Posted By Kathleen David on November 30, 2012
I remember as a kid coloring in coloring books with my Mom. She could color so carefully inside the lines, which was a skill that I so wanted. I remember that she praised me for my coloring work and told me that with practice I too could color inside the lines but coloring outside the lines was fine too.
I have been a color outside the lines kind of person my entire life. I have learned to color within the lines when needed but that the world outside the lines can be much more enriching and fulfilling.
My mother is a wonderful seamstress. When I was a kid I loved to watch her layout fabric and put the pattern on it. She would move pieces around to get the most out of the fabric. She would then cut the fabric with her special sewing scissors. I learned at a young age there were two pairs of scissors that were off limits to everyone but Mom in the house. These were her sewing scissors and her bandage scissors that she used when she was teaching nursing. After cutting the fabric, she would then sew it together on the sewing machine. I had a lot of really good clothing to play in that she made me.
I would watch my father sketch or doodle with a pencil or pen. It was something that he would do almost absentmindedly. I loved the results. He also did some painting. And I will always remember being perched on a stool in the basement workshop watching him make my mother a special cloisonné pin for her birthday.
I watched my father create his desk out of a door and some sawhorses. I watched him make the coat hooks that we still use to hang our coats on. He did all kinds of woodworking projects all over the house when I was young.
They bought my brothers, sister, and me crayons and other arts supplies to play with. They encourage us to create. When I was really little I remember my mother making me a flying monkey vest out of heavy paper. The flying monkeys were my favorite characters in the Wizard of Oz. I also had this great cardboard house they got me that I spend many a day playing with. Legos were big in our house. They encouraged the creativity and imagination in us.
Years later I am sitting on the floor next to my daughter as we color in a coloring book. She asks me if she ever be able to color within the lines like me. I tell her that in time she will but coloring outside the lines is not a bad thing.
I am grateful for all the things my parents did for me to encourage me to be creative.
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Posted By Kathleen David on November 29, 2012
There is an article that was brought to my attention today entitled The top 10 Skills Children Learn from the Arts
We are fortunate that at this point Caroline’s school offers Arts and Music enrichment to their students. We also live in fear for the budget cut that is all going to make that go away. But right now she is in a pretty good situation. The Library less so since the school board decided that one librarian can serve more than one school at a time (but that is a rant for another day).
Because she has taken music and chorus since she was in kindergarten, she can read music and that is entirely due to her chorus teacher. Last year she learned to play the recorder and was pretty good at it. Now she is working on playing the flute. It is not easy but she is trying hard to learn the muscle memory needed to play. She participates in the extracurricular chorus, which teaches her discipline because if she misbehaves she knows she is out and it means a lot to her.
Because she has an art teacher, she has learned both about art and how to make it. She has learned skills and techniques that have made her a better artist. She really liked it and wants to learn more.
She has opportunities to participate in the school play if she wants. There is an after school group that is for theater games and scene study.
One thing that has vanished is the gifted program for the bright kids. No money for it any more so the teachers so what they can to make sure that the children are challenged.
However it can vanish in an instant because of things like “no child left behind” and state regulations along with school budgets and state and federal funds.
Caroline I am not that worried about. She is creativity and imagination walking on two legs. It is part of her like breathing.
The kids I am worried about are the kids that don’t have the advantages that she has. The kids that tend to slip through the cracks. The kids that have a hard time thinking outside the box or seeing the potential in things. These sorts of people are what built America and now it is vanishing. America was built on innovation and we are losing that skill in the classrooms and in our children.
I am grateful that Caroline has the teachers she has in school.
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Posted By Kathleen David on November 28, 2012
And it is funny the things I am remembering about then. I was still working at Del Rey. My Doctor told me that I needed to go on medical leave until the baby was born. I was working on getting a bunch of projects either done or at a point I could hand them over to the other assistant. And Caroline would do backflips and practiced her front kicks and punches again the interior of my midsection. We called it the alien baby show where she would undulate just under the skin. I was also having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions getting me ready for the big day I guess.
Now she is in the 4th grade but in the 5th grade reading group because she is a good reader. She has some problems with math but we are working with her on that. She studies Kung Fu. She is learning to play the flute. She loves her Girl Scout Troop. She likes Monster High and Skylanders. She is still nuts about big cats and Dragons. She wants to be a large animal veterinarian specializing in big cats when she grows up.
She loves to draw and color. She is learning to sew. She is becoming her own person in so many ways.
Hard to believe that 10 years have past. It has gone by so quickly but I have lots of images in my brain of her life so I know that she lived it. I can see her in her play corral setting up her stuffed animals very carefully in family groups. I remember the baby giggles and smiles. The small hand grasping onto my finger. I remember swaddling her so she would sleep better. She uses to be the length of my forearm. Now she is taller than my elbow.
I am grateful for all the moments I remember of my daughter’s life.
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Posted By Kathleen David on November 27, 2012
I got the puppet done that I wanted/needed to get done yesterday. It is shipping off today and when I know that the owner has gotten it, I will post a photo of it.
So that is pretty much everything I HAD to get done this year, done. Not as much as I would care to but I continue to learn and grown as an artist. I will say that this was probably the least amount of material I have produced in a year. I thought about a lot of big projects but my follow through was not the best this year. I want to do better with that next year.
I also want to get back to making a doll or two. I went over everything I did this year and it is all cloth. I usually make at least one new doll by the Froud method but not this year. I have the materials I need to do so. I have an idea of something I want to do but if I am going to do it in time, I need to get started. I also am going to make one or two other things for the holiday season.
Even though I didn’t make much, I did sell what I made which is always nice. I did make costumes for Caroline. I did get the Doctors back in order for DragonCon which was a few more Doctor than I thought I was making. I have to remake one if I want to do the sketch at Farpoint this year, which I may since it is not the most difficult Doctor to make. I give those honors to 4 because of the scarf.
This next year I will try to show at the usual shows but I have some new things I want to present along with the usual stuff that are my signature pieces.
Doing this last puppet I learned that some of my skills have improved over the years so I don’t need to face these sorts of things with as much trepidation. Same thing happened with the last doll I worked on. I am better than I think I am at some things. Part of it is that I see all the flaws since I know how it went together rather than the piece as a whole.
So next year, more art and new types of art. And better time management.
I am grateful for all the things I did get done this year.
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Posted By Kathleen David on November 26, 2012
I have something but I can’t tell if it is a good old fashion cold or allergies that snuck up on me while I wasn’t looking. All I know is that I feel very off my game this morning. So I can tell that it is going to be a slog day as in I am going to slog through the day to get everything done.
Caroline’s Birthday party is now less than a week away and Wednesday she will be a week away from being 10 years old. I feel there are going to be some Caroline centric entries in my near future.
Football is football. Teams won and teams lost. My picks this week sucked and blew at the same time. Want your team to win? Don’t let me pick them.
Today is official (for me) Finish the Puppet Day! Which is what the day is going to be all about. Then it is pack up the puppets day and the send the puppets off to their new homes day, which may be Tuesday. Then it is onto the next project.
Hard to believe that we are less than a month to Christmas. We do cram the Holidays at the end of the year. Also Hanukah begins at sundown on Saturday December 8th. December is a jam packed present month for Caroline.
I am grateful for polar fleece. Makes puppet making a heck of a lot easier.
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