Youthful Art Obsession

The last weekend in February my niece Lucy, age 13, came over for some arty adventure and fun.  I picked her up from school on Friday and she did not get home until Saturday after 6:00 p.m.  Most of that time was spent painting, finishing our journals and working on a special project Lucy created all on her own.  We also shopped, ate out a ton and went on a hunt for a perfect journal pen for Lucy's new journal.  We also watched a movie, "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging" loosely based on a book series of the same name (it was good but different somewhat from the books according to Lucy).

I usually don't have my nieces and nephews spend the night at my house.  All I have to sleep on is a tiny overstuffed loveseat.  Of course everyone of them swears they can sleep on it just fine all curled up in a ball but in the morning they are all stretched out and hanging over the edges.  Lucy's mom was going to pick her up Saturday morning but Lucy pretended to still be sleeping so she could stick around and finish her special project.

  This is a painting Lucy did - she loves to paint but her mom worries about her making a mess on the floor so she doesn't get to paint as much as she would like.  She painted 3 or 4 paintings while she was here but I was too tired on Saturday to photograph the other paintings - I'll try to get that done next time I see her.

We painted Masa paper a week or so before she spent the night and then used the painted Masa paper to cover our journals.  I wish I could get a better photo - the binding tape is really orange - but the yellow, green and red are pretty accurate in color.  I had made the book blocks ahead of time so we were able to get our journals finished pretty fast except for the time they needed to spend under heavy objects (sewing machines).  I'll post a photo of the journal I made tomorrow - did not realize I had not photographed it.

Here is Lucy's special project:

We went to United Art & Education to look for a special pen for Lucy to use with her journal and while there she found a mask she wanted to buy.  She painted the mask and I taught her how to do the fringe (we raided my bead and baubles to get all the clear and white beads we could find).  The last thing she added were the feathers at the top.  She stuck it out and was only ready to go home when she finished.  Look out world - future artist in the making!