A few new Etsy items

I completed a handful of bottlecap necklaces last week and have listed a few in my Etsy shop tonight. I'm trying to get to some more new things in order to earn some money to take my daughter to visit an exhibit of Roman art this spring. She studied Greek and Roman history last year, and of course I teach art, so I want to see the companion exhibit of Ghiberti's door panels. So, in a shameless appeal for your patronage, if you see something you like, don't hesitate to buy it--lol! Blessings to you and yours and may you not have the tons of snow that we have! --L

And the Winners Are...

Winners? Was I having a contest? No, just the results of what pieces of art are favored by my 9-11th grade students.

The favorite painting, with most of the "votes", was Paul Delaroche's The Execution of Lady Jane Grey. (You can click on the images for larger versions--it's worth it!)

This one was a fvorite because of the drama and realism of the scene. The students responded to the emotions of the people in the image and how the artist created a highly dramatic moment through the use of light.

The second favorite was Albrecht Durer's Knight, Death and the Devil.

They liked this one because the knight is not afraid of death and represents how we do not need to be afraid when we live in Christ. They also liked the symbolism of the different elements (the armor as the armor of God, the faithful dog trotting at the knight's heels, etc.).

Another favorite was Vincent van Gogh's The Potato Eaters.

The student who chose this piece liked how the artist created the atmostphere through use of color and value, as well as the rough brushwork, which added to the roughness of the scene.

The final favorite was another van Gogh, Starry Night.

This student also like van Gogh's brushstrokes and how they created movement and rhythm.

I enjoyed reading their responses and discovering which pieces they liked and why. It is always interesting to me to find out what people like about a painting because many times they see things that I didn't notice. What's your favorite painting/piece of art? I'd love for you to share by leaving a quick note in the comment section. And don't forget to tell why, too. Have a blessed day!

Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, men have named you...

In case you were wondering who she really is, check out the latest.


















I shocked my art students last year when I confessed that I don't particularly care for this painting. When I started analyzing it I realized that portraiture isn't my favorite type of painting; I prefer storytelling and allegory pieces and landscapes. Here's a favorite by Raphael, called Allegory, The Knight's Dream.

















This painting, The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, by Paul Delaroche, was a favorite in art class this year. The "Mona Lisa incident" led to a great discussion about how we can separate opinion from objectively looking at art. In other words the Mona Lisa is a great painting because of Leonardo's incredible techniques of sfumato and chiaroscuro, and not because everyone likes it. Truthfully, to try to label a piece of art as a great piece or a masterpiece simply as a reflection of our taste is kind of dangerous. What if I'm a critic with a newspaper column and I don't like yellow? Does that suddenly mean that Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie should be dismissed? Or van Gogh's Night at the Cafe (either version)? In labelling great art we need to rise above the level of opinion and talk in terms of composition, meaning, style, color, etc. Or, if we do want to dwell in the realm of opinion, to recognize it and talk in that vein.

And in that vein, we also talked about developing their own likes and dislikes in art, and how those tastes may differ from their teacher--none of which affects whether or not the Mona Lisa is a great painting. So, if you like something that the critics don't, it doesn't mean you're in the wrong. It's okay to like 19th-Century French Academic art and the Impressionists at the same time. I think it's a good idea, though, to give it a little thought and discover what it is you like about each--it makes art more interesting. On our last test I asked the students to tell me their favorite painting that we've looked at this year and to explain why, which was fun. (Side note: be aware that clicking on the art links may lead to images that contain some painted nudity--art is that way. I try to always keep this a family-friendly blog, but it's hard to monitor every image that will come up when clicking on a clearinghouse sort-of database for these artists, so I'm giving you a heads-up.)

