Whisker & Brush Children's Art Gallery

Visit our instagram account to see more recent artwork

"I don’t like Valentines”

There’s nothing like asking children how they really feel about things. Today we laugh so hard talking about how icky they feel during Valentine’s Day and all the celebration that is involved and how they wished that they could skip it. Their wish was such that I made them free passes that are valid for life! After a simple meditation exercise we learned about duo tone printing in comic books and designed our own valentines story. We also learned about St. Valentine , a Christian priest who was incarcerated and lastly executed. One of the charges against him was performing marriage ceremonies for Christian soldiers against the Roman emperor’s orders. We also red part of Chaucer’s poem “the Parliament of Fowls” which originated the idea of Valentines in the XIV century but this poem is in very old English and a just a little bit of the modern version was just enough to make the children cringe 🤣♥️ So we got some culture and many laughs

Go with the Shape

Today we meditated using all our senses one by one. We listened, we smelled, we felt our skin, and then we looked around. This was in preparation to work with many different steps in order to build a sculpture of paint, thread and sticks. First, we painted shapes with watercolor and ink on paper. Then we cut out those shapes, made the same shape on cardboard (with a lot of patience) and glued them together. Once we had all our shapes, we had to decide how to connect them in a pattern that is not recognizable (as a cross, a line, or a square would be.) I think that their shapes are so fun and unpredictable. I told them to keep going to where the shapes were asking to go, instead of having a pre determined idea of what to make.

Magic Buttons

Magic Buttons. In our younger class today we meditated and visualized an instrument that had very special magic buttons. Each of these buttons allowed us to manifest basically anything. We weren’t even done when one of the children announced “my magic button is able to bring all my memories together at the same time!”. “I can go anywhere, even to a make belief place”; “I can teleport!”; “my button makes me beautiful flowers”; “my button makes the house move”; “every time I press a button, a rainbow appears”, the others followed. But there was one button which had more power than any of the other buttons and as we can see, all the children used it in their instruments: “my button gives me anything I want: like my dog or any member of my family. I can ask for my mom, or my dad, or a sister or my brother”. By the end of class they were all deciding which one of their buttons would be their love button. I can say without a doubt that these children’s priorities are

Ink & Lines

Ink and lines. After a guided relaxation on the floor where we consciously brought extra oxygen into our bodies and played by connecting the dots using the shapes in the ceiling, we worked with color and sumi inks, using a brush and pens. We learned how to make a line that is formed of different colored lines and then played with the contrast of black ink. We added detail. Detail requires patience and patience is one of the best things to practice at a young age. Tedious work can be enjoyable and rewarding.

Anthropomorphism

Today we worked on an anthropomorphic study… if anthropomorphism is bringing human qualities into animals and inanimate objects, which ones of my human qualities would I bring into an animal self portrait or sculpture? Or the other way around, what animal qualities do I feel in myself? This was food for thought and conversation, and to work on clay and create a few interesting creatures: a seal with human ears, mouth and feet; a caterpillar with fish fins and human face and ears; an elephant with human feet and legs and the body of a snake; and a snail and slug with human face.

Sock Puppets

Sock puppets on stage. Some kids couldn’t make it so I was able to sew and use the glue gun at the same time with these two! What can I say about abt Mr. Cloud’s green pompons… we had a big laugh. So many stories to tell with just a few materials.

Symbols

If you were to imagine the coziest of spots, as tiny as your own room and with everything that you need to feel comfortable, how would that feel? How would that look like? Most of the kids chose to build a little nest in nature or a mix of indoors and outdoors…luckily Greta built a room with a fireplace in case anyone gets cold :)

Rudyard Kipling

“Nenni!” said the Cat. ‘I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me. I will not come’. We will be working with this Rudyard Kipling story for the next couple of weeks because there is so much in it to play with. When the children asked me if it was a real story I realized that this is exactly why Joseph Campbell explains myth as the most powerful metaphor and warns of the dangers of taking on those metaphors as literal facts the way religion does. The parts of the story that stuck the most with the children (and we haven’t even finished reading it) are the freedom and cleverness of the cat, the loyalty of the dog and the woman being the most wild, even thought she’s not described as wild. One girl drew the woman inside the cave telling her man who is outside the cave: “I am a woman and I am so wild!”

A cozy Spot

If you were to imagine the coziest of spots, as tiny as your own room and with everything that you need to feel comfortable, how would that feel? How would that look like? Most of the kids chose to build a little nest in nature or a mix of indoors and outdoors…luckily Greta built a room with a fireplace in case anyone gets cold :)

Paul Klee

After meditating on a dot and making this dot become a line that draws an entire city I showed the children the work of Paul Klee. It is said about a Klee that he was for modern art what Leonardo was for the Renaissance. He added a new quality to art, a delicacy and dreaminess that every child can feel immediately. I also love him as a thinker since through his writing I was able to understand and appreciate the depth of the many layers composing a single line and the convergence between imaginary worlds and the expression of them in our dimension. The children loved his work right away and were almost diving into my computer screen, telling me everything that they could see in his paintings. They chose what color to use for their cities made of lines and painted them with watercolor. We had cities that converged in a center, imaginary cities, cities with people jumping off buildings, a city with a black Sun, a city with colorful rain and a city full of stars.

Down the river

I don’t remember exactly what happened when we found ourselves going down a river inside of a cereal bowl. There were crocodiles so we had to stay still on our pillow in order not to upset the wilderness. Once we tricked them by breathing gently and going downstream without any noise we were able to disembark onto a little dock and have a snack. Today’s class was about perspective: are we looking down from an airplane, from the side or from the front of the river? If you compare the drawing everybody lived the same story from a very different point of view

Who are you, Twig?

Today we practiced leaving behind any preconceived ideas of what we want to make and observe instead what comes out of a twig. Some twigs resembled a bird, other twigs called for being used as part of a construction and even a swing came up after wrapping a twig with twine. We talked about composition in terms of balance between what is present and what is absent. What we choose to incorporate and how we organize it. The greatest thing in common is how each of these projects is always unique

Have it all

Some days we can have it all and ask for more. Tape, papers, glitter, paint, more paint, even gold leaf. Paint in paint pots and straight from the bottle paint. The only thing that we can’t have as much as we would like to, is time. So we use it right

Hands

Today was about hands. We played a game of coordination until we could do it so fast that we almost disappeared. And then we painted hands but there was one rule: no outlining our hand on the paper. The kids were quick to find their other hand’s shadow and appreciated that by trying to make hands, other shapes could come up too. We also made our frames as beautiful as our work and the vibe was so nice because their attitude toward each other is just 🍯

Dots

Beyond the giggling and the feelings of inadequacy when meditating that adults also experience, the children are gracefully learning that practicing it just a tiny bit every week will not only help them create and focus better. They’re building up on a habit that in the future they will appreciate. Today we worked with dots and bubbles of color. During circle we visited (by focusing our attention) each of our energetic centers or chakras and then brought that colorful imagery to the table working with acrylics and oil pastels. They chose their own color palette and saw things emerge.

Scary Cuteness

