Art!

There's been a lot of talk lately on my unschooling email list about art swapping and altered art and then I come to Poppins' blog and see all the pictures she's doing and I'm even more inspired.

So I kept looking at her stuff and hearing about all the things my friends are doing and thinking about how I wanted to learn to draw but don't seem to do it. I even took out the kid's art book Poppins mentions on her blog (I took it out once years before and liked the look of it so I tried again) but I just couldn't get into it for whatever reason and returned it without doing a single exercise. And I kept not drawing. For whatever reason - unschooler that I am! - I kept getting stuck in the idea that I needed to "be taught" how to draw. I really don't know where that was coming from. Insecurity?

Anyway, long story short, yesterday I got online and looked at Poppins' newest creation and something finally just clicked. We were all sitting at the table later, the kids doing something with Robert (I can't even remember what) and I just picked up a pencil and sketched the silly little windup rabbit that was in front of me. Just like that. And then Bridget asked me to autograph it and took it to put in her art display on the wall of her bedroom.

Then I sketched her stuffed dog. Then today while the kids were swimming I drew a leaf (that was hard but I liked how it turned out). Then I drew my cat. I'm pretty sure Oscar doesn't have long for this world and I've been taking a lot of photos of him, but just sitting there and sketching his sleeping form felt really nice and sweet. And it turned out much better than I'd ever have thought I could do (faces are hard though - even sleeping cat faces).

So there. I'm now an artist :)

It's inspired the kids to draw too. Bridget drew the same toys I did yesterday and today Owen drew me a picture of "a horse, a pony and a unicorn". We're all artists :) Robert wouldn't even attempt anything but the man can do beautiful things with wood so there you go.

So I'm feeling all artsy now. I need to get me a beret or something.