paint cut paste

in my practice as an art therapist, one area of emphasis is on supporting expectant and new mommas. one of the best pieces of my training in art as ritual during this rite of passage was not only my graduate studies or my own pregnancy/momming experience, but also the pregnancies of my dearest art therapist friends with whom i graduated. as you’ve seen before on my blog, to mark this time as sacred, we hold mother’s blessing ceremonies for one another.

me with kindred spirits from my art therapy program -- momma-to-be in the center. sept 2009.

i’ve shared a bit about one of the art rituals from my own blessing ceremony these friends held for me, and i’ll blog more about it another time…  but today i wanted to share a beautiful and artful blessing idea from one of my dearest friend’s blessing in autumn of 2009, where a group of women gathered (her closest friends and family) to celebrate the new life on the way.

an art table is as essential as the food table at these gatherings - food for the soul!

one of my fellow art therapist friends led the group in a guided visualization about what they wished for the expectant family. she asked us all to notice the images that came to us — the setting, colors, lines, shapes, textures. each person in attendance was then given a piece of watercolor paper, a pallette of watercolor paints, and a selection of brushes. while beautiful music played, each person found a spot in the room where they could work on their piece.

everyone was assured that no artistic expertise or experience was necessary. each of us was asked to just paint the colors and impressions we had, regardless of whether it is abstract or the image of something. we also were asked not to become attached to the image, as it would be torn up to create a larger piece later. (this was very freeing for most of those who might not have been as comfortable making art.)

big-sister-to-be (age 2 here) even got in on the action, as her image is a key piece in the energy of the final product.

after the art was completed, we sat in a circle with the mom-to-be in the middle, and we each told her what we wished for her. the dad-to-be had created a piece on his own, in advance, which we showed to the expectant mom at the blessing. it was so fascinating that their pieces had such resonance!

mom's art on left; dad's art on right

the next day, the five of us you see pictured up there gathered around a kitchen table for tea, coffee, and paper weaving.

we tore the watercolor pages into strips that were one inch wide, along the longer side of the watercolor paper. we prefer tearing the pages along a ruler to cutting them — this way you get that lovely raw edge.

we chose strips from each of the paintings that were most appealing to the mom-to-be, making sure each person’s art was represented in the final piece.

the five of us wove the strips together, trying different configurations out, and eventually arriving at the final piece.

two months after this blessing ceremony, my friend welcomed her second child, a beautiful boy, into her family (who is now almost two!) this awesome piece of art, holding all of the love and supportive energy of his family, is hanging above his bed.

it’s back-to-school time again! this time of year brings so much nostalgia for me. while N doesn’t start kindergarten until after labor day, i realize that many are starting this week and next, so i wanted to share this simple little idea with you all for that sweet first day of school photo op.

my first day of kindergarten back in the day, age 4.5 (nope, my mom couldn't get me outta terry cloth clothing)

a couple weeks ago, the kind folks at decoart sent us a box of awesome free art supplies(!!!)

among other wonderful things (all of which i will share in the coming weeks with a giveaway at the end) were two bottles of chalkboard paint. score! we decided to create a first day of school sign. we found a really smooth, hard particle board (like the kind you’d see on standard clipboards) in our stash, and decided to paint it with the chalkboard paint. first we applied one layer horizontally to the board and let it dry for an hour.

then we applied another layer vertically to the board and let it sit for 24 hours. on the bottle, it says to dust lightly with chalk to condition the board, and then clean with water.

dusted

N and i thought it’d be fun to create a frame for the board out of pencils. i hot glued them around the edge of the board (breaking and sharpening where necessary to get the proper measurements.)

N wrote “kindergarten 2011″ on the board to show the year of school she is heading into. (do not adjust your screens – it is not 5011 and we are not in the future. 2s and 5s can be confusing to a 4 year old. )

she practiced her first day of school pose that we’ll do in a couple of weeks. this is not only a fun chalkboard to play school with, it would also be a neat tradition to break out the same chalkboard each year for the quintessential first day of school photo.

it’s been a while since we’ve formally done still-life art, and given N’s recent interest in drawing what she sees, as she sees it, i thought we’d expand this into a different medium: watercolors.

on a chilly august morning (yep, we have those here in the bay area) we went outside after breakfast and found a lovely latana flower in the yard. the pink, orange, and yellow little blooms just remind me of faerie magic – such sweet flowers! we brought our watercolor paints (and watercolor pencils – i heart these!) outside, along with our hoodies, and settled into paint.

the difference here is that i actually painted my own art alongside N this time. i generally don’t make art with her because i am hoping that all of her marks are authentic and uninfluenced. when i do, i make my marks in her “handwriting” so to speak, as i discuss in this article. i’ve never shown her how to draw any of the things she draws. this time though, N set the ground rules: “we can’t look at each others’ paintings until they’re all finished!” and lemme tell ya – she was serious about this! i had to pretend i was photographing just the actual vase to take some of these pictures.

we spent the time quietly talking, discussing how we could each see different subtle colors in each tiny flower. we talked about she could see things from her angle that i couldn’t see from mine, so our paintings would ultimately look different.

here is N’s lovely creation — she so enjoyed using the watercolor pencils before she painted to outline her image, and then she loved how “chalky” they felt after she applied them to the wet paint to add in details at the end.

we sat our paintings up behind the actual vase of flowers during lunch time and continued to discuss (while rotating the vase) who could see which flowers from where we were sitting. N’s piece now resides on her art gallery wall in her bedroom., though i will be finding a frame for this masterpiece soon!

do you create art alongside your child(ren)?

in our home, we like to have some time of day, at least once, where we light a candle together. usually this is a ritual around dinner time and sometimes as a special treat at N’s bedtime when we tell stories by candlelight in her bedroom. when i recently spotted this cool glass paint, i had to pick some up so we could personalize our candles even more by upcycling some clear jars.

we set up shop out on the picnic table in the backyard with our supplies and some mason jars and baby food jars. (yes, we bought baby food specifically for the jars. N didn’t touch the stuff as a baby, as i made her food, but i figured we could use the bananas in some banana pancakes, right?)

N had such a good time painting on the glass…

after they were all painted, we set them out to dry for 48 hours (per instructions on the paint.)

(still haven't made anything from our holey shells from vacay)

then we baked them in the oven (also per paint instructions) on 325 for 30 minutes, allowing them to heat up and cool down with the oven on either side of that baking time. this allows the paint to adhere to the glass – love the alchemy!

after they had cooled, the jars were all shiny and ready for tealights and votive candles. love these little ones for our back patio!

N chose to put the large mason jar she painted on her nightstand for story time at night. magical!

she chose to put the “sunrise-sunset jar” on which we collaborated on her bedroom shelf.

more fun with biocolor courtesy of N’s preschool teacher! (okay, now i need to get some of this stuff!) this week N and her friends made awesomely colorful window decals in her summer camp.

first, the kids squirted the biocolor onto nonstick aluminum foil. N stuck with the concentric circle pattern (like the comet painting) but some kids applied it in other designs.

the kids ran forks and toothpicks through it to make radial burst patterns and swirls like these you see below.

then they allowed the biocolor paint to dry on the foil. her teacher told me it dried very quickly when out in the sun.

(front shown here)

after they was completely dry, they peeled the dried paint off the foil carefully to reveal these very cool plasticky forms.

(backs shown here)

they can be stuck repeatedly to glass windows, but if they are heavy, the window may require a little misting of water before application to keep them on. the lighter colors (and parts with thin application) are translucent, allowing the sun to shine through the color. here are ours from the inside…

from the outside you can see the original circles N drew.

dear biocolor paint company: wanna send me some samples to review? i’ve got lots more ideas for this stuff, and discount school supply offers lots of biocolor ideas here too!

this week N is attending a summer camp at her preschool with a space theme. when i dropped her off on monday, she sat right down at a table to paint a comet. i found this very cool (props to the teacher for this blog!) so i whipped out my iphone to take some photos of the process.

on the table were small squirt bottles of biocolor paint, plastic scrapers (you could use recycled cardboard from a cereal box instead,) and paper. the kids were asked to squirt the paint out onto the paper into a concentric circle pattern.

then using the plastic scraper, the kids scraped the paint to one side.

the biocolor paint stains the page where it was in the circle and as stains the path it took when traveling along the page when scraped. it stains everything else, too – wear a smock! pressing harder yields clearer results, like the one on the right in the photo below. it reminded me of how liquid watercolors stain paper when doing shaving cream marbling.

i’m loving how these colors leave their mark behind. i am wondering how this could be done with other applications/themes. what are some other ideas?

this is a crazy-simple post. we love our watercolors around here like nothing else, and we may rival hallmark in the quantity of cards that are created under this roof. so here’s sweet little idea for some greeting cards for any occasion.

before N set out to create her abstract watercolor painting, we placed heart stickers on watercolor paper. (you can use any shape of sticker, of course.) then she enjoyed some time watching the colors ooze and blend together on the page. so relaxing.

we let the page dry completely.

after that, i tore the large sheet of watercolor paper into smaller sections against a metal edged ruler. i prefer this to cutting watercolor paper because it makes beautiful naturally rustic edges.

we peeled away the heart stickers (which came off easily) to reveal a white heart in the midst of rainbowy paint.

N chose colorful blank cards to glue the paintings to (i buy packs of them at michael’s when they offer discounts,) and she sent them out for father’s day and the end of the school year teacher cards in june.

easy and heARTful