And here's another tidbit. Technically it's not correct to call Leonardo da Vinci by just "da Vinci". That part refers to where he is from. I don't call my friend in Canada "of Hamilton." Instead I call her Dianne, and we should refer to Leonardo as (are you ready for this) Leonardo. (Especially posted for William Kloss.) Of course, then there's Caravaggio, who did go by a name that refers to where he is from because his real name was Michelangelo Merisi and he presumably didn't want to be confused with the other fellow, Michelangelo Buonarroti--you know, the Sistine Chapel fellow. Isn't art fun. :-)

What Ho! Start the Year with a Laugh

A friend posted this wonderful link to Jeeves and Wooster read aloud. The kids and I are great fans, so we want to share this link with you, too. Click here for some great humour.

The Safety Officer Speaks, or, Never Play With Fire

Getting down to brass tacks today, I finally finished vacuuming the after-Christmas rearranging and changing, etc. In the last couple days I have safely stowed the ornaments, the putting away of which revealed the pitiful state of the bookshelf and surrounding piles. And so that had to be dealt with. How could I have so many books that I still haven't read? I pulled them all out, stuck them in a basket by the bed and cleaned the area. Once the books were back into a satisfactory state, I finished the vacuuming, which included curtains, lamp shades and the fan blades above the table. (After finishing lunch, thank you so much mom!) By then I had the vacuum so close to the kitchen that I finally remembered a task that keeps catching my eye, just not at the right moment--the dusty state of my kitchen curtain. Having completed that task my eye fell on the refrigerator.

Ah yes, the refrigerator. Did you know that you have to clean the underside of your refrigerator periodically? Especially if you have A) pets, B) a very dusty house, C) a lint-source very near, or D) children. Hmm, we fit all of these qualifications, so we try to clean this under-fridge space at least once a year, but preferably twice. But we didn't always know about this important cleaning chore, which brings up the subtitle of this post.







Once upon a time, in a house far, far away (okay, really only about 10 miles away) there lived a mostly young couple with a brand-new baby. Oh, and cats--three cats. The happy, unknowing couple had lived in this little yellow house for about 6 years, all of them with the cats, when one day mommy and baby went to visit grandma in another town. Poppa was planning to go away for the weekend on an important fishing trip with clients from work, but as things so often go, something else came up and he didn't make it on the trip. Instead, he went home to the little yellow house. When he came in the door, after petting the cats, he immediately noticed a bad smell. A terrible, something-is-catching-on-fire smell, and a scary electricity-gone-bad sort-of-sound. All of it coming from the kitchen. And those lights--they never came out from under the refrigerator before! Quickly Poppa raced over, unplugged the fridge and grabbed whatever was handy to put out the potential fire. Blessedly, cutting the electrical current was all that was needed and no fire ensued. Poppa spent some time moving the fridge and suveying the damage (yup, we needed a new fridge), then opening windows to air out the house. At which point mommy and baby arrived home. They were surprised to see Poppa, but boy were they happy to have a home!

Of all the things my mom taught me to clean, she never mentioned this one. Years worth of cat hair had collected underneath and caused all the problem. To some of you, this may seem like a no-brainer, but I once had a college roommate who couldn't change a light bulb--we all have our failings. Truthfully, I just never thought about it. Fast forward to today, when I thought to clean this so-convenient-to-get-to-space. Here's a pic of some of the fun.
Mind you, this is after I'd already vacuumed quite a bunch, so what you see here is just a little bit of the lint. The whole space underneath was full of this stuff and we just cleaned it about seven months ago or so. Go ahead--if you haven't cleaned yours, go take a look. Should I tell you here that if you haven't cleaned your fridge bottom lately and you're thinking you should, please, please, please! UNPLUG IT first! The power won't be off long enough to cause any problems, but crispy friends are never a good thing. And be prepared--you may have to come up with some creative options for cleaning--see my stick with a paper towel for swiping the really-hard-to-get-to-spots? I'm not, btw, going to recommend you undo any screws or bolts without consulting someone who knows more about these things because you never know what may come loose if you do, but please do the best you can.

