paint cut paste

i recently chanced upon this inspirational photo of these lovely sticks by an artist named ginette lapalme.

ginette's sticks

we had some sticks and driftwood hanging around our backyard, just waiting to become art materials… and i’d been thinking on it for a few days. i’m also reading a book on the shamanic tradition of holding council, which involves a talking piece – usually a stick. i’ve been dreaming about finding and embellishing a talking stick for my family and also for my work with clients. then blamo! – this picture finds me. the internet is so cool like that – providing serendipitous encounters and answers. anyway, the fire was lit under me, so i showed novi the photo to share the fire, and we gathered up our things: sticks, acrylics, brushes, palette, water jar, rag.

perhaps sticks we had won’t necessarily become future talking sticks, but i set out without that intention – just wanting to enjoy art for art’s sake and the fun of painting whimsical stripes and such on a natural canvas. while i worked on a big stick, novi had so much fun with the smaller ones.

she talked all the while about how she’d never done this before, and how she loves all of the new art ideas i come up with for us to do — how sweet to hear! (incidentally, she told me i am the best artist in alaska… which was flattering and all, but we’ve never even been there. ) it was a playful art-making session.

when working with natural materials, i like to (and this may get too woo-woo for some of you, but bear with me) have a dialog with the stick, rock, shell, etc. about what it would like to become. i feel like nature’s form really can dictate the lines, shapes, and colors, if we mindfully engage with it, observe, listen, and trust our instincts about the artistic choice we are making. i did this as i worked on painting my sticks, and i introduced this concept to novi as we painted. children are such absolute naturals when it comes to creating such a dialog, storyline, conversation – they are not self-conscious and are so genuinely connected to nature, so it comes easily. as adults, we have often lost that ability, and work to reclaim it.

novi's "ocean sparkle" stick

besides having tons of fun together, the visual results were magical.

the collection (sticks and stones)

my "heart chakra" driftwood

novi was proud of hers!

we decided to use embroidery thread to attach a feather to one of novi’s sticks.

and the most magical aftermath of all…

our artist hands

is your mouth watering already? on a spring trip to harley farms in pescadero, ca, i tried the tastiest goat cheese i’ve ever had in my life – lavender honey goat cheese. this got me thinking that i should look into making some lavender honey ice cream in my ice cream maker at home. so we did.

we grow organic lavender in our backyard… the same lavender we have been using for lavender wands. it’s not technically culinary lavender (which i think you can get in a box at wholefoods?) but i figured it’s good enough. we grew it, we do not spray our yard, it’s organic. novi helped me to harvest the lavender as it is beginning to dry out, while we dodged the bees the entire time.

we hung a bit to dry in our kitchen for several days while i researched recipes. i found one on epicurious.com that seems to be quite universal, as it is repeated on so many other web sites exactly the same way. so we tried it out. here tiz:

ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 2 tablespoons dried edible lavender flowers
• 1/2 cup light honey
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

method:
cook the half-and-half and cream on medium heat until warm, do not let it come to a boil. turn off the heat, add the lavender to the pot, cover and let steep for half an hour.

after flowers have steeped, strain the liquid and discard the flowers. add to the liquid the honey and heat on medium low until honey has dissolved. again, do not let liquid come to a boil!

beat the egg yolks with the vanilla, lemon juice, lemon zest and salt. stir into the eggs 1/2 cup of the warm liquid and then add the entire egg mixture back to the pot.

heat this on medium low for five minutes or until it gets slightly thick. you’ll know it’s ready when it coats the back of your spoon. (honestly, mine got a little curdy and didn’t stick to the spoon even after a long time heating, but i proceeded anyway.) cool in the refrigerator for four hours. freeze and churn according to your ice-cream maker’s instructions.

this makes a quart of ice cream… though i thought it tasted more like a custard than an ice cream. some people find the lavender taste to be kind of soap-like or incense-esque. admittedly, it is quite strong, but i enjoyed the super-rich treat! to be fancy, you can serve it with a drizzle of warm honey and a sprig of lavender. yum!

someone loved it... down to the last drop!

a handfull of my friends have little ones who have recently celebrated their first birthday. along with new experiences of toddling around and mastering some words, they are also ready to begin some early art-making experiences. a few moms have asked me what i first did with novi in that realm. this sent me back through my memory and my zillions of photos of my wee little teeny novi-bear.

playroom. 12.5 months

generally, the very first art materials are those that we refer to as “pre-art materials.” this basically means they are safe items that can either be digested (such as beans, whipped cream, or dough) or that are large (such as building blocks, balls, bowls). they promote tactile experiences and are used for sensory-motor stimulus, and are great for kids between one and two years of age. pre-art materials are still useful beyond the two-year-old mark because they reinforce the sensory experiences that a child is discovering, and since children at this stage can become easily frustrated, pre-art materials may provide them with a sense of mastery over the art task.

novi was a kid who, at around 9 or 10 months old, loved to hold the stems of two leaves in her hands everywhere we went. then two drumsticks from her toy drums. which evolved into two fat crayons, one in each hand, with which to make her first marks. often, two or three crayons were in each hand, making marks together.

