with the kids, it was fun to see their reaction to coloring in drawings created by their daddy when he was a boy.  

We still have some left if you want to come and sit in front of our oven with us!

Photographic feet

 My three year old loves to use our camera.  (Thank goodness for digital photography!)  He clicks happily away enjoying acting like one of the adults and seeing instant results from his favorite task - button pushing.  It is sweet to watch him take himself so seriously as he experiments with the different settings and camera angles.   I'm sure he doesn't realize it, but he has taken on a funny personal project that keeps me curious as I wait to see how long he will stick with it.  This is his photographic study:  Each time he takes my camera he always spends at least a few minutes examining his feet, arranging them "just so," and then photographing them.  Here are a few of his masterpieces.  

Sometimes he will take pictures of other funny subjects too, but none with such passion as his own feet.  My favorite are:

• close-ups of his sister's nose
• the underside of chairs, tables etc.
• the backsides of people we don't know 
• car and truck wheels 
• other peoples feet

Then every once in a while there is a gem like this that appears - I would never think to take a photo of his shadow, but I am SO glad that he did.  

In his shadow you can't tell just how little he is.  That's the funny thing about shadows, they shorten and stretch, and remove all distinguishing characteristics.  It makes me wonder just what he will look like as he gets older. What will he enjoy doing?  Who will he become?

My Shadow

By Robert Lewis Stevenson

From Child's Garden of Verses

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes goes so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close behind me, he's a coward you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

Creativity

Art is messy.  It is supposed to be that way.  Creativity takes trial and error, time, patience, and lots of experimentation, but in all reality, art with kids can be VERY messy. This makes me honestly want to skip it entirely. I'm all for the tidy coloring page and crayons, but breaking out the glitter or ink pads can make me queasy.

On the other hand, my kids ADORE art of all kinds. They happily draw trees and flowers each time we go for a nature walk, color while we drive to and from our co-op classes, and giggle contentedly when creating masterpieces of clay or fingerpaints, so I know that it is a great way to keep them happy and creative.  Handing them a pile of art supplies with no instructions and waiting to see what they do with it is always a great way to spend an afternoon - it is just the clean-up that I dread.

In order to keep my desire for orderliness and the kids' desire for general chaos in balance, I have gotten a little creative myself and re-purposed our downstairs bathroom into their personal art studio. Yup, that's right, it is kinda' embarrassing to admit, but my kids do their messiest art projects in the tub. We tape their paper right on the wall, and they stand on a non-slip mat while they paint away, smear glue, and sprinkle glitter 'til their heart's content, and when they are all done, I just pull their creations off the wall and they get the fun of washing all of the "oops" that didn't make it to the paper down the drain.  Then they are ready for a quick bath and the house and kids are all back in order.   

Sometimes the silliest of solutions are the best.

By the way, in case you can't tell, the kids tell me that the first picture is a "map of the round world." (I can't take credit for initiating this project, but I'm sure it was inspired by our recent study of the Vikings and Columbus as part of our Early American History unit.)  The second is my daughter's experimentation with color mixing.  "Red and yellow - that's orange!"