Gallery

There is so much art that happens in a day here; it is hard to know what to share.  Eliza spotted a large whiteboard Dan brought home, and quickly made a rendition of the Mona Lisa.  Can you see the resemblance?

There have been numerous portraits made recently.  I'm not sure what has inspired it, but I think they are lovely.  The color combinations just amaze me.

This vampire lady is made of cut paper - these are all from Eliza.

I kept a pan of gelatin from the gelatin prints we made a few weeks ago, but it turns out I waited too long and it got moldy.  Who knew gelatin would mold?  I would love to experiment with this again.

We haven't made as much leaf art as we have in years past, but there were a day or two of rubbings and drawings...they are always my favorite seasonal project.

These are drawings from the girls' nature journals, which are seeing more use this fall than they ever have.  I love Ani's drawing of loving puffballs...

Here is Eliza's detail of a single puffball mushroom.  I love the details and the shadow.  She is so observant.

Speaking of observant (am I bragging? Or just admiring???), when my dad came to stay for a week in October, the girls decided that it would be helpful to make some maps of places he might want to go with them.  Ani made several portable, pocket-folded maps of the park across the street, the bike path, the coffee shop.  Eliza decided to go for it and taped many pieces of paper together, making a huge map that is still hanging on our kitchen wall.

This was a spontaneous project, not one we had planned for (and I was preoccupied with sewing my first curtain!), and yet her ability to recall and represent is really something.

She noted where our favorite Japanese maple is, and knows how many streets there are between here and the restaurant uptown we like to go to.  She included the "stinko biloba" gingko tree and the bead shop, the hot dog joint and the cemetery.  She really got just about all of it, even the tricky triangle of traffic that happens around Domino's pizza.  She pays attention.  Suffice it to say, my dad did not get even a little bit lost while he was here.

Noticing the interest in the portraits, we jumped on an art class that was offered up the road at the community arts center this last weekend.  Eliza went, and then came home to teach her own class to Ani.

Eliza. And Munch's Scream.  Interesting...

Eliza

Miss Eliza, the art teacher

Eliza

Anika

Eliza and girl-eating plant

Anika