Snow-pocalypse 2010

Every time it snows here on the west side of Extra-Blue State, people Lose They Damn Minds.

Just one to three inches of snow, but you'd think it was nuclear winter.

So I won't bore you with more crashed buses and cars... I'll thank God again that I don't have to work in the snow, and show you what else happens when it snows.

First-graders who have a snow day make celebrity appearances at their former day care centers.

Real snow makes fake wreaths look more natural.

Small people try on their mother's gloves.

 

And then it's time to get ready for Hanukkah Christmas Thanksgiving.

Need more time

Speaking of art and motherhood... I was all over both this weekend. Don't know if I'd need forty days and forty nights to explore the Skirball Center. But I sure could've used more than two hours.

We took The Boy, TwoBoo and and the niecey-nieces to see the "Noah's Ark" exhibit.

It's like an interactive children's museum exhibit, but better: all the animals are made of recycled bits and thingamabobs.

Check out the crocodile's eye ridge -- it's a glove! See if you can identify the other recycled bits, kids.

You can make the animals march in two by two...

 

... and climb the rigging... 

... to pull a rope that makes the elephant's trunk wave.

Who knew there'd be so much to see? I remember when the Skirball Center was nothing more than a flat patch of dirt. But it's not just a kids' fun center. Oh no.

Twelve of the original 1000 Journals are on display -- and you can contribute a page to the project!

Love that I don't have to explain it to the kids. They just want to jump in.

No time to do my own page. Gaaah! And guess what's opening tomorrow -- tomorrow, people...

A Maira Kalman exhibit! (Closed during installation, but I could see this above the barrier...)

Jeebus. Where have I been that I didn't know about this?! Oh yeah... a thousand miles away. I need more time and frequent-flier miles.

A podcast shout-out to artist moms

I tell you, there aren't many things that are more fun than hanging out Ricë Freeman-Zachery and her husband Earl...

 ... except maybe doing a podcast with Ricë! Which I did last week, with Aimee Myers Dolich of Artsyville, as we talked about risking sanity and carving out time to make art while also being somebody's mother.

I first met Ricë three years ago at Art & Soul Portland, and sometime last year Ricë introduced me to Aimee on Facebook. As Ricë said in her post about the podcast, she's not exactly the motherly type (although she's said she'd be happy to meet my kids when they're a little older and less prone to stickiness). But Aimee and I are not exactly uber-Mommy types, either, so we have a lot to talk about. Go listen!