15 months

she loved the cause and effect of being able to create a mark… to make something on the page! how powerful that must feel for the first time, for a brand new being to assert herself and push pigment across paper and watch what happens! she was sold.

15 months

as you can see in the photo above, we have always loved taping off the borders of the page — not only does it keep the paper from wobbling all over the place for early artists, but it also creates a lovely frame around abstract scribbles.

14 month scribbles by novi (bottom pastel rainbow by me)

we ventured into the realm of homemade dough as we got closer to 18 months old. mostly she just loved to mush it around, pull it apart, squish it, feel it, poke it with straws. she would command certain things for me to make for her like balls, snowmen, various animals, and then manipulate them, while cracking up, after i created them.

playing with dough at 20 months old

and always, sandtrays, water tables, and natural materials found outside are great for exploration… (keep an eye on where sticks and rocks end up at this stage, of course.) have fun introducing these tiny artists to their own creative potential — it truly knows no bounds!

sure, it’s not innovative, but i just had to include our day at the beach this weekend, making art and fun out of the natural surroundings…

there were sand drawings…

no one is a stranger to the magic of a sandcastle…uh, or a sand alligator. novi and her daddy loved making this creature together!

novi took her time creating and adding to this rock/driftwood/sand man.

i collected shells, sea glass, and flat, smooth stones for painting – ever the beachcomber, i am. best art supply store there is!

there was plenty of kite-flying in the mix, as well.

novi collected driftwood on the walk back up to the car.

"mommy, i think i'm going to build a house out of this when we get home."

let’s see what else transpires from our day at the beach…

all of our days are artful… but not every day includes an “art activity” to share with you, per se. here are some of the creative and lovely things that have been happening around our house thus far this week that are worth a visual share…

chalk drawing al fresco

mushroom spotting

portraits in frames

momma's inked rocks in process

impromptu pen drawing on the grocery list paper

gathering flowers & herbs in the backyard (with matching pedis a la momma)

coloring mandalas

"hey mommy, i made a bear out of rocks!"

chillin' with a ladybug

flowers & the potential of unpainted wood

take time to notice the small things & happy creating!

i’m a big fan of prayer flags or anything that resembles them. and what better thing to pay homage to than food? (well for me. eat, pray, love – right?) anyway, i saw this awesome idea on alphamom to do a fourth of july bunting using starfruit. i fully intended to do this before the holiday, but after combing 5 grocery stores/produce markets here, there is just no starfruit to be found. we improvised and took a different path.

novi and i gathered up some fun and sturdy shapes at wholefood’s produce section. then i sliced them in half and let them sit face down for about an hour on a towel, to absorb any extra moisture.

to prepare, the night before i had cut up some natural-colored linen (i purchased some from jo ann’s fabrics – you could also use white or cream burlap or other fabrics) into 8″ by 5″ rectangles, with a little help from my cat. i frayed the edges by hand because i love the raw look of that.

novi and i chose some colors from our fabric paint stash (you can also use acrylics) and began to paint the flat sides of the fruits and veggies to do some printmaking. (you can dip them in the paint, but we went this route so we wouldn’t waste any paint by leaving it in a dipping pan.)

we chose different colors for each of the different pieces of produce, and pressed them firmly onto the linen, toward the bottom of each rectangle. (this is to leave room for a pocket at the top for the rope to go through to hang them later.)

it was so much fun to see the colorful shapes emerge on the fabric.

we let them dry all afternoon, while we admired our work.

the next day, i pinned and sewed each flag across the top to make a pocket for a rope to go through.

sadly, i was impressed with my ability to do this. i am NOT a sewer.

alphamom’s blog said you could use fabric glue instead to create the loop for the rope, but i used this as an opportunity to practice using the sewing machine my dear friend gave me before she moved to bali. (i mean, this was the next best thing if i couldn’t move there with her, right? wow, this is becoming an eat, pray, love post in a coupla ways.)

i got some nice rope at the hardware store for 14 cents per foot. after putting the rope through the loop at the top, we were super-pleased with the results.

the banner/flags/garland is now hanging in our kitchen window… where else?

during the printmaking process, we got a little overzealous about the fact that cauliflower makes cute little trees, so we made an extra banner of all of the “tiny trees” we printed.

more ideas:

• i got word that there’s a shipment of starfruit coming in tomorrow to a local grocer, so you just may see some star bunting in our future, after all… it’ll be more on the aquatic-colored starfish side of things than fourth of july though.
• another thing i’d love to do with all of our extra lined rectangles is to do some leaf printing on them like the artful parent shows here.
• you can also print letters to spell out a word or name.
• it would be great to do a different child’s handprint on each piece of fabric, say for a school class banner (think: teacher appreciation) or to give to a grandparent who has several grandkids, or for yourself, (if you have enough little hands and feet in your house to make a decent length garland of your own kids’ paws.)
• printed fabric squares make for lovely garland, flags, pockets to sew onto aprons, book-covers, etc, etc, etc…

let your imagination run with it and string it up on the wall!