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.

i’m a big fan of inspiration boards. i love looking at the ones that geninne and jean post on their blogs… and gosh, pinterest is just one big ol’ inspiration board, isn’t it? i’ve put up my own boards in the past (dec 2009 board seen below) but i don’t have one going at the moment.

then i figured that my little artist in residence is actually producing more work than anyone here, so we might need to revamp the board that is on the wall in front of the art desk she uses in our kitchen. she has one of those magnetic white boards from michael’s mounted on the wall. here’s what it has been looking like for months now, unattended.

N doesn’t need to look at her letter magnets while writing at this point, and the board needed some overall TLC, so we removed everything from it. then N selected magnets she has made over the year. then she chose works of art and various images that inspire her.

what i love is that N said that her own art inspires her art more than any other images, so she selected her own works to post.

do you have an inspiration board for yourself? for your children?

(if so, share a link to it or a photo of it on my facebook wall)

recently i blogged about the sketchbook project that i participated in through arthouse coop for the 2011 tour… or more accurately that N and i participated in, as she was indeed a major contributor to that sketchbook. i wanted to report some recent happenings about the project: 1) our book has finally been digitized for online viewing here and 2) the sketchbook project tour was just in san francisco, so we got to visit our book, and the books of some of our friends!

N was quite excited to go to the gallery to visit her art work, as was i! we received very special and official “participating artist” stickers to wear at the show. (stickers are very important, you see.)

the scene was really cool – stacks of sketchbooks and library cards to check them out…

and a loungy area where we could peruse the books of art.

N was very inspired by all of the work she was seeing, and asked to have her crayons and drawing pad, so she began to create right there in the gallery.

"check out this mandala, mommy!"

i highly recommend getting in on the action with the sketchbook project’s 2012 tour — sign up now. and check out the 2011 tour if it comes to a town near you where you can visit our book in person (and so many other totally amazing works!) or browse online.

it’s eric carle‘s birthday, and art bloggers all over the web have been celebrating with their children and colorful animals! we were invited by an amazing child to join the party – and we’re showing up with bells smocks on!

when i think of eric carle, i remember N’s very first baby books and how much she loved when i read the very hungry caterpillar (my all-time fav) and brown bear brown bear to her in our comfy nursing chair before sleepy time. these will always be cozy memories for me. in the past year, N has been reeeeally into foxes – it’s her most favorite animal. can you tell?

i saw the book hello, red fox in our local library and decided to grab it, as we had not read it before. what a perfect choice, as it teaches children about complementary colors in a really cool optical illusion sort of way – and we’ve been exploring color wheels over here lately. we dove right in and read/stared at the book. (if you click this link, you’ll understand why. it’s tricky – like a fox!)

then we got out a bunch of art materials for two different projects…

first, we mixed and created our own color wheel using momma’s fancy watercolors (just because) and talked about the idea of complementary colors… and why the “red” fox on the cover of eric carle’s book was green… hmm…

after that, i suggested we use some of N’s finger paintings brought home from preschool to build an animal – eric carle style! she wanted to make a fox – naturally! (hey, there’s one idea of how to repurpose and transform all of those preschool pieces of art…)

first, we talked about what shapes make up a fox, and she drew them in pencil on top of her fingerpaintings. circle, oval, triangles, rectangles…

then she cut the pieces of a fox… hooray for cutting skills! she did a great job cutting on her pencil lines.

then she pasted them onto a new sheet of paper – N chose black for the background.

after it was glued down, she used a black sharpie (supervised) to add some details to the nose and eyes. this was literally a paint cut paste experience!

what’s your favorite eric carle book, and what memories does it hold for you? have you made any eric carle art with your kiddos? if so, click below to share your own, or click to view many other bloggers’ creative takes on eric carle tribute art!

my sister-in-law & brother-in-law are expecting their second baby this summer – yay! i wanted to do something special to celebrate his pending arrival. what better than a collaborative art piece where family and friends get involved?

i have done this project before for a friend a couple years ago, and it was beautiful and well-received, so i figured we’d give it a whirl for my nephew on the way. i emailed a list of people the couple provided to me and asked each one to send a brief blessing, prayer, wish, quote, or lyric for the family as they welcome their new son. i gathered the quotes and put them into a keepsake book for the family, along with the well-wishers names.

then i selected excerpts from the quotes and wrote them out on pretty goldenrod card stock (this time without everyone’s name.) after i wrote them out, i cut them into strips.

i watercolored a mandala of the family to place in the center of the art piece, which i envisioned would be a sunburst.

we recently visited our adorable nephew (1y 5m old), who is soon to be a big brother, and he (along with mommy and daddy’s help) finger painted the background image for this blessing piece of art. tip: use analogous colors of finger paint so that it doesn’t turn out brown or muddy, unless that’s the look you’re going for.

after the paint was dry, i glued the blessings and mandala to the finger painting to create a sun shape.

what a colorful collection of wishes for the new baby on the way!

this piece, which i framed for their home, holds the energy of all of their loved ones’ support as they welcome a new little boy into the world!

i’m so very excited to have a dear friend and one of the most laugh-out-loud funny mom bloggers out there guest blogging here today — the awesome ms. hannah, from to the moon and back, writes here about creating a totally inspiring, whimsical, and heartful piece of art for her son:

sleep has always been a place of hardship, terrible stress and many tears for our almost three year old, j. and quite frankly, for his mom, dad and often little sister, h. it’s just oh-so-hard when your child is struggling with something out of their control; everyone’s control. we’ve been working through and around and in this place for a long time and {hopefully} have learned a bit about how to move forward and beyond. i’ve been visualizing a dream catcher or mobile of sorts that would symbolize the love, strength, and optimism we want to fill our son’s room and his sleepy little head with. i started by explaining my vision to j – a piece of art we could make together to hang in his room that would make him feel safe, remind him how much he is loved and help him through his trying nights. he was beyond excited. it was a rainy day so we geared up and headed out to find inspiration.

