sand sculptures

ever since we put in the sandbox in the yard I have enjoyed creating faces in the sand -- which the kids ceremoniously stomp down upon their completion. Last year I started to take pictures of them and over the summer I created huge sand faces on the beach. One is even complete with sand dollar teeth!

ABCs

We spent last summer traveling through Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon and I asked the kids to help me find the alphabet in the world around us during our adventure. Here is a complete alphabet made out of the many, many examples we found when we were out & about.

stuffed with love

I am trying to learn how to sew and in an effort to get practice (and in combination with both of my kids not wanting to part with beloved articles of clothing they have outgrown) I asked each of them to draw pictures of buddies and then I adapt them into 3-dimensional toys. They have been popular with the kids and now I am starting to create them for their friends. They are all hand-sewn and rough around the edges since I am still learning, but, one day I will figure out my sewing machine and then they'll be no stopping me!

Tessa's CATS

Tessa drew these large cats with chalk in my office. She often comes in and lays down on the floor and "works" while I tap away on my Mac.

breathe deeply, it's going to be okay

Occasionally I over commit in my design studio and I get frantic trying to give all my projects attention and give attention to the kids, my husband, my home, and me. It is an extremely fine balancing act to run a home-based design studio when you are a mom of two kids under the age of ten. I enjoy my design work immensely -- it is something I have worked on and refined over many, many years but I must remain diligent to be true to myself. When I am stressing I read this quote and take a deep breath and know that yes, I do have time and know that I am blessed to have so many important things in my life.

visual clutter?

I don't see it as clutter -- each thing on the board is a jewel to me...I change the images every couple months, but for right now this is what I see when I sit down in my office. I have two large windows on either side and if I am not on my computer I open them and get such nice light. I keep the blinds below my desk open and the kittens join me in the late morning and lay in the sun and snooze, snooze, snooze.

our hands, part two

I have a series of photocopied hands in my files. This one with all four of our hands is on my stainless board...I like how we are all smashed together on the glass and I am comforted when I look at it.

my workspace

I have a large stainless steel board above my desk that is filled with things I like to look at as I work in my studio. Here is a hand, of course, and a quote I read daily. The little angel magnet is from a colleague from UNP.

daddy is at the computer

Tessa drew this picture this morning...Kyle is working on our taxes today and is sitting at the computer sorting out all our wheelings and dealings of 2007...Tessa's picture sure makes it look like he is having a grand time!

a crocodile

Trenton didn't think this turned out exactly right but he spent a lot of time working on it and I think the snout and tail are particularly well rendered. So, we decided to post it. It also helps me because I get alligators and crocodiles confused and Trenton always reminds me that you can see the teeth on a crocodile but not on an alligator...

a cougar

A cougar running by Trenton House, March 2008.

The White Rhino

Trenton started working on a series of animal drawings this week. He is beginning to sketch more and add more shading to his drawings.

i love you too

Tessa and I were running errands and she was quietly working in her sketch book in the back seat. I said, "I love you honey" as we drove. When we arrived at the grocery store she showed me this drawing...

SHELLY the SNAIL

Tessa and the Snail, SHELLY, are friends. Back this summer when we had a blissful week's stay at the beach house we made friends with lots of snails -- our favorite was a small snail that Tessa affectionately named Shelly. We still talk about her and wonder how she is doing. Would she still be there if we visited again? This week we have been making clay snails and lots of snail pictures. The rainbow snail above is one of my favorites.

look and see

Kyle brought me some pretty purple flowers this week because I have been a little melancholy as we pass the year mark since daddy passed away. He told the kids he'd be a little late coming home from work because he wanted to get some flowers to brighten the table...it was very thoughtful. Tessa then worked hard and drew a picture of the flowers (she is blossoming in her skill to draw what is in front of her) and she told me this way I can keep the flowers forever.

evidence that spring is coming!

I keep this cheerful painting of Tessa's in our hall gallery to remind me in the freezing days of winter that spring will once again return in all it's glory. We are enjoying a sunny spell for a few days and I thought of this picture and smiled because yes, we will once again be welcoming the rebirth of the outdoors affectionately called springtime.

family portrait by Trenton, age 4

This has been in our hall for five years -- a family portrait by Trenton before his sister arrived on the scene. The huge noses and spiky hair are somehow just right.

our hands, part one

I love hands. I like to take pictures of hands, photocopy our hands, paint hands. I think hands are powerful symbols and to me they represent a person in ways that may differ from a persons words or gaze. Hands can be powerful, gentle, sad, pained, violent, joyful. My family is aware of my love of hands and agreed to make hand portraits. I dated mine and since these were made five years ago, I think it is time to make a new set. In these pictures Tessa was not even one, Trenton was five and Kyle and I well, we were five years younger!

my origami lesson

Trenton has been working on origami for a couple months now and I finally sat down with him on Friday for a lesson. He is very good at explaining the steps and describing the folds. I made my very first boxes (3 kinds!), a paper balloon, and a crane. He has a book report diorama due next week and has decided to challenge himself to create origami dragons for his project. Will post the final and maybe some of the process shots as well. It is spring break so I hope we will have several things going on creatively.

my funny valentine

Tessa designed this all by herself and I thought it was genius. The eyes are expressive, the pig nose is perfect and lots and lots of teeth -- I tried to recreate it but mine was not nearly as nice as this. I liked it so much she gave it to me and it hangs on my stainless magnetic board above my Mac. So, keep kids around and pay attention -- you never know where you will find your next inspiration!

