Artistic Pictures By Tracey Ann

I don't think Tracey specifically knows how to change my phone so the pictures occur in black and white, but the pictures she took yesterday look very artistic as a result...

 

Taycer

Tracey is getting really good at writing the letters in her name... but she hasn't quite gotten the correct order down.

Yesterday, she signed her picture, "TAYCER".

 Also, I'm not sure who all the people in this picture are... at one point, she said it was "All the people" and at one point, she started naming people in our family.

Either way, it's a great picture by Taycer!

 

Painting Project

I have done a few painting projects with all three kids before but they have involved my painting their feet or hands - one at a time, and my placing their respective little hand or foot in a very specific, contained location and creating a little craft.

Well, yesterday was the first time I actually handed all three children paint brushes and watched what happened.

We did a family painting project, and I'm actually impressed with how little paint ended up all over our kitchen.  The twins ate plenty, and Tracey later panicked when she saw "red spots" on her face in the reflection in the mirror, but all in all, I'd say the painting project was a success.

I can't show pictures of the final result yet, because its a surprise... but the painting project was a success.

 

A Larger Canvas

I love this picture because the other day, my sweet Tracey wanted to paint a picture.  Now, I am all for washable paint to create beautiful pictures when the weather is nice and they can paint outside wearing swimsuits.  For indoor painting, I resort to water paint where Tracey chooses a picture from her paint-with-water pad, and then she paints water across the page which creates the colors.

Well, the other day, I had to laugh because she painted all the water across the paper... and then the next thing I knew, she had crumpled up the (now very soggy paper) and was using her paint brush to paint a much larger surface area of the table in front of her.

As her mother, I had to correct her and remind her that she was just supposed to be painting on the paper... but what I really was thinking was that my wonderful child's imagination was just too large for that piece of paper, and she needed a larger canvas to express her inner artist.

 

Why Do I Run?

I have been wanting and waiting to write this post for MONTHS!

Last fall I was working like crazy on a sewing project for my parents.  It was a poem called "Why Do I Run?"

My parents used to have a framed beautiful hand-stitched piece of this poem done by my dad's twin sister, Aunt Helen Lee.  She was AMAZING at sewing!  Cross-stitching was her favorite, and since my parents are both runners, she stitched this poem along with a few little runners in the margins of the work.

It hung for years in my parents Vail condo until one year, during a big renovation, the beautiful framed sewing piece disappeared.  It was never found.  Aunt Helen Lee died about twelve years ago, and ever since the internet really took off, I often thought, if I could find a copy of this poem, it was a gift I'd like to sew myself and re-create for my parents.  I searched for this poem online for YEARS.  The only line I could remember was "Why Do I Run?  Maybe I'm Crazy."

FINALLY, this past fall, I FOUND the poem on someone's blog, and thus began my fall of sewing, and trying to create my own pattern for sewing a poem.  Both Lexie and Lloyd took it upon themselves to help me throughout the process.

I finally got the stitching done in time for Christmas, but I didn't have time to have it framed.  So I gave Mom and Daddy the stitchery, and told them a frame was coming.  They loved it and immediately recognized the poem as the same one that Aunt Helen Lee had given them 30-plus years ago.

This August is the first time I've seen the finished project -- the framed "Why Do I Run?" poem hanging on the wall right by the door that they use to go out running three times a week.  They have assured me that this wall hanging is NOT going out to Colorado where it might disappear like its predecessor.

For anyone who, like I, spend YEARS searching the web for a part of this poem, please enjoy the "Why Do I Run?" poem in its entirety (author unknown):

Why Do I Run?
'Tain't No Mystery --
Wanna Have a Good
Medical History,
Doctor Told Me
Runnin' Is Great --
Helps Them Blood Cells
Circulate,
Great For The Lungs,
Great For The Ticker,
Can't Nothin' Getcha
In Better Shape Quicker,
Feels So Healthy,
Feels So Sweet,
Pumpin' My Arms
And Flappin' My Feet,
Moldin' My Muscles,
Firmin' My Form,
Pantin' Like A Pack Mule,
Sweatin' Up A Storm,
Keeps Me Youthful,
Keeps Me Loose,
Tightens My Tummy,
And Shrinks My Caboose,
Beats Bein' Sluggish,
Beats Bein' Lazy,
Why Do I Run?
Maybe I'm Crazy!

Truth In The Art

I believe in symbolism through the arts.

I spent four years studying the symbolism and imagery found in music, and several of my best friends spent four years (and longer) studying the symbolism and imagery found in visual arts.

I had the privilege of studying one semester of art history, while I was living in Rome and I absolutely LOVED that class.  I just loved delving into history, traditions, symbolism, themes, religion, and politics all having noteworthy influence on a specific artistic work.  Then, because the class was being taught in Rome, more often than not, the class would then see the actual piece of art we were studying, in person.

After taking that art history class in Rome, I began to think that if I had taken an art history class earlier in my collegiate career, I might have become an art history major instead of a music history major... or possibly both.

I love discussing the symbolism of art.  Some of my favorite times with friends have been seeing a CRAZY looking statue or painting in an airport or on a college campus and discussing the possible symbolism present in the artwork.  We often have no idea what we're talking about, and we never know if we are even close to being right, but it is SO much fun to open our minds to the artistic possibilities and potential of a piece of art.

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The American Flag is FULL of symbolism.
There is symbolism in the colors:
Red: Hardiness and Valor
White: Purity and Innocence
Blue: Vigilance, Perseverance and Justice
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There is symbolism in the layout:
The blue rectangle representing the Union.
The white stars representing the individual States.
The alternating red and white stripes representing the original 13 British colonies.
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On the topic of symbolism in art, on this day of the first presidential debate, I am going to touch, VERY briefly on a political point.  I am going to withhold my political opinion about what I am writing, and just share, my artistic analysis.

President Obama has a nifty artistic slogan affiliated with his campaign.  The artistic slogan has become recognizable as a symbol of an Obama-supporter, and was first released in 2007 when Obama began his first campaign for president.

The creator of the slogan, Sender LLC describes the "O":

"We were looking at the “o” of his name and had the idea of a rising sun and a new day... The sun rising over the horizon evoked a new sense of hope."

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 While many elements of Obama's "O" are consistent with elements from our American Flag, President Obama's artistic slogan is missing one very important symbol present in our national artistic symbol.  He has the red, the white, the blue.  He has the stripes... but there are no stars.

The stars, which represent the individual states in our American Union are missing from his artistic motto, which is waved far and wide across the country to represent him.  The solid blue, which represents the Union in our flag is present, but within the Union is not a single star.

Some conservatives have spoken for over three years about how government is getting bigger and bigger, and the big government, and the big government spending is overstepping itself onto the rights of states and individuals.

I am not going to say, today, if I agree of disagree, but I will say, that he kind of warned us with his artistic slogan.