Beetles and dragonflies, flora and fauna, impressionist water lilies, woodcut flowers and more…stay tuned!
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A picture taken of the reading circle in Bruce’s Garden from the garden entrance.
Last week I was so happy to have been able to participate in the Children’s Books Authors Series with Literacy INC collaboration with Columbia and Inwood Park in upper Manhattan. It was a drizzly day which may have curtailed our numbers somewhat, but made a cozy group. While we read, we heard jays in the bushes, and crows and a hawk circled overhead.
First, Carolyn read from a book about different birds nests…
I read from Crow Made a Friend, but first I read from a story that I wrote a few years ago, that included letters that my father wrote to me about stealing crow feathers and mailing them to me in New York, signed “Your Magical Father.” The nicest thing is that he really did do that–got crow feathers, taped them w masking tape to letters describing their acquisition.
All of the kids got free hardcover copies of CROW MADE A FRIEND, courtesy LiteracyINC and a nice discount from Holiday House, the publisher!
After the reading we did a craft activity–we made nests with brown paper lunch bags, and then “friends”–little clay birds with colorful feathers and pipe cleaner legs, who tended to as many eggs as the kids could make to put in the nests. The record was six eggs.
Then we made friends–with each other and also little clay birds in their own nests.
Some kittens came to the event and enjoyed making bird friends
I was happy to be in such good company in the series, with Ada Letelier, Elizabeth Balaguer and Andrew Kranichfeld. All of the authors got to read their books, talk about the stories of how their books came to be, and chat with the kids about their their own aspirations. Thanks Sarah, Sorelys, and Carolyn from Literacy Inc for the lovely day out!
HAPPY SUMMER!
LiteracyINC has kindly invited me to participate in their Inwood Park Authors Series at Bruce’s Garden:
I will be reading my early reader picture book
CROW MADE A FRIEND
in Bruce’s Garden
11 Park Terrace East
This Thursday, July 27th
at 3:00
There will be a reading of CROW MADE A FRIEND as well as other garden-y related books, FREE BOOKS, and a craft activity.
The alternate location, in case of rain or hot weather, is
Northeastern Academy
532 W 215th Street
Hope to see you there!
The dates are not totally set in stone yet, but the shop will certainly be open after June 17th, Til probably July 15th. I am honored to be a part of this grand experiment! This incarnation of the Hudson Co-op will be in the Gideon’s Bakery spot on 187th Street (in Manhattan). There will be handcrafted items, scented oils, jewelry, toffee (I think) a BAKERY (for sure) with sweets and Daily-type Bread like baguettes (I will be there for my daily bread!). I will have a selection of books and paper toys there, and coloring books, of course. Lots of gifting items! Thanks to Sue, Erin and Laura for making this happen. It is exactly what we need now: locally sourced fun:
Laura working hard on getting the Gideon’s space ready for Hudson Co-op customers…what a great wall color choice, chicas!
Here’s what I will have available to buy there. Fun!:
When StencilGirl asked if I’d like to do a blog post for them, I jumped at the chance. I got to pick three stencils from their line and do anything I wanted to with them. At first I thought I would paint some fabric–something that I could applique onto a jacket. This is stretch nylon, painted with the paints we use at work to paint on silk, wool and nylon. The tiny lines are made with a squeeze bottle that has a mechanical pencil point taped to the tip:
But then I saw this on my brown kraft paper table covering–just where I had been trying out my spray bottle and dabbing off:
And that took me to a totally different place. See where I went with this idea at my StencilGirl guest blog. I’ll give you a hint: TATEBANKO:
http://www.stencilgirltalk.com/2017/06/a-tatebanko-journey-by-margaret-peot.html
For more stenciling projects, don’t forget my book Stencil Craft: Techniques for Fashion, Art and Home by F&W Media:
Come join us Friday May 5th for wine, snacks and prizes to enjoy while you shop for the perfect gift for Mother’s Day, end-of-year teacher gifts, and things for Dads and new graduates, too. Jewelry, craft items, coloring books, paper toys, scented candles, and baked goodies. And all of us–we are FUN, make no mistake.
Last week I was honored to be a workshop leader again at the CREATIVE AGING TRAINING conference under the auspices of The Creative Center http://www.thecreativecenter.org/tcc/training_institute/training_institute/, and with help from NEA funding and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. The training was held at the historic University Settlement on Eldridge Street in Manhattan.
Studies show that when elder adults are engaged in creative activities, learning and mastering new skills to express themselves, they are healthier physically, and psychologically (“The Creativity and Aging Study: The Impact of Professionally Conducted Cultural Programs on Older Adults,” 2006, Gene D. Cohen, M.D., Ph.D) At the 2014 NCAA conference, Marc Agronin, M.D., geriatric psychiatrist, upset the myth of our American culture that marginalizes older adults, saying said that there are strengths in aging: neuroplasticity, maturity, and creativity, saying, “Not in spite of age, but because of aging we become more creative.” The Creative Center’s Creative Aging Training gathers artists and administrators in creative aging fields together to discuss art programming best practices in hospitals, senior centers and nursing homes.
I taught a hands on inkblot class to the 40-plus participants. Inkblots are the perfect intro to art-making and art materials for experts and amateur artists alike, as they provide a satisfying one-time art-making experience, but can also provide enough fodder for months of creativity. Inkblots are beautiful and evocative artworks alone, but can also be made into a variety of other things: masks, cabinets of curiosity, puppets, paper dolls, paper theater, monsters, totems, maps, starships, planets, insects. They can be jumping off points for additional drawing, writing and conversation.
After a powerpoint full of ideas on all the things you can do and make with inkblots, we made some–lots of them:
While they were drying, we played the Inkblot Game, where participants divide into groups with a stack of already dry inkblots that I brought in, and question cards, and take turns answering silly or thought provoking questions about the inkblots: “The inkblots are pets in a pet store. You have to pick a pet who will get along with your difficult persian cat Elvira. What pet do you choose? What is it?” Or, “You are having tea with the queen. The inkblots are the dishes served to you. What are you having? Is the queen trying to court you or kill you?!”
Then when are inkblots are dry, we draw what we see. This step easily bypasses anyone’s fear of making art–“I can’t draw a straight line!” as you are telling them to draw around what they see in their inkblot already, and then color it in:
A mother monkey holding her political active cat child…
Tina, the administrator of the wonderful Artsy Smartsy, a midwest based organization that provides art making activities for 700 seniors a month, drawing into her beautiful vertical inkblot.
Some participants did ink blowing–where they blew the wet ink with straws to make interesting asymmetrical tendrils.
Drawing and thinking…this artist did some interesting things with multiple folds, trying for the intricate multiples of Bruce Conner.
Kuniyoshi did a woodcut of a famous japanese folk tale of the legend of the tongue cut sparrow. I am sort of fascinated with it–the print and the story–after I got to see a copy of the print at the NY Armory Print Fair this past fall.
The story goes like this–actually I thought it was slightly different but have been reading more and this version makes more sense:
One morning, a poor woodcutter went into the mountains to cut timber and saw an injured sparrow. He took it back to his home to nurse it back to health. His wife, who wasn’t so nice, was annoyed that he would waste time and food on the sparrow. The old man, undated, continued caring for the bird.
One day, the recovering sparrow ate all of their meager supply of rice. The wife was so angry that she cut out the bird’s tongue and chased it away.
The woodcutter went searching for the bird in the mountains where he had originally found it. Other sparrows greeted him kindly and led him to his friend, the little sparrow he saved. The sparrow was a wealthy member of his community, and treated him to food and drink. They visited and talked and laughed. When it was time for the woodcutter to take his leave, the sparrow offered him a large basket or a small basket as a thank you gift. The elderly woodcutter chose the small basket. When he arrived home, he opened the basket and found treasure. The not-very-nice-wife, hearing of the existence of a larger basket, ran to the sparrow’s home in the hope of getting more treasure for herself. She was given the larger basket upon her demand, but was warned not to open it before getting home.
She of course opened the basket on the mountain path on the way home. The basket was filled with all the ills of the world, and were unleashed upon her and the whole world, Pandora’s Box-like.
The version of the story I heard at the print fair was a little different. The woodcutter found the injured sparrow (the cut tongue WAS the injury), and nursed it back to health though his wife didn’t like that. They took it together to the sparrow’s home. He was a prince, as it happened, and offered them a small basket and a large basket. The woodcutter liked the small basket, but the greedy wife made him take the larger. They struggled with the basket on the way down the mountain (they were warned not to open it till home, and the wife wanted to open it earlier and they struggled). In the struggle, the basket opens, unleashing all the sins of the world. But in that story, the elderly beneficent woodcutter is harmed as well. Didn’t make as much sense.
ANYWAY, the whole point of my going on about it is that I was reading about it on line and found these fantastic dolls depicting the characters from the story. Apparently there’s a tradition in Japan of making these dolls and tableaus for them to live in:
I can’t give you provenance for the dolls because I don’t know–they were at an auction site and the maker wasn’t listed, nor the date of their construction. But I thought they were too magical not to share!
They’re HERE! My author copies of MUSEUM VISIT: A Color, Punch Out and Play Set have arrived! Super excited!
Museum Visit is another high quality product from Pomegranate Publishing like Tea Party: A Color Punch Out and Play Set. Their production standards are extremely exacting, which means they really made me look good–the product design is so lovely (Thanks Pomegranate Designer Carey Hall!), the paper quality and printing are beautiful. SO–I have been playing with it!
Like Tea Party: A Color, Punch Out and Play Set, there are stage sets to set up, in this case, three galleries, and eight card stock pages of colorable museum collectibles to set up.
I have been using my new set of Copic Sketch markers that my brother gave me, but you can use anything to color with–any marker, watercolors, colored pencils, crayons. You can color artwork in frames, and also create your own artwork in blank frames.
The boxed set features:
-a folding play “stage set” with three 16 x 12 inch gallery scenes to color
-eight cardstock pages of colorable collectibles, armor, statues, jewels, paintings, natural history objects and more
-a four page booklet with illustrated instructions, with info about “wonder rooms,” the history of museums, and thoughts about curating your own exhibition.
Museum Visit is available at Pomegranate Publishing: http://www.pomegranate.com/aa975.html
To kick off 2017 Pomegranate has offered me a special artist promo code to share with friends and fans. Enter PEOT15 at checkout and get 15% savings on the products I have created with Pomegranate. This is a standing offer and does not expire, it just requires a minimum purchase of $10.95.
Inside the front cover…
One of the nicest things that happened to me this year, and as a direct result of making coloring books for parents and kids to color together is that my friend Lila (age 6) designed a coloring book just for me. I am including three pictures from the book here as well as some of my coloring efforts. Thanks, Lila! And grandmother Carolyn, too!
My coloring, with the Copic markers my brother recently gifted me with…
Lila in the rain with puddles…
