Today we learned about Georgia O'Keefe and her amazing ability to find beauty in places where others may dismiss. Bear and I were motivated to try the charming flower drawing activity shared by Jenny K at her page: https://www.jennyknappenberger.com/georgia-okeeffe-art-activities/ She kindly shares some neat suggestions so do peek around and subscribe, her sheets are great. During our researching of Georgia we discovered some connections between her and George Washington Carver, both liked to paint flowers. In fact GWC found that peanuts can be used as paint which we are still trying to figure that out how we can try peanut painting. Our discussions travelled to other painters and how there were differences in approaching art. Georgia O'Keefe saw city buildings as square shapes whereas Jean-Michel Basquait saw areas of the city as blank canvases. An excellent resource on Jean Micheal Basquait is produced by Artrageous at this youtube chanbel (lovingly subscribe) https://youtu.be/PVSd4ZHV0TQ We tend to think that JMBasquait's spirit has become part of Jon Batiste, his music is spectacular. This is his Freedom song: https://youtu.be/3YHVC1DcHmo and this one, called I Need You, which happens to involve paintings and an exhibition like Georgia O'Keefe used to have, enjoy: https://youtu.be/AXT00sWwuTQh There is this undeniable brilliance in both of them. This beautiful discussion of artists had me thinking of a unit study-series to create called What would make us friends? Basically a study showing connections of similarities between two artists at a time, increasing number of artists as grade level increases, stipulating a common-ground between the artists just as most friendships do begin that way. Feel free to develop this concept, I am simply happy sharing some ideas.We concluded that the two main reasons why anyone creates art is to express their passionate discoveries and to share with others this joy and their creations.
Bear created a beautiful masterpiece peanut flower plant in the style of Georgia O'Keefe and with the passion of George Washington Carver. We found a free image at https://wordpress.org/openverse/?referrer=creativecommons.org (thank you!) from Gardening Solutions (thank you) that we referenced as suggested in the Jenny K art activity as well as creating a border. We thought this craft might be neat to try sometime: handmadecharlotte.com/diy-peanut-pinatas/
**Early January we found a nice book about Georgia O'Keefe and wanted to share it as well as a bit about GWK and sort of a similar Giant or the way Giant flowers were made:
The thought of giant sizes made us recall a super video about the Green Giant statue that we hope to visit someday: https://youtu.be/Xq0eG807x-E It also made us think of how we wish we had a rain barrel and rain garden, however we are firm believers to do the best you can, where you are, with what you have and feel inspired to soon repurpose some spaghetti jars and place them on Grandma's apartment balcony to collect rainwater and water our flowers with them. Hope you join us in this loving act.
**update pic taken at our new apartment in August aince we could not find the pics of the other one yet wanted to show an example.
Feeling inspired by beautiful scenes painted by the artist we discussed, we decided to create something colourful.We had some ice cubes in the freezer with some food colouring and decided to make a mind jar which helps to calm. Bear and I felt calm looking at the vibrant paintings of flowers. Our mind jar version, today, is a rainbow cubed one. Wear gloves as the food colouring stains. It brought some relaxing moments while we tried to find the ice cubes stirring around and twirling in the water colour they created. Last year we made a mind jar with glitter and glow in the dark plastic stars and smiles that Bear would view as they circled around. We were blessed to find this idea in the Cosmic Kids Yoga Fun Pack which you can obtain for free at: https://cosmickids.com/shop/cosmic-kids-funsheets/ while you are in Jamie's loving shop collect this other relaxing yoga pose freebie, she never disappoints: https://cosmickids.com/shop/yoga-pose-universe-poster-pdf/
We closed our day with an e-card of virtual flowers for Bear to show him appreciation for the time he shared with me. As parents we should savour every moment and appreciate our sweeties and let them know it. Royal Radiance was the bouquet I chose to celebrate the day and it ties in with JWB crown paintings (which was so neatly added into the video game Fortnite and the item shop) and the fact that Bear is my forever prince/king. I think the names of the arrangements are darling on this website I used to send the thank you note: https://www.800florals.com/virtual-flowers/ I love the Blissful basket myself, imagine having a basket full of flowers and a pretty table to place them upon.
On the topic of examining something small and making it close up we decided to do this experiment again with ivory soap, the only kind to use, and a microwave for 1:42 and the soap became gigantic. We originally found this idea at this fun place: https://happyhooligans.ca/ivory-soap-microwave-experiment/ Hope we enjoy our photos.
There is this tender website which happens to have a neat picture about GWC and some adorable advice on flower arranging: https://www.willowoodadventuresociety.com/FunPrintableRespurces
