Art at Home

Seeing how much Anjali enjoyed ArtBeast, I was motivated to incorporate more art into our daily life. Especially after she dressed herself, perched a bag on her shoulder, tried to open the front door, and said, "Come on, Mom! Let's go to ArtBeast!" (She's been calling me Mom lately, I think after she's heard me talk about Nanna. It feels weird to me ~ kind of like she aged ten years overnight, but I've gotten used to it. I'm sure I will enjoy being her "mom" when she is that old, but I'm glad she's still two for now. ;)
We have done some fun "wet on wet" painting ~ with water colors on wet paper. The wet paper draws out the brilliance of the colors instantly, as opposed to dry paper, which takes many layers.

It also helps it simply be a free exploration of color and paintbrush and water, as opposed to concentrating on producing a picture. I had never used this method before, and I find it so satisfying to my senses ~ just playing with color. Papi enjoyed it, too. :)

After an unsuccessful trip to a couple local art supply stores in search of wooden beads for children, it dawned on me that I had several of my own broken necklaces tucked in the back of the closet waiting for that magical fairy-bird to come string them back together (like in Cinderella). Haha! Why not put these to use in making art? I had looked for beads with wide enough holes so that Anjali could string a piece of yarn or shoestring through with no trouble. Well, these beads did not fit that, but we were already set up to "make neck-wisses," so I winged it with embroidery thread and a large quilting needle. This didn't set Anjali back for a second. She immediately went to town stringing a necklace on her own - pretty much as quickly as I made one for myself! She poked herself only once, said "ouch!" smiled over at me, and kept stringing. If I hadn't tried to improvise, I would have sought out some elementary version of "beads for kids," second-guessing Anjali's capability. :) We have made a few necklaces, and a bracelet, worn them, and then dumped the beads back into the bowl to have more stringing fun. She heads to the desk on her own to string beads. I also rediscovered my own love for stringing beads. In recent years, I had put it off as a tedious chore. As I sat down to string with Anjali, I remembered that I had strung hundreds of seed beads when I was younger. It is such a soothing, contemplative activity.

I'm sure we'll make it back to ArtBeast, but I'm glad we don't have to *buy* our art experience every time Anjali wants to paint. The art studio is where you make it. :)