Ephemeral

Two weeks ago, TwoBoo cut his first teeth.

On Saturday, he began army crawling like he'd spent his first nine months of life in a trench.

Today I came home and sniffled after dropping off The Boy at kindergarten. Then I cried as I pulled out the child safety seat for TwoBoo, who is now big enough to move out of his infant carrier.

I wish I weren't quite such a cliche, but my hard candy shell is broken.

So much of what I love is ephemeral: the changes in babies and small people, paper and other scraps to be used in artwork, photos (that I'm still dying to see) stored in my aunt's basement, family stories and memories.

So as I told myself to suck it up (see how well it's working?), I thought of this article on the first art made with plastics. The artists thought it would be "the new marble," but surprise! the plastic bonds are unstable and now they're melting, stinking, falling apart. And the pieces can't be fixed. All the museums which house them can do is exhibit them as little as possible, and take pictures of them while they're still recognizable.

Guess I should be glad my kids are growing, not degrading, and that they don't stink (irreparably) as they change.

Tarot card #8

If I was anything near as difficult to raise, back in the day, as I was to paint, it's a wonder my mom didn't smother me with a pillow.
This is me, age about four. I still remember the photo session; we had just moved to California that summer or fall. Note the peasant-style embroidery on the blouse. Welcome to the 1970s, kids, AKA the year 2004.

Look at all the yellow in my skin. It looks pretty close to the undertone of Indian Yellow Hue. Should be pretty easy to paint. Ha!
You should see what landed in the garbage.

Finally, I tried "flesh" tone (that would be Caucasian flesh) and was astonished at how much yellow there was in that peachy color. Indian Yellow Hue mixed with it right away was a disaster. (See exhibit A: lower right attempt.)

What I needed was to layer the flesh tone with a mix of soft white, Indian Yellow Hue and Burnt Sienna. More like a smear of the other three colors. I guess the flesh tone acted like white layered under other acrylics: it creates a more opaque base for the other colors.The finished painted-over skin compared to the photo:
I couldn't live with what I think of as Seventies Red (too orangey), so I went for a reddish purple overlaid with Interference Violet.
All this effort was for The Pretty Baby tarot card. I was thinking of times when I've felt like I could do no wrong, that everything about me was as it was supposed to be. At first, I thought of the typical princess images, including me in my wedding dress.
But then I remembered feeling that way as a kid when I went swimming. (And I used to luuuuuuuuuuv "Man from Atlantis." Come on -- you know you tried to swim like that at least once as a kid.) Putting my head on a fish looked weird, and not in a good way. Hence the mermaid.

Would you like to share that with the class?

Two examples of "eco-art" that the pre-kindergartners have made at The Boy's day care.

This summer, The Boy has gotten a chance to make art at school as well as home, so I know he's thrilled at that. His homework (yeah, that's right -- homework for pre-kindergartners) the other day was to bring in recyclables for them to make more "eco-art."
Between TwoBoo's baby food jars and The Husband's soda cans, the pre-k kids could probably remake the Statue of Liberty. I'd send along the (washed) used bottle inserts, but they look too much like unrolled condoms. No need for me to become That Mom.