This is an older photo I took of Greta when we were back in Greensboro. The look on her face and the grip in her white little knuckles, made the determination palpable during this painting session. She has always loved to paint and manages to make the most beautiful abstract artworks that I wish I were able to create myself. How is it that children can make the most simply beautiful lines and smears of color, and yet, when I sit down with the intent to make an abstract image, I struggle? Too much pressure and knowledge, I think. I find myself referring to this Picasso quote more and more as I watch her grow, and as I have made the shift to teaching elementary art.
(Our favorite finger paints!)
As her interests grow, she has discovered chalk, finger painting, gel window clings, stickers, and coloring books. It’s funny, coloring books used to be the evil anti-art thing that I had very few of growing up. In our shifting world the new evil anti-art thing tend to be screen time. Eric and I limit Greta’s screen time to 10 minutes, at the most during any given day. There a few art apps she really enjoys, but we still monitor her usage at all times. I am still amazed that she can unlock my phone, activate the camera on my phone, and take photos. You can probably guess what this mama uses her phone most for most often.
Due to her savvy phone skills, I end up with a lot of selfies like this one. Although many end up as just a smear of her skin color.
Lately, Greta’s been busy making digital artworks with The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Friends Sticker Book, which is based on the art and characters of Eric Carle. At $1.99 it is a deal! She made this illustration the other morning. The fun part about this app is the ability to choose objects and characters and stick them onto a background. There are 57 different stickers and 5 backgrounds to choose from. Greta loves the different sounds that accompany each sticker and loves to do silly things like place frogs on top of cakes.
Bluebird Hill Art 