Vincent

Today I want to share something REALLY COOL that I learned. Did you know that Don McClean wrote a song about Vincent Van Gogh? Hello, it is named Vincent. I have heard it a million times, but I guess I never heard the name and never really listened to it.



We were crying at the end of the slide show, but felt better when we realized that today people pay millions of dollars for a Van Gogh.

We studied Van Gogh through a new art curriculum I am using this summer called Meet the Masters. I like that the program combines art history, technique, and activity. I usually have the boys in a summer program at the Glassell Junior School at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (which had traditionally focused on technique), but this summer I decided to try something different. We will eventually cover 35 artists including Monet, Picasso, Mondrian and O'Keefe. We have had an introduction and one lesson and if this quality keeps up I will be ecstatic.

There are different levels in each lesson for different ages ... something even for the parents. Our project today was fun ... and educational. Shouldn't everything be?

Here is the painting we studied:



Here is our work:



Discover more about Starry Night at the Van Gogh Gallery.

From War - a Tree

I will never forget this tree. It grows now on the island of Corregidor which sits at the entrance to Manila harbor in the Phillipines. During WWII, American troops led by General MacArthur held this tiny island for weeks, withstanding brutal bombardment by the Japanese force fortified across a small strait. When the island fell, the surviving American troops were forced on the murderous Bataan Death March.

Today, more than 60 years after the end of the war, Corregidor is a lush and beautiful tourist spot where we were lucky enough to spend a peaceful night in 2006. Our tour guide stopped in front of this tree and recited Joyce Kilmer's Trees and then proceeded to tell us his story.

Trees
Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Our tour guide grew up without the father who had been captured on Corregidor and died on the death march. Thanks to the American soldiers who rebuilt many of the schools in the Phillipines after the war, he recieved an education and was a successful businessman. Now retired, he leads groups of tourists, many Americans like ourselves, on tours of Corregidor as a gesture of thanks. He always stops as this tree and recites the poem he was taught by his wonderful American teacher in third grade. He looked at us and said, "From war - a tree. From loss - beauty."

Here are our trees:

Mom's

J's

M's

This art project came from the post "How to Paint Spring Trees" at That Artist Woman's blog.

Jackson Pollock and My Future Artists

This is just a fun site.  Especially on a rainy day.

Here are our creations.

Mom's:

I needed a flower today.

J's:

He was most proud of his "frame."

M's:

He would have filled the whole screen.

Is this art? What is Art? Here are some thoughts by people with bigger minds than my own.

Art is an elusion of our limited mind.

It only becomes art when it is appreciated by someone other than the artist.

Art is asking questions.

Can you define it?

Kandinsky

Many thanks to one of my favorite websites, Art Projects For Kids, for this idea for a fun and easy afternoon art project. We were rained out while strawberry picking and were starting to drive each other a little crazy. "Who wants to do an art project?" always seems to have a magical effect on the boys.

Here is the original:



Here is mom's:



Here is J's:



Here is M's: