Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Since I haven't made much of anything this week, I thought I would tell about two people who have been. I'm living vicariously through them this week.

Emma announced on Sunday-and reminded me on Monday--that is was TV Turnoff Week. I gotta say it--I'm impressed. I'm impressed despite the fact that this has never been an issue for Emma and me. When she stays with me for any time, she has always expressed a greater desire to be creating than vegging. I've seen her get up in the middle of a supposedly "favorite" show (and how she knows all these shows is beyond me, but she knows A LOT of them! I don't get it because her mom doesn't have cable) and say "Can I paint?"

So, it sounds like they're having a blast at home. They have been over regularly to raid my studio to complete projects that have been assigned to them at school as part of the whole celebration. They have taken home fabric, felt, sequins, poly fil, ribbons, and a large bag of rubber stamps to add to their already healthy stash of paints, papers, glues.

Emma is amazing, She has an incredible vocabulary, a probing intellect, she's very creative: She knows how to paint and sew, she knows the difference between a painting and a monoprint (she's done both); between pencil and charcoal, chalk and oil pastels; she knows the difference between playdoh, sculpey and raw clay! She understands concepts like mixed media, artistic license, realism, and expressionism. She was 3 when she asked her mom to hand her her "Magnus Opus" and 4 when she took a book about Buddhist art off of my bookshelf and asked me to tell her about it.

Happy Birthday, Emma! You're one of the most inspiring artists I know!

Oh-and I'll be making a pinata for your party.

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