elfs make me smile

This elf was created at a friend's birthday party by Tessa. He hangs on my office door and makes me smile.

a story behind this picture

This is the sign that Tessa was retrieving after Trenton's birthday party when the large black dog jumped the fence and tried to attack her. It is a massive drawing on foam-core and I silently say thanks every time I look at it that she was only knocked down and not bitten. This sign sits in our living room.

house plans

In February Kyle called a family meeting at the dinner table to discuss adding onto the house this year. We are a democratic entity and we all participated in adding items to the wish list for the house and back yard. I dutifully recorded the list to pass along to the architect. Later that evening Tessa decided words didn't express her desires accurately so she sketched out the upstairs she craves (what is it with kids and stairs?) as well as the enormous trampoline in the backyard depicted in the bottom image. We met with the architect last week and as promised I showed him Tessa's drawings to provide inspiration as he embarks on reworking our floor plans into something that will hopefully suit us better well into the future.

The Murdertrack

Over the past couple years Trenton has created elaborate roller coaster drawings. This one has been hanging next to our keyboards for a year. We are still trying to locate his drawing of people flossing their teeth on a roller coaster (not a good idea by the way) and I will post that as soon as it surfaces.

BRAZIL through Trenton's eyes

Trenton drew this large poster and colored it with colored pencils over a week or so (whew!) for the multicultural festival last year. It hangs by our keyboards in the living room.

inspired by the Lascaux cave paintings

Another classroom project at HDMS. I asked the students to mix acrylic paint with sand in the cave-like colors. We covered cardboard and let them dry overnight. The next day I presented a brief lecture on the cave art of Lascaux in France and we proceeded to create our own cave drawings with chalk pastels on the rough cave-like surface. The teacher then created a cave in the room using sheets and boards and the art was posted inside and the studens had to take a flashlight and craw inside to see their drawings. What fun!

ka-boom!

This is an oil pastel image created by Kyle, Trenton and me one evening when he was around four. We started with a campsite and campfire and added mountains and as soon as we discovered we could smear the pastels easily with paper towels and fingers we had great fun adding lots of layers of color and then the explosions of the volcanoes in the background -- ka-boom! I have always loved this picture because of the colors but mostly because of the memory of making it. It is framed and hangs next to our dining room table.

masks

I volunteered in Trenton's class last year to create plaster masks with the students. The half mask here is by Trenton (minus a few feathers). The Aztec tiled one is mine and the green and gold one is Kyle's. The class created masks for the annual multicultural festival and the diversity was great! The project took 4 lessons to complete but the students remained enthusiastic and although I had a bad case of laryngitis by the end of the project we all pulled together to create something special for the class. I have these masks hanging by our easel next to the dining room table. The bottom image is a shot of the classroom's work.

The Island

Trenton's class at HDMS had the opportunity to have a lesson with the Watercolor Society of Reno. Five or six artists came in and gave a presentation and then let the students create their own piece. The society provided beautiful paper and nice watercolors and then they matted the art for each student so the class could have a showing of their paintings. The class had an amazing variety -- I was impressed and so pleased they had this opportunity. Trenton prefers drawing over painting, but I think he exhibits a great use of color and wish he would paint more. The image looks serene to me (and perhaps you) but don't be fooled...according to the artist the island is a toxic waste dump site, which proves sometimes things are not what they seem!

dragons are cool

Trenton has a series of dragon images that are sprinkled on our walls. This image hangs in our hall gallery of photos and art.

BOBO for brother

Tessa created an icon we lovingly call BOBO and sometimes he is smiling and sometimes he is angry or sad. He exists in both 2-dimensional drawings and in stuffed 3-dimensional dolls that I sew with Tess. This is a BOBO painting complete with a house that Tessa made for Trenton. It hangs in the hall.

art on our walls, part one

After looking at Tessa's painting I decided to walk about and snap some pictures of other images on our walls. Our home is full of different images and objects and that seems to suit us as a family. We are interested in looking at a lot of different things. Anyway, in Trenton's room the art changes as he moves from subject matter to subject matter but even when some images come down and others go up, these two images have endured. The top image is an interior of an imaginary museum. The perspective is great and the picture is complete with various kinds of art. Trenton draws with continuous line versus sketching and consequently his lines are dark and deliberate. The lower image is a great head drawing of a tiger. Trenton has numerous drawings of tigers but this one has remained on his wall longer than the others...in a curious way the tiger seems to always be watching you.

look, look, look, and maybe you'll see

This is a painting Trenton created for Tessa before she was born. It is an 11 x 17" watercolor that I framed and hung in her nursery. I simply love this painting, in fact, the color of the moon inspired the sage-green color of her room. Anyway, this picture has been on her wall for over 5 years and Tessa asked me about the art this weekend and I told her the story about Trenton painting it for her. She said "Well, I love it because it has a pig, a goat and a cow in it." WOW. That is what I love about art. We all react to images in different ways and our eyes take in, sometimes, very different things. And seeing and looking at this art through Tessa's eyes, makes me love it even more.

mommy & daddy

Tessa is really enjoying drawing and painting lately. She leaves notes for us throughout the week and it is great fun to discover them. This picture she drew for Kyle and she hung it next to his desk in our bedroom. Kyle asked if it was a picture of him with her and she replied, "No, daddy. This is you and mommy." It is such a sweet picture, and it makes me smile.