Art From The Rose Garden

I found myself back on this blog, playing in the garden ... So if you're reading this even after my long absence, I thank you so for checking back in with me! 

I thought I'd share some art with you.  My mom and I have the same birthday (different years, of course!), so for her/our birthday, she and I and my younger daughter headed to the nearby rose garden to create art and experiment (if we wished) with haiku.  My mom occasionally paints and draws, and she's also a writer, and a gardener, and a naturalist, so I thought it would be fun to share what we love all in one go!

Here's my daughter's art:

She captured a lot of detail about the rose plant itself:

Here's my mom's.  She calls it "Perfect Scent":

And here's mine:

What fun we had!

Children's Art and Chickens

I have a backlog of posts on things herbal for this blog, but thought I'd share with you some art I scanned today (they are garden related!).

I love the art children create.  On Vashon Island, our former home and home-to-be-again, first Fridays of the month are celebrated as First Friday Art Walks.  On these Fridays, art galleries and shops and cafes showcasing local artists present new displays of art.  You get to meet the artist, enjoy yummy snacks, chat with fellow viewers, and enjoy fabulous and fun art by folks you know and folks you don't.  When our family was part of a homeschool co-op, I thought it would be a cool idea to feature our children's art in one of our homes and include it in the art walk.  The art could rotate each month, featuring new artwork by the children.

Well, I never saw this vision to fruition, though in our own home for a time I made sure to showcase our girls' artwork in frames and rotate the artwork.  Even now I prefer to display artwork we create, rather than buying that of professionals (unless I know and love them!).   I love the freshness of children's art!

These paintings are by Gwynne from a number of months back, of a rooster (above) and of Amri's rooster, Lord Firestar (to the left).

And since we're on the subject of chickens, I'll include a photo of Lord Firestar with the first bloom of the season of our Mr. Lincoln rose.  Aren't they both handsome?

Enjoy!

Time - for the Sketchbook Project

Recently I participated in The Art House Co-op's Sketchbook Project.  They assigned me the topic of Time, and I set to work.  Quickly I realized I was "running out of time".  First one daughter, then the other, jumped in to help me, and the project became a mother-daughters affair.  My younger daughter contributed a lot of artwork, and my older daughter took a few photos.

Some of it was probably not what the visioners' had in mind: I ended up printing out copies of some of my past art and photos to finish the book.  In the end I sent it off -- on Time -- to The Art House.  Whether they include it in their Tour (the idea is that these sketchbooks will be a library collection, going on tour and then eventually housed in a library), and then enter a permanent collection or not, it certainly ended up being great fun creating a project like this with my daughters.  My younger daughter was especially determined that we finish it--no cutting out pages to do so!

Anyway, here it is.  Enjoy!

El Dia De Los Muertos

Mi Fiesta!

"Ofrenda" - art by Jane
and below that is ...
"Sugar Skull"

For the past few years I celebrated this deep, rich, beautiful holiday with family and in community. This year, the celebration is in the quiet earth of my soul. That said, I have 25 lbs of masa, a few pumpkins, some corn husks, and and various chiles, beans, and other ingredients to create those delicious treasures, tamales -- one of these days. And I have some artwork and photographs from past celebrations that I'd like to share. So please enjoy my blog "ofrenda"!


Photo of Bread Dough:
Ingredients for my 'pan de las inocencias' - bread dough includes a couple of crumpled organic red chilis, and generous helpings of fresh evening primrose and calendula petals from my garden, dried nettles gathered from our forest, and cinnamon. The inocencias mischievously nudged me about what to add!


Photo: Ofrenda in honor of las inocencias -- the young ones who have passed on--in utero, at birth, brief days, months, years into life ....


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