Follow Your Dreams. Or Maybe Not.

This morning I woke from switching the channel in my brain to catch bits of three different dreams.

In the first one, I was working on recreating a Very Famous work of art for in my home but struggling with the details on where to put it. Apparently one of the most famous sculptures of all time is a 100 foot long strip of white fabric about 2 1/4 inches wide. It has been cut on the bias and starched to crispness with a crease right down the center. Then it is laid on the floor, stretched almost straight out but with only slight graceful curving this way and that, undulations like the wave of the sea, truly a thing of beauty. 

As I say, I was making one but only shorter (as nowhere in my home would allow for the full 100 feet). I was none too sure it would be visually effective in its shortness, in fact, it looked more like trash that needed to be picked up and tossed...

so I switched to the next channel.  Here I was in a room with a window with six large panes, light streaming in at a the wintertime late afternoon angle, but very bright. Beside me on the floor (the floor again?) was a plastic reindeer, kind of a chunky one, maybe more like a moose, but his antlers were reindeer antlers and richly covered with gold glitter. Anyhow, the light was making a wonderful silhouette of the reindeer and the crossbars of the window pane, which I wanted to photograph. But I could not figure out how to photograph just the silhouetted shadow on the floor and not the admittedly tacky reindeer itself. So again, I switched the channel... 

on this channel I found myself with a pocket full of four or five plastic one inch balls, well, really large beads as they were strung together on elastic cording. They had the swishy stripes around them that are on some eos lip balm balls. I realized it was a "disassembled Chinese pet" and decided it was time to get up and start my real life.  

 

Tree of Life

Today called for a special art project at our place. I used this lesson plan working with Gustav Klimt's Tree of Life. The handout she included was real helpful for us.  

Mr Music went to town with the oil pastels and he added roots to his design, which are just amazing:

Miss Dog Lover got the most detailed swirly branches, and lots of little "fruits." I love that she included some apples, you just couldn't help but think about the gardens of Scripture:

I am not sure about my curlicues. I know the others show up better, if I make another tree, I will do it on kraft paper for better contrast. I think it would be fun to paint one and glue on sequins and beads. And maybe a little bird singing cheerily in the garden: 

Lollipop Flowers

This week's art project was another fun one, and is found here. The flowers are based on the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser (don't you feel bad for him when he had to learn to spell that name? No wonder he turned to art). 


Miss Dog Lover's has a splattery background:

I think I made my flowers a bit too small but I like the colors:

and I guess you can tell Mr Music had the Cheshire Cat on his mind: 

Art Class, Again

We finished our art projects, based on this post about Rizzo's style. 


Starting with Mr Music's salute to the Pierogie racers at the ballfield (notes: 1. Mr Music says it's not done and 2. I loved that my camera knew the eyes on the pierogie to the right were eyes):

Then Miss Dog Lover's awesome self-portrait:

and my alizarin crimson whale:

I am amazed when we do a project like this with clear instructions and end up with such different results. Creativity is a great thing.  :)

Nerds (Make that "Scholars") R Us

Mr Music and I have been enjoying learning about different types of gladiators in his Latin course. Last week we came across tile mosaics showing gladiators. We have especially liked the retiarii. They were used tridents and nets for defense and often beat the more heavily armed murmillones just because they were light on their feet. 


Anyhow, maybe you know you are nerds scholars when you see something like this:

and notice the thetas down by the fallen - that stands for thanatos, Greek for death. But you know you are a nerd when you think, oh so that is how they did it before they thought of Xs on the eyes.   :-P

Carpe Picasso

Every now and then I hear a story of a criminal with something I appreciate. This is one of those stories. 


Apparently the thief found a work by Picasso he liked. A lot. And I can't say I blame him especially not if he's a homeschooling Dad. This is exactly how I look after getting everyone through a productive day and having laundry done and dinner cooked. C'mon, tell me I'm not the only one with eyes like that.

So. He must have had a different art appreciation prof than I did. I had the class back in the day when powerpoints were called "slides" on nifty little carousel racks. My prof would project the photos on the screen, and if he particularly liked it, would close his eyes and sigh just a bit before continuing with the lecture.


Anyhow, Mr Innes had certain works that made him close his eyes and sigh longer than others, mainly Vermeers and Rembrandts. He counseled us that (unless we became wealthy enough to buy great works), we should do as he had done, and construct a "mental gallery" of our own favorites which we could visit at any time.


Apparently this guy's prof took it one step farther and counseled his students to forget mental and actually build the gallery. I gotta say I just admire his straight-forward approach to helping himself to art. No face mask. No gun or weapons. No threats or lies. Just walk in and own it.


Hmmm... Mr Innes did not see the coming of the internet. Perhaps I can cut and paste and make my own mental gallery digital... 

So That's What He Was Thinking

I like to keep an art print hanging out in the schoolroom. This week I put up John Singer Sargent's Portrait of a Boy.

This one has always bugged Mr Music and Miss Dance, who just think the Boy is bored to tears.

So last night I came in to see Mr Music had added a caption to rescue the mute Boy: