Sculpture no. 1

Silas made his first sculpture earlier this week. Mixed medium: cardboard, tape, marker. I remarked that it looks like a number one, a fact the artist himself was not aware of. Very fitting considering it is his first sculpture.

tape and crayon on paper

A word on the video posted below: Silas clearly says "tape" about 100 times before Drew figures out what he's referring to. And yes, that's his potty, doubling as a stool so that he can reach one of his works-in-progress. Since returning from Wisconsin, Silas has taken his tape and crayon series to a new level. We now have layers of papers, 3 sheets across, on the opposite wall. I'll have to photograph that piece too sometime, as it is particularly nice (in my completely non-biased opinion :-)

An artist at work --the video

Drew took this video before we left for WI butI didn't have a chance to post it till now. He took some great pictures too. I'll publish those as well, as soon as I have an opportunity...

21 months old! --Art reception

Our handsome 21 month old had a blast at his Dad's art reception on Sunday. There were grapes and crackers aplenty, so he was happy.
Despite the unusually harsh weather, we still got a decent turnout for the event, though a few friends coming from farther away had to cancel.
Here's Shannon, hanging out with Silas near the food. Silas stood as close as he could get to the grape bowl for much of the evening, yelling "grate grate!" (no matter how many times I enunciate the "p" sound, he insists on referring to them as "grates").
Drew and I both caught Si's cold, so sniffing, sneezing and coughing are the themes of the week. Hopefully, we will all feel better for next week's festivities.

The week and a half in review

Let's play catch-up, starting with today's events and working our way back a bit...
First of all, obviously, it snowed. These pictures were all taken this morning. It's our first snow of the season and since this is western WA state, it may very well be the last. So, we made the most of it.
Oooh, what is this?
Um, seriously. What. is. this. Any why haven't you made mittens for me?
And is this really necessary?
Okay. The other big thing going on today is Drew's and Patrick's art reception. Yea! Silas is resting up now from his time playing in the snow so that he'll be bright-eyed for the event.

Silas has the sniffles, but that's life. We've been running a humidifier in our bedroom, which seems to help.

And now, working our way back...We've received two Christmas presents in the mail so far. Thank you Grandparents! We are using the little table and chairs already. He has a very nice "work" area now for slicing his wooden vegetables, drawing, reading, typing on his keyboard, etc. I will have pictures at some point. The other gift will have to wait till Christmas morning...

Tuesday the 9th: Drew's birthday! A fine day indeed. I didn't get any stellar pictures of the two boys together that day, so I'm not posting any. But Silas did help his dad open his gifts, and Silas very much liked the boxes (and Drew very much liked what came in them).

Last weekend (the 6th and 7th): Drew and Patrick hung their show, which took quite a bit of time. So, Silas and I hung out together a lot, and went to several Christmas in the Country places. This is a weekend long event which takes place at various houses and farms around the island. People sell handmade goods, food, etc. There are activities like live music, pony rides, and Santa. I did point Santa out to him, but he was more interested in the water feature set up next to Santa's chair. Since we really don't care about getting a picture of him screaming his head off as we force him to sit on a strange man's lap, we took a pass on that and enjoyed the music guild's chamber ensemble. Silas LOVED that!

And finally, last Friday...Silas went to the doctor. He wailed the ENTIRE time, even though no shots were given. But other than the trauma he experienced simply by being there, the biggest issue he's facing is some eczema on his face. The doctor doesn't think it's food related, so we are just keeping it moisturized as best we can. Other than a minor cold, he is healthy and happy (when not at the doctor).

That pretty much catches us up. I'm hoping to post more frequently this week, but I make no promises :)

a plug for Dad & Patrick

OK so by now you know I'm an artist... and well since I'm pretty well known and all I think its important to give a shout out to those artists toiling day after day with little recognition. So today's post is to announce a show happening this month at the Bainbridge library by two of my favorite artists: my dad and Patrick

If you can check it out, do... I know I will

18 Months Old

Si turned 18 months old yesterday. These pictures were taken by Drew about a week ago.

Caught, purple handed:

An artist at work. Medium of choice: crayon.

Do NOT take my blueberries away from me. Do NOT! You will find out just how loud I can be.
Still haven't posted any pictures of the grandparents. It will happen eventually.

Enjoy being a year and a half, Silas. It's a good age.

his 1st drawing

Dad's Birthday

Dad's birthday was yesterday. Here's how we spent the day:

Silas made art by using his feet, which we dipped in pureed blackberries and yellow vegetable paste. Dad then made a tiramisu cake (mom helped a little) for his birthday dinner. After a lunch out at a local cafe and an afternoon relaxing at home and trimming our teeny tiny live Christmas tree, we celebrated with a dinner at Shannon's and enjoyed the tiramisu for dessert. Yum!

That's the brief recap. Happy birthday, dad!

Art Museum, etc.

What have we been up to this past weekend? Well, we hung out as a family quite a bit, did the usual: eat, play with the baby, do laundry, sleep, repeat. On Sunday, we had a big outing. We took Silas to the Seattle Art Museum. While mom and dad tend to prefer the more abstract pieces, Silas gravitated towards the more representative images. He particularly liked a horsy sculpture and an Egyptian cat head. He also enjoyed bouncing up and down and vocalizing about how much fun he was having. We look forward to bringing Silas back to the art museum in the years to come.

Silas got to try out the new hat mom whipped up for him on Sunday as well. Mom has lost track of how many hats she's made for him (around 7 maybe?) and she's going to make yet another one this week to match a sweater she finished over the summer. Well, you can never have too many hand-made hats, especially if you're a baby with a fast growing noggin!

Also included in this assortment of images: a picture of Si
wearing, yes you guessed it, another one of mom's creations. Mom's got more images of this sweater on Flickr, Ravelry, and soon she'll post more on her knitbook blog, in case you're interested. And, in case you are reading this from WI and you'd like to see Silas wearing this sweater in person, never fear: we'll be packing this one for the trip, for sure.

Olympic Sculpture Park

On Labor Day, we took the Ferry over to Seattle to check out the new Olympic Sculpture Park--well worth the trek. They've done a beautiful job restoring a former industrial site into a beautiful park. It truly is a "green park," meaning everything is managed organically, without pesticides, plus they take measures to reduce runoff, they've restored the shoreline, etc. Even the plastic used in the cafe is compostable. We hope the art museum continues to add to its collection of sculpture at this park. Silas hopes that next time we go back there, there will be just as many dogs for him to watch (Seattlites love their dogs!).