Drawing/Cooking/Santa

Painting/color/shape

This morning

was rainy and dreary.  But my son, with gusto in his heart and determination in his stride, walked up those school bus steps.  I promptly started to cry as the bus pulled away, but really I cannot be happier inside.   He has taken to this world with excitement and confidence in who he is.  He heads out with curiosity and a delight in the prospect of learning to read (as then he can "take books everywhere" he tells me, while I nod in complete understanding at that wonder upon wonders).  He knows to say thank you and please and he knows to help those who might be a little sad today.  I am so proud to be his mother.

Pure summer

Green and Red (first and second notable images from the last week)

I've been silent here for a time due to a trip to the beach last week.  Two images from our vacation...one of the palms we passed each day en route to the sand and water and of course a shock of sandy red hair bent over some recent new discovery.

Delirious joy! It's official, we've another bookworm in the house!

Alexander in the studio

Delight (in two images)

Another Alexander art post

Now this one does not fit into the category of those drawings of course, but it's pinned onto our special art wall because....well, it is so ODD.  I never imagined some pressed together bits of clay on a paper plate could be so uncannily articulate.  And I love the "Alex T." written in green by his teacher above the eye brows.

Alexander's drawing as of late...

Oh it has been awhile since I posted some of my son's artwork here, so perhaps you can forgive me for indulging in such shameless behavior today.

My husband and I converse (as only two art teachers and artists might) on how fascinating it is that advances in Alexander's work always happen overnight--literally.  One day he is making drawings that look a certain way and then the next day some new tendency arrives--fully formed and utterly captivating.  One such leap happened last Sunday in church.  I gave Alexander a sheet of the attendance pad because it has a blank back; of course HE preferred the lined front and proceeded to make the drawing in one go.  I recall very little of that sermon as I kept sneaking a peak at his progress...and thankfully was able to save it before he went a little too crazy with the poking holes phase of the drawing (an endlessly enjoyable church activity you know).

He received some peer affirmation at school the next day from all the little boys in his class; Chris found them hovered around Alex while he completed another version of his "bat castle" series.  He generously listened to and added all their suggestions and THEN allowed them all to demolish the drawing since it was on a dry erase board.  We wanted another for ouselves so the FOLLOWING day he came home with the second drawing you see here--for his dad and I to keep.

Alexander's sculpture

Not much art got made while we were away save for the sculpture Alexander made one evening while the older folk sat on the porch. 

Mother/mother

My posts will be sporadic in the next week due to travel.  Tomorrow my son and I leave on a six day trip that will take him to State College, Pennsylvania (where very excited grandparents await) and then Philadelphia to meet me before we return to North Carolina.  I will travel to State College with him, and then embark solo to New York to visit good friends from college, see some shows and attend the opening of a group exhibition of mine, Mother/mother--at A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn.  (Do you recall the photo of those who established A.I.R. in the 1970's from your college art history/criticism/womens studies/gender studies class?  I haven't been able to dig it up online but I see the image vividly in mind--a bunch of women together in a beautiful B&W photo...Nancy Spero, Ana Mendieta, Harmony Hammond maybe.)  

The above image is my collage in the show--an older collage from 2006, made one year after Alexander was born.  I'm excited to be in this show because the curator, Jennifer Wroblewski, is interested in how one's work has changed/evolved/been conditioned by becoming a parent.  Nothing has affected my work more in the past five years, but the result has not produced a bunch of images about babies, or diapers or domesticity (which is not to say those things can't produce amazing work).  The changes I've experienced in the studio have more to do with world view, with looking and with vision.  When Alexander arrived, I found it nearly impossible to conceive of a WHOLE from the outset.  Instead a whole had to be built, literally constucted--piece by piece by piece. 

This week #3

One of the other constants of the week (once Alexander's energy returned) was a consideration of marble runs and racetracks.  Alex's definition of both is very broad, and therefore quite inspiring.

Here are some pics of one of his more elaborate constructions/installations.

A very pointed view of the world at 7:38pm, last evening

I love watching my son take pictures.

Last evening, just prior to bed, he asked me to turn the camera on for him as he wanted to take a couple pictures.

He took a picture of the screen on our window, the letter magnets on our fridge, a lot of the dog, me drinking a glass of water. And then I watched him open up the microwave so he could take a picture of its inside.

That's what you see here, in the second image--the inside of our microwave. All this happened at about 7:38pm; he took a picture of the clock too.

Alexander's picture making bonanza occurred after a slew of sock-it-to-your-mom-the-supposed-artist moments. While I was making dinner he wandered into the kitchen with three just-made drawings; on each page was a string of his letters (which are a brilliant conglomeration of "accurate" letters and letters Alex has made up on the path toward learning his letters). Each drawing/string of letters was the name of a lost dog.

Every artist needs a four year old child to talk to with frequency.

My son's first self-portrait

All of sudden, in seeing this photo, I felt the whole heavy history of self-portraiture (as I understand it) veer up, around and over (like a long rug being shaken)--to settle as something new and alive and curious.

Serious Silliness and Set-ups

This afternoon: a marathon "set-up" building session with all the wooden blocks we could dump out onto the floor.

I tried to take some photos with the camera in my computer as Chris has our camera in Georgia to document studio work. Alas, the shots of Alexander dancing were a lot more interesting in the end. (I rather like their quasi film-still look...)

Dancing, knocking ants off trees with water, set-up building, double banana-bread making, and I am investigating the prospect of making some Pennsylvania Dutch Shoofly pies...these are the markers of our day together.

Today

My son asked me if I thought I could pick up the sky.

My new studio mate

After eons of trying to figure the best place to set up a space for my son to draw, paint (cut paper, make collages, squeeze out glue) I finally just pushed my own desk over, cleaned off two small tables and set him up right next to me in my little in-house drawing/reading/writing/etc. studio. Alexander got right to work of course--and is pleased to no end about "our" studio.

A veritable city overtakes our living room--