ToDo Challenge: Art with a Toddler

Creativity with Art: Toddler-Style

Meet Fiona, from the greater Denver area

Fiona, Two Years Old

It is never too early to encourage our little ones to be creative. They are so free in their mind, and everything they do is amazing. If only, as adults, we could adopt their mindset and not worry about how good our work is. Fiona is fearless. She likes to try everything.




Here you see Fiona painting in her back yard. She is trying out the new easel that her Nonna sent to her for her birthday. She likes to dress the part (notice the artist smock),

Two Year-old Artist

Nonna loves watching her creativity and adding some of her own to it, by taking one of Fiona's early art pieces (with a little help from Mom) and turned it into a fabric using Photoshop and Spoonflower (digital printing) in the process.

Fabric designed by Fiona with Mommy's help and Nonna's translation to a repeating pattern.
Printed by Spoonflower in North Carolina

A little bit about Fiona

Fiona is an aspiring artist who lives in the greater Denver area. She likes to think about what she does which you can tell because she moves into a complete-focus state when she is busy. She loves to be read to, likes to poke and push things, and keeps busy at all times. She also likes her quiet time, flipping through story books, as if she was reading them. Fiona turned two this week. Her parents are encouraging of all her activities and were reading Harry Potter to her in her first week of life.

Fiona, always, always checking things out.

Zen in the Yard during Challenging Times
During this 'at home' world we now live in, Fiona's dad created this Zen area in their yard. A lot of brush was removed, and now the area is being used for yoga (for Mom, Dad, and Fiona), reflection, and quiet time. At present this space is now deep in snow, when three days ago, it was a lovely afternoon. Welcome to Denver spring weather.

Frida Kahlo Exhibit and Costume

Frida Kahlo

While in Toronto last week, I was delighted to be able to visit The Textile Museum. They had two amazing exhibits: Artist Textiles: Picasso to Warhol, and Frida Kahlo, Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray with traditional Mexican costume from the Textile Museum.

Sadly... no photos of the Artist Textiles exhibit, which was fantastic!!! But there is a book. It was amazing to see how artists from the 40's and beyond took their paintings to the cloth.

Artists' Textiles 1940-1976

Jul 16, 2012

by Geoff Rayner and Richard Chamberlain

The second exhibit was on Frida Kahlo and her friend/companion, photographer Nickolas Muray. 

There were numerous photos taken by Muray and many that I've never seen before. 

Muray and Kahlo

To complement the photography, the Textile Museum pulled garments from their collection that represented the clothing typical of Kahlo.

Below, are a few of my favorites.

btw... there is a great library of books at the museum, and a wonderful librarian who assisted me with my research.

The Textile Museum

55 Centre Ave, Toronto, ON M5G 2H5, Canada

+1 416-599-5321

http://www.textilemuseum.ca/home

Heavily embroidered ensemble

detail

detail

otton blouse, with European Origins

Detail Shot of top

Art Workshop at Retreat

On Saturday we had our art workshop with Italian artist Giada Floris. This was a mixed-media workshop, and we all had to push ourselves to create a portrait-type piece using painting and collage techniques.

Here, to the left, you can see the results of our afternoon project.



Meet Giada. You can contact her at giadafloris@tiscali.it




Here you can see the group at work.... and the chaos of a creative workspace!

In honor of Georgia...

O'Keeffe that is.

Tonight I watched a TV movie on the life of Georgia O'Keeffe. I absolutely love to learn about artists, their lives, their struggles and achievements, and their art.

So, the movie was great for that.

Here are a few quote of Georgia's that are inspiring to me.

I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.

I feel there is something unexplored about woman that only a woman can explore.

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.

Click here to go to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum site.

Also... see an image on wikipedia.org

High Road to Taos: Ojo Sarco Pottery

Our second High Road artist stop was at Ojo Sarco Pottery.

Ojo Sarco Pottery
www.ojosarco.com
County Rd. 73
just off High Road to Taos-76, Ojo Sarco, NM 87521
(505) 689-2354


Kathy Riggs and Jake Willson, a husband and wife team, are the two artists who own and operate Ojo Sarco Pottery. Kathy is the 'thrower' and Jake builds pieces working with clay slabs. Their work is beautiful as you can see below.
Thanks to Brian for the tour.