11 July 2008

Of Children & Art

My just-3 year old nephew, H, has come for a week long visit (without his sister) with his grandparents and aunt. It's a bit tough with my mother's eyes, but my dad and I manage to tag team most of it even with my odd working schedule. H is a cuddle bug and has inherited his grandfather's sweet tooth. You know how some people have cognac before bed? Well, my father has a glass of maple syrup. Yep, that's right. When we were little my sister and I always had to hide any candy we had from his insatiable sweet tooth - not that he doesn't share, he's very generous but you have to get to it before he does. Tonight he had made homemade strawberry shortcake and my nephew was so excited he flapped his arms in the air and said "thank goodness the food is here!"
H experiments with the dog head cone as toy/ clothing

We've had a few bears through our yard this spring, mostly a mama black bear and her cub, and H has heard stories about them. For some reason he was talking about them and saying how if the bears come by at night he'll just punch them in the mouth. We mentioned that this would probably not work and he'd best let Disreputable Dog take care of it since he knows all about bears and what to do, when H raced inside and closed the door behind him to "keep the bears out before we go to bed".


The Disreputable Cat also enjoys the dog collar


Before joining H for dinner I went off to an art gallery opening called "We will be rich for the rest of our lives" of a childhood friend of mine, Gabe Liston - it was fabulous. He does these wonderful things called Blue Book tiles where he actually uses old books as canvases. He also does wonderful things with light in his paintings. Check out some of his work over at Lastwater and click on paintings or Blue Tiles for artwork. His subject is mostly children and he has a great knack for catching those emotional childhood moments.

11 comments:

  1. Hi! Those Blue Book Tiles are really interesting. I see what you mean about the light. Your nephew sounds adorable.

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  2. What inventive uses for a plastic collar!
    I love your friend's work it seems like something to cherish.

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  3. love the dog collar clothing. and the Blue Book Tiles are very cool.

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  4. H sounds a lot like my friend's little girl. She did the same sort of thing when they went camping.

    I really liked the paintings by your friend. He truly does amazing things with light (the painting with the fire was just amazing)!

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  5. very unusual art pieces, very appealing. And so is your nephew. I remember my nephew at that age..now he is ginormous!

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  6. Your nephew sounds so sweet. What a cute pic of him.

    And a glass of maple syrup??!! Ahhh--I do NOT have that much of a sweet toothe! (more salty/savory). But yeah, my 3-year old would do that (if I let her!)

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  7. Oh if only we could just punch the bears to get them to leave us alone!

    The artwork is amazing.

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  8. ooohhhhh. I like the one of the little boy holding a cow, he is looking up.

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  9. I love the paintings, they are filled with magic.

    And I also love the dances of the collar.

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  10. I'm sure your nephew is wonderful- "thank goodness the food is here!" - what a beautiful thing to say. I love when children come up with something like that from seemingly nowhere.

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  11. dj kirkby, glad you liked the art! and yes, I think my nephew is adorable, but then, I'm biased!

    sally forth, indeed, who knew that such collars made excellent toys for all and sundry? And I totally agree with you about the art.

    madge, glad you think so!

    amanda, I loved that one too.

    doris rose, I suppose mine will be ginormous one day too but for now I enjoy him pint sized.

    bean-mom, it's funny, I used to have quite the sweet tooth but I think I lost it somewhere - now I'm all about the salty/savory. My dad can't understand it. :)

    qt, it would be a bit scarier then pepper spray! Imagine how close they would have to get? Glad you liked the art.

    crazymumma, I like that one too - but I can't decide on a favorite.

    hel, different but similar kinds of magic, wouldn't you say?

    theelementary, it is wonderful isn't it? Because it truly is a wonderful thing that sometimes some of us take a little too much for granted.

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