And while I was thinking back to our almost fire so long ago, I realized that it was exactly one year ago today that the ground wire from the street to our house burnt out and shot 220 through our home, killing some appliances and starting a near-fire in our basement. Remember that a power strip is just a way to add more outlets for your convenience. A small surge protector keeps the electricity flow even to whatever items are plugged into it, but it does not protect against any kind of catastrophic event. If you have a major surge, those little things can blow-up/melt-down and start a fire. Keep the areas around them clean. BTW, they don't protect your computer, either. If you want to make sure your computer is safe through that kind of event, you want it plugged into something more substantial. When I left my graphics job (ten years ago this spring!) I bought a major battery back-up unit that has saved my computer twice: once when lightning struck our home and came in through the phone line, and last winter through the 220 episode. This little back-up unit died over Christmas (I probably should have replaced it sooner) and I almost went with a heavy-duty-looking surge strip, until I asked for help. The guy said to not be fooled; even the big-looking surge protectors aren't enough in a catastrophic event. Well, since we've lived through two, so I'm not taking any chances.

Oh, and don't play with matches either! The safety officer has spoken.

PS--I don't know why the pics came out with the strange white spaces. I've tried adjusting and re-exporting, but it's not helping. It's late and I haven't read any of those books, so we're just living with it. But, if you have any tips on how to fix it, please share--they really look dorky...

The Twenty-Third Psalm

The God of love my shepherd is,
And he that doth me feed;
While he is mine, and I am his,
What can I want or need?

He leads me to the tender grass,
Where I both feed and rest;
Then to the streams that gently pass;
In both I have the best.

Or if I stray, he doth convert
And bring my mind in frame;
And all this not for my desert,
But for his holy name.

Yea, in death's shady black abode
Well may I walk, not fear:
For thou art with me; and thy rod
To guide, thy staff to bear.

Nay, thou dost make me sit and dine,
Even in my enemies' sight:
My head with oil, my cup with wine
runs over day and night.

Surely thy sweet and wondrous love
Shall measure all my days;
And as it never shall remove,
So neither shall my praise.

--George Herbert

Christmas Tidings From our Home

Like it is for so many other families at this time of year, our world has been a whirlwind of activity lately as we prepare for Christmas.

A couple weeks back our oldest fell down while playing at school and got broke.

Ouch! Our youngest just lost his first tooth, but I'll leave that one to your imagination.

For some reason the urge to make cookie plates has taken hold on me. This only happens once every three or four years, so I go with it.


In another five years I'll get the urge to send out Christmas cards, but by then we won't have anyone left to send to, I'm sure. Sadly, my family members have slowly dropped me from their lists and at this point we get more cards from businesses than from relatives. I hope they know that my lack of Yuletide greetings doesn't mean I love them any less (any friends and relatives reading this?).

The little lamb (of God) cookies from the plates.


For those of you who are also not highly experienced in the culinary arts, don't turn the oven temperature up when the meringues are inside it. You get not good results. This bag is ours. I've already eaten the worst ones.


For my snowmen I didn't have enough marshmallows, so I cut them in half and the hats ended up looking more like cardinal hats in all those paintings of the saints in the art I teach. So here are the St. Jerome snowmen that went to fourth grade (where we studied St. Jerome and his translation of the Latin Vulgate early in history this year).


Kindergarten had a party that involved decorating cookies.


Fourth grade ate snowmen ;-). Ha, ha! Actually, I subbed for the teacher and made the kids take all wrapped goodies home, including the snowmen. There were plenty of unwrapped treats, trust me!

Kindergarten also had a play, so I've made some costumes. (All this and teaching too!)


We've had prayer time for a dear family who are still separated after much red tape. I've thought a lot about homecoming, reunion and faithfulness to our tasks lately and how these relate to the coming of The King of Kings. Please pray for our friends when you remember them.

We've had lots of snow. And just as much melting. Will it ever stay? I love the snow, although I don't care for driving in it. I am, however, growing accustomed to my husband's vehicle (not front-wheel drive, like what I've always driven), and the kids loved the donut I did the other day in a parking lot. It was not intentional (honest!), but it was the very first thing my son told my husband about when we returned from Christmas shopping...


