Lovely Lilacs Revisited

I subbed in my former classroom for a day recently, so that the current teacher could deal with a medical concern.  I had fresh lilacs growing in my yard, which, when I was still teaching, I brought in every year for a one-day lesson for my younger students, usually the first grade.  I told the teacher I'd love to paint the lilacs with her students, with her permission.  The 2nd grade students had just finished a project, so rather than have me start her next project for her, she gave me the go-ahead to do these paintings.

So I brought in a batch of the lilacs and put them in vases.  The kids looked at and smelled the flowers, examined how they grew in bunches, and how the leaves came to a point.  We looked at several different vases in the room, with various shapes, and discussed how even though each one was different from the next, the shapes were all symmetrical.  Some were opaque, and some were transparent, and we looked at that, too.  Then we talked about how we didn't want vases of flowers floating in the air, so we wanted to place them on a table in our drawings. 

The kids drew a vase, stems, leaves, and table, using crayons on construction paper (I gave them a selection of colors of paper to choose from: lilac, pale blue, soft green, pale peach, and soft yellow.  Looking at these photos, I realize that if anyone chose the yellow, somehow I didn't photograph it!)

Before the kids came in, I mixed up some tempera paints in disposable cups with various lilac colors, some with more pink, some with more blue, some lighter, and some darker.  I discussed with the kids how there are many different varieties of lilacs, with colors from white to purple to pink to blue, and that they could use any of the paint on their tables for their flowers.

I gave the kids long-handled cotton swabs to paint their flowers.  We noted that the tip spread out as is was used, making it easier to paint the flowers than with the small tip we began with! 

We had just 40 minutes, including the time I needed, as a sub, to review the class list of names, and time to clean up.  (Clean up was pretty easy, since the swabs were simply thrown away, and at the end of the day I also threw away the disposable paper paint dishes.  We put the paintings in the drying rack and did a quick table cleanup and we were done!)

As a veteran art teacher, I didn't generally like to repeat all the exact same projects every year.  But there were some lessons that, with some simple variations, were an annual ritual.  The lilacs were one of these.  There were staff members that looked forward to seeing them hanging in the hall every year, and since they were quick and easy, and made everyone happy, I loved to oblige by repeating this project.  They look so fresh and spring-like, and sometimes I think I can smell the lilacs when I look at at them!  Thank you to the current art teacher for allowing me and the students to have this fun break from her curriculum!

Random Artsy Oddities: Botanical Spacecrafts and Obscure Books

This blog post will start with an avocado, but it's really about much more, including some wonderful books you've most likely never seen and won't see.  During my college years, an odd little discount bookstore opened in my hometown.  My dad and I would spend hours perusing the store.   Dad would buy me wonderful books filled with art prints, for just a few dollars.  And I would search for obscure children's books (because even before I became an elementary teacher, I always loved kids' books).  On one of my trips to the store, I became distracted by this adorable little book, The Artful Avocado by art critic/art historian/author John Canaday.

 I don't think I had ever seen or heard of avocados before my college years.  They just weren't a common or popular food item where I lived.  And I acquired my first house plant as a gift during my sophomore year of college, and also discovered the wonders of eating avocados.  So, when I found this quirky book about how to root and plant an avocado pit, I discovered I could follow the author's instructions and grow a lovely house plant, after enjoying a delicious food!

The author's words, for the way he recommended rooting the avocado in water, balanced by toothpicks or pins, were "like a miniature botanical spacecraft".  That's one of those book phrases that has stuck in my brain for decades.  (Other such phrases, such as a "perfect day for a bananafish", written by J.D. Salinger, and of course the Dr. Seuss quote from Horton Hears a Who, "a person's a person no matter how small", return to my lips over and over again.  Perhaps I'll have to write a blog post with a collection of favorite book phrases!)  And now back to the botanical spacecraft - here's an illustration from the book:

Fascinated, I rooted several avocados, and had a couple of really successful, lovely avocado plants for many years.  But they didn't live forever, and while I have a ton of house plants, I haven't had an avocado plant for at least a decade.  And I've been trying to root avocados ever since. 

This, above, has been in the water for about a week.  After a while, I will probably throw it away.  Below, is what is supposed to happen.  I've also tried rooting the avocados directly in dirt, as in the pic on the right, an alternative provided in the book. 

 But alas, I have not gotten an avocado to root in a very very long time.  What has changed about the avocados in the supermarket?  Why doesn't this work any more?  I've tried different varieties of avocados, different supermarkets.  My husband just rolls his eyes at the latest avocado pit rotting in water in our kitchen.  I should have a houseful of these beautiful plants!!

Meanwhile, the phrase "botanical spacecraft" reminded me of another book.

 But I couldn't locate my copy of it today.  Instead, I uncovered some other sweet books on my bookshelves that I purchased in that long-gone bookstore.  It is unlikely you've ever seen any of these gems.  The first one I'll share here is Go, Go, Grabote!  In this gem, a little character emerges from the eye of the author/artist, and heads off on exotic painted adventures.

 Something New Under the Sun is a very odd little book...

 Here's Looking at You is a book of poems, each illustrated by someone different. 

 Then there's a book about an "active" little boy, Timothy the Terror.

 And my personal favorite is Number 24, a quiet, wordless book, about someone waiting for a bus.  Most people seem to just scratch their heads at this book.

 Here's a treasure that my dad found in the store and gifted to me as a surprise.

Yup!  The illustrations are by the sculptor Alexander Calder!!!

They very much remind me of the animals in his Circus.

 My dad strangely also gave me this, below.  It is in very bad condition, but I wonder if it has some monetary value.  I suspect it is rare.  I'd like to find out, as it isn't doing anyone any good sitting on my book shelf.  Any ideas?

I don't dare to show you any of the images from inside the Picasso publication, here on the blog, as they are exceedingly X-rated!  Instead, I want to share a few other books that weren't from that little bookstore, but are stored with them on my bookshelf at home.  You probably haven't seen these, either!

Maybe you are familiar with Edward Gorey. But have you seen this little alphabet book, The Gashlycrumb Tinies?  I never shared it with kids at school, because I was worried that someone would get upset.  Because, after all, every letter of the alphabet stands for a child that dies in some horrific way.  Still, I find it hysterically charming.  Is there something wrong with me?

 And then there's this wonderful bilingual book (Russian and English), Here Comes the Cat.  The story is simple and sweet.  After pages and pages of mice, warning that the cat is coming, it turns out that the cat is not so bad after all!

If you are of my generation, perhaps you remember Gerald McBoing Boing?

 Today on NPR, I heard a story about the ground-breaking book Our Bodies, Ourselves, that I've owned since the 80's.  How many young women like myself learned absolutely everything about being a woman from this incredible book?

 And finally, I'll close with a lovely book, To Every Thing there is a Season.