Artists Among Us

Every year Hubs and I head out to an art show featuring hundreds of artists….at the elementary school! The students work for weeks and weeks with their art teachers on their artwork that is the same theme featured by each grade level. The kindergarteners’ project was once their hand traced, which ends up being turned into a fish in a colorful aquarium scene. Sometimes the art teachers have the students replicate a famous painting such as The Scream, which used a photo of the student screaming while standing on a path, with a colorful swirl in the background for the sky.

The first time the school had all the students artwork displayed, the company that was used to mat and frame each piece sent home a postcard showing my child’s artwork. I freaked thinking my child’s artwork was chosen to be on THE postcard to notify all parents of the artshow. But they cleverly had each child’s artwork made into its own postcard advertisement. Very smart because that year we had all three kids in elementary school so we left with three pieces of framed, matted artwork.

But this latest year’s design was a surprise. I did not know until I arrived that Youngest had recreated American Gothic:

I got a kick out of seeing all the different “remakes” of this classic.

Another grade featured a downtown cityscape:

We have a hallway that has about six pieces of their artwork from these artshows—they are all in black frames. On the other side of the wall I decided to make a display of family/kid photos, all framed in black, in chronological order or events….the photos end about 6 years ago…I really need to keep more up to date!

The kids have been known to tell their teachers that they get their creative art side from their dad. When people come over they see his “modern” style paintings and ask me if I am the artist and I say no. You may recall the artsy measuring stick from last Christmas (we really need to sell these—I have loved using it every few weeks!!). He also paints rocking chairs in bright, whimsical designs.

He also likes to paint on large canvas using bright colors…..which really isn’t our style of home, and at first I told him he needed to keep the paintings in the basement, which is a guest room and play room. But I have to admit that this modern one in red is a good contrast to our traditional living room:

Our family room has very high ceilings and this one fit well high up:

And me? Well, I’m pretty amazing in the kitchen, making tasty meals for these “starving artists”. I need to start taking some photos of these meals that I swear are under $10-$12. On Saturday I made a fish and shrimp and corn chowder -- what I do when I cook something new is look at several recipes and cut and paste them in my mind using what I like best about each one and then I wing it. This chowder was so tasty I had two huge bowls and was so full I almost went into a coma and went to bed at a rare, early hour.