I always enjoy the music of the season. Favorite songs this year include "I Wonder as I Wander," "Gabriel's Message," "The Wexford Carol," "He Is Born, The Divine Christ Child," and "Snow" by Loreena McKennit. My son loves "Feliz Navidad", my daughter likes "We Three Kings" and "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and my hubby likes it all. What are your favorite songs of the season? I'd love to hear from you.

Art I have been working on (necklaces for nieces):






Art I have not been working on:
This is a charcoal rendering of an earlier angel. I keep toying with the idea of adding some pastel colors to the charcoal--we'll see how brave I am over break.

The ubiquitous (in our house) snowflakes that help keep my hands busy.

I am keeping this one. Several years ago I started a book that I keep my favorite ones in, so I need to find it and add.

The house is a mess and I am feeling blessed to go to every other relative's home for celebrations this year. To have to have everything clean by tomorrow would send me over the edge right now. The one thing that keeps us all together in this time, however, is also the most important. No matter how busy we are in our family, we all remember that without Christ we have nothing in the end. If you have never encountered Jesus, I urge you to find out about Him. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Alpha and Omega, Who is coming back at the right time. Don't put off getting to know Him because only the Father knows when our time is up--it could be tomorrow, it could be years. Each year we celebrate the Advent season by adding figures to a nativity calender I made when the oldest child was little. We try to read some of the Christmas story along with the daily updates, and it always leads us back to Jesus and His birth, which is what we celebrate. We give gifts to honor the gift Jesus Christ gives to each person who will accept it: reconciliation with God the Father and everlasting life. The banner on our nativity displays John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Don't miss the gift.


Well, I do have to go tidy some things and finish a horse I am painting for someone for tomorrow. No matter what you are doing, I hope you will take a moment to meditate on why you celebrate this season and pray for loved ones. And with that, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! --L

What Christmas Means to Me

Winter sunset

In His hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to Him.
-Psalm 95:3



A snap of our area from the woods behind my husband's family home.

Snowflakes

It's that time of year again: snow season! And in honor of the foot of snow that we've had in the last few days (which, alas, will be gone in the next couple with wind and warming temperatures), I give you photos of some snowflakes I made last year.

There are two basic ways I fold my paper, both of which start with folding whatever sheet you are using down into quarters (two half folds). After that you can fold the folded edges together once to make a triangle (which will give you the four-pointed flake shown; if you want an eight-pointed flake, fold in half again, but because of the bulk the paper can be very difficult to cut, especially for children). Or you can fold it into thirds by bringing the top folded edge to the middle and the lower folded edge up to new top edge (which will give you the six-pointed flakes shown). From there just make sure you do not completely cut through either folded edge (meaning take out nips and such, but make sure at least some part of the folded edge remains or you will end up with pieces!).

Last year I taught third grade art, which at our school means Greek and Roman history. We used a sheet of motifs from this time period as a reference source for many of our art projects, including our snowflakes. Mine were made as samples, using those Greek motifs.

Angels

I frequently joke about how space-challenged I am: if a measurement is over 11x17 inches I just have a hard time picturing what the dimension is. This defect is from years of working in in-house graphics departments that had small budgets and small press runs. At the same time, however, I find that I am equally challenged by anything under about 5x6 inches. With that introduction, let me share the beginnings of a recent 4x4 chunky book project.



















The theme for the book was (still is--I've now mailed them and wait for the book to return assembled and bound) angels, which is a favorite subject for me. I've made several fabric angels, and love looking at the many Byzantine, Renaissance and Baroque paintings that include angels of all kinds. I've been teaching the fourth grade class about lines, shapes and patterns recently, so my first thought was to combine a Byzantine-inspired angel with a patterned border and the text--all done in rich colors resembling Pietro Lorenzetti's frescoes in San Francesco with lots of gold. But I couldn't get the elements to come together the way I wanted, so the next idea was to focus on the angel, but it kept looking like an Annunciation, which wasn't my verse. I finally sketched a copy of a lovely angel head by Pietro da Cortona (hmm, is there a Pietro theme emerging here?). Being rather pleased with the sketch, I began to flesh it out, which is how my 4x4 project ended up 20x20 inches. Oops!


