A Family Art Affair

I saw a contest for family art on Reclaiming the Woman Within... unfortunately I missed the deadline, but it had got me thinking about the art within our household. Fortunately this is one area where we agree in our parenting, we both really believe in fostering our children's artistic talents. Whether it be visual arts, music or anything in between. These 4 pieces of art here are all displayed in out house as I sincerely love to cover our walls with our work. The first piece is a photograph by me. Although I could not draw a smiley face if I had a stencil, I do try to excel in seeing beauty though my lens. This photo is the first 'good' photo that I ever took and it actually won an art contest that had 500 entrants.

The second piece is one that Colby sketched for me depicting myself and Ariana (when I was only a mother of one.) Colby is also the talented musician of the family and is able to help the girls with singing, playing the piano or guitar (I am completely and utterly tone deaf... as Ariana always reminds me when I try to sing along, "Mom, PLEASE!")

The third piece was done by Ariana at age 5 with chalk. I really love it (although my photography skills do not represent her artwork to it's full extent here.)

The last piece is Annika's at age 3. I love how it shows people in all different colors... corny, I know. (Again, my flash ruins it, but you get the point.)

Acadia's talent is yet to be revealed, but we will get into the finger paints soon enough!

With the lack of art in school these days, it is even more important that we get our kids into the arts at home. We have a chalkboard wall in out living room, a piano, guitars, bongos, paints, markers, crayons, craft supplies, dirt piles, white boards, cameras and countless other supplies to aid in their artistic endeavors.

All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness. -Eckhart Tolle