we found the perfect sized stick; and with just enough bend in just the right places for the base of a wall hanging. we headed inside to create the artwork and inspiration. without any specific pre-conceived thoughts I dug through our arts and crafts closet and came up with some materials: shrink film, ribbons, watercolors, finger paint, colored pencils.

h is a watercolor girl. she could play among their liquidy goodness for hours. ok, let’s be honest, minutes. like 32 of them, maybe. while she painted, I cut two sheets of the shrink film into smaller pieces to decorate. *the instructions on the shrink film are to use permanent markers – which can be a daunting thought with a 19 m.o. and an almost 3 y.o. but hey, what’s the worst that can happen?

before baking our shrink film I punched a hole in the top of each piece so they would be hang-able later.

watching shrink film bake and contort and form in the oven is just oh so cool. and voila!

h’s water color was just so vivid and great that we decided it should be our focal point. to add some texture I cut the paper into four pieces, punched holes in each and threaded with ribbon. (the ribbons re-used from a friend’s baby shower last weekend.)

j decided he’d like to hang h’s watercolor from the center of the stick and from there we choose ribbons to tie and hang in random order along both sides. (these iridescent ribbons, symbolizing the love and bond our family shares, are from our wedding in 2006 where they were hung all over an apple tree to shimmer and blow in the breeze.)

next we hung our shrink film creations. for this I opted to use fishing line to keep things airy and light. from the baby shower gift I re-used  two leaf shaped pieces of paper; punched holes in them and cut a few more to add.

we simply threaded the large ribbons through the holes in the leaves  to add a “feather” dream catcher effect – but in keeping with our nature theme, of course.

and there you have it. our whimsical, colorful, bad dream squashing, peaceful night evoking, sweet dream mobile.

and so far, so good. j went to sleep with a smile on his face and excitement in his eyes. the journey through parenthood and childhood is so challenging.  in so many ways. acknowledging j’s fears and angst around his sleep and showing him, in this way, that we are here for him and love him and will help him through this {I hope} will be just the boost his little body needs. and a little help from the best sweet dream mobile ever has got to sweeten the pot, no?

thanks for the opportunity to share with you, paintcutpaste fans!

-hannah

thank YOU, hannah, for sharing such a beautiful and meaningful project with all of us! hop on over to hannah’s honest and hilarious blog on motherhood, to the moon and back, to read more from her and “like” her blog on facebook, too!

you may have heard buzz around the internet of art house coop’s sketchbook project from last fall or “liked” them on facebook, maybe. it’s this deal where the art house coop sends you a sketchbook to fill, you send it back, and then it goes on tour around the country with a group of nearly 29,000 other participants sketchbooks, in its own little art show. when i heard about this project, i liked it, i clicked “like,” and i signed right up to participate in it. that was back in september.

about a week later, a great little moleskin sketchbook arrived, and i vowed to sketch and create and keep this visual journal with me for the next few months. (i had until mid-january to complete it and send it in.)  i encouraged some friends to participate, as well. i was psyched that i would be making my own art in it! finally – art time for momma! it was ripe with potential! i had to choose one of their “themes” for the book. i picked one i figured was the most general: a day in the life.

i took myself out for tea that day and began the book.

ahhh… that was nice. and then like 16 days later i made another page in the book. darn, have two weeks gone by already?” i wondered. 4 days later, another page. a month later, two more pages. i was slow to start. it was interesting to watch my own mind and my own process around taking the time to create my own art. it is logistically and emotionally challenging to invest in this sort of me-time as a mom of a young kid. but it is oh-so-important.

i was really wanting to do this in an altered book sort of style, but the really thin pages of the moleskin were a bit frustrating to work with… i think they must really have meant “sketch in this book.” i did a lot of pasting other papers into the book so i could use more wet media and saturated colors. and collage.

the holidays came and went, and my book was really quite empty. in the new year, i vowed to knock out some art work in that journal – BE CREATIVE NOW! hee hee… i laughed at the pressure of that, and relaxed a bit around it. i spent a couple weeks really just having FUN with different media.

then the me-time became we-time, as it often just does organically. i enjoy making art with my little lady, and she couldn’t resist helping with mommy’s sketchbook. so i enlisted the help of my favorite tiny artist who can crank out the creativity like no one else i know.

little ghost artist

she was honored to participate. we did a dialog drawing in the book together.

she made some pictures of her own on some of the pages. (thank you, N!)

N's mandala

the last few nights before the book was due were like a creative explosion on my dining room table. i loved it.

in the end, i submitted it in time. apparently it is being digitized by art house coop (in a way higher quality way than i’ve done here with the photos the morning before i headed to the post office in january) and will be available on their web site for viewing.

also my little book is now on a U.S. tour. i think it was in austin last weekend, and is now on its way to portland, maine. it has a tour schedule, like a little paper rockstar in a huge jam band of nearly 30K players. that’s kinda fun. i’m excited to see the exhibit when it hits san francisco in june. if the tour arrives in a city near you, i’m sure it’s a fun exhibit to attend — look my book up when you’re there!

tour image from arthousecoop.com

art house coop has some other projects currently going on that are open for participation. check it out. it’s good stuff.