Photographing it didn't help, so I finally re-drew it much smaller and simpler, photocopied the outlines and then proceeded with the hand-coloring, etc. I was pleased with the result, although I am also chunky-challenged so my pages aren't very dimensional. Oh well--at least it's the right size! Here's a photo of the large angel. I have since redone the wings to look both more bird-like and more like the lovely wings on so many Renaissance angels. I really like the colorful wings on so many of the angels from that time period. Fra Angelico and many of the Northern artists(here and here) really went crazy with the colors. And don't miss van Eyck's angels from the Ghent Altarpiece, which I have heard are the only angels in Northen Renaissance art without wings.

Random Adventures

Random Adventure Number 1:

I went to the library last night (in a desperate search for a book that I thought I had accidentally donated, but that's a whole different adventure--it turned up safely under a bed...) and passed a car travelling without its lights on. In the spirit of living dangerously, I flashed my lights. Ha! Yes, I did! And I am still here to tell about it. They did not turn around. They did not chase me down. They did not kill all the occupants in my car. Instead, they turned their lights on and continued on their merry way. I am beginning to suspect that they weren't even gang members.

Which all goes to prove urban legends are alive and well.






Random Adventure Number 2:

Not being a lover of creative culinary endeavors (other than as the audience, and even then it's highly improved by a participation experience!), it sometimes takes me a while to use up mostly shelf-stable ingredients. Last year we had a breakfast surprise when I discovered the baking powder had lost its vitality. Tonight I've discovered that my vanilla extract has reverted to the form of its main ingredient. Unfortunately this discovery came at the expense of my favorite chocolate pudding cake. Hic. Truthfully, no baking disaster could ever rival my sister's cookies from her own recipe (granted, she was young when it happened--as opposed to her being old now? Hmm, I hope she doesn't read this...). She added all the yummy stuff, but just left out all the raising agents, which made for the hardest cookies you've ever tried. My mother was going to throw them all away when I came home to visit from college. Well, who could let an opportunity like that slip by? I took them back to the dorm and distributed them to everyone who was *lucky* enough to get the word that someone had home-baked goodies. Rotten, I know, but my roommate and I never had to share any care packages again. Anyway, I guess I'd better put vanilla on the grocery list. Hic.




Random Adventure Number 3:

I made a hendiadys today. I picked up a biographical sort of book on Edward Gorey at the library not long ago (no, not during yesterday's adventure), which has been intriguing. I loaned my Amphigorey to a friend and need to get it back so I can post more words. But in the meantime I joined *bold* and *sweet* (I think that was the word--I found a very long grey hair on my head the other day, too. I had to have my mom pull one out while we were in Wyoming. I wonder how that feels--pulling your daughter's grey hair out?) to make a nice and intriguing hendiadys (ha ha).

Another unusual word I re-visited recently was cockalorum, as in high cockalorum. I can't remember why I knew it as a youngster, but hadn't thought of it in such a long time until I read an article about an artist recently, who was in the habit of pronouncing things to be high cockalorum. No, I can't remember who the artist was. (That grey hair was quite long; it had obviously been growing for quite some time and taking little pieces of my memory with it, said she who had always had an elephantine memory before children.) Cockalorum, if you're not familiar with the delightful word, is a reference to a self-important and boastful person or boastful talk. I'll have to dig up the artist now.

Well, I suppose it's to work I go now. We're doing Celtic knots and illuminated letters in fourth grade art tomorrow, so I need to look up examples. Good night. Go forth and use some words in a creative and fun manner, as opposed to a creatively fun manner, tomorrow. BTW, my kids and I recently spent some time reading Dr. Seuss in different accents. Quite fun; I would highly recommend it. As a matter of fact, "Green Eggs and Ham" lends itself very nicely to a Scottish accent and had the kids giggling for quite some time (sorry to those of you who naturally speak that way--I'm not trying to be disrespectful. You could try reading it in an Idaho-sort-of-fashion--we wouldn't be offended. And you have to admit that giggling children are much nicer than bickering children!).