I’m Just Doodling

In Memory of Grandma Jean

August 18, 1928 – July 27, 2011

We made her a scrapbook for her birthday and matted some of her trees.

She would always say, “I’m just doodling.” But to me all her “doodles” are a work of art. They’re unique, like a signature. They are all her.

You could find them doodled on the newspaper, winding their branches through columns and supporting a title. You could find them on the back of receipts in blue ink. You could find them on paper towels as you cleared the table, light pencil markings instead of a spaghetti stain. You could find them on the back of envelopes or unopened mail. You could find them in sketchbooks, upside down, sideways, and every which way. Pencil, ink, markers; all sorts of mediums will do. Mix and match them, doodle some flowers or ducks on them, add a picket fence and an old barn in the background. But they were always trees; bare branched trees reaching to the sky, gnarly trees resting below, skinny trees, fat trees, free-flowing trees. They were always trees…  occasionally you would come across one with leaves, but most of the time they were bare branched trees, bare naked trees, skeletal trees, robust old trees, dead trees, skinny trees, trees trees, trees… I remember the lines, lots and lots of lines, engraving the bark into the paper, marking their passage of time. 

“I’m just doodling,” she would say. 

But I wont find her sitting in her light beige leather recliner anymore; sketchbook propped up on her knees and colored pencils on each end table next to her, and in her chair, and underneath the recliner. They were everywhere. Drawers were filled with colored pencils, markers, pens,  crochet hooks, candy for her and the grandkids, and who knows what else in her little art drawers…jewelry, kleenex, a baggie full of change, a pack of saltines, you just never know.

I remember when I was little trying to copy her trees. The side of my palm would have pencil all over it because I would smear it through the whole picture, trying to go back and make it better.  It was close, but just not the same. They are as unique as nature makes them, they are one of a kind. They are my grandma.

I love and miss you, Grandma.

xxx

Hand Made Mother’s Day

One of my favorite Mother’s Day presents Bradley brought home from school the other day. A surprise hiding in his book bag, crushed and bent. A large piece of red construction paper, laminated and rolled up with the teacher’s writing on the outside – Happy Mother’s Day. How nice. When I opened it and saw the wonderful artwork drawn by my son, a picture of me…AND a nice little paragraph about his dear ol’ mom, ME…well, it brought tears to my eyes. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. It is one of my favorite keepsakes so far (I need to frame this one). I love that darn kid so much!

He was so proud of his present. Too cute!

o.k. , so I’m not 18. I’m 23.  😉  hee hee. When I first read that it brought tears of joy and laughter.

The best gifts have no price tags…they are made by little hands and come from the heart. Priceless.

xxx

Bubble Art

Sometimes I think I have these great ideas, and then they turn out not so great. This was one of those not so great ideas, which I didn’t find out until after we started. It turned into a colored bubbly mess. But we did have fun and got some cute results. * Note: I have seen this project done before with success. Just wasn’t happening for us yesterday. And now Crayola has come out with colored bubbles.*

Basically the idea is to put food coloring into a bubble solution. When you blow the bubbles you catch them with a piece of paper and it leaves a colored circle. It is really cute. But our bubbles kept splattering all over us and we had red and blue speckled faces and arms. Collin spilled (go figure) and part of our sidewalk is blue for the time being. Also, Murphy, our dog, kept catching the bubbles in his mouth. I’m sure he had a blue and red tongue, possibly purple. lol.

But when it was all said and done, we had fun and our pictures turned out cute. Check them out below.

I was hoping you would be able to see the colors blend. Oh well, maybe next time…if we try this project again. I will have to plan better.

What kinds of catastrophes have you made in the name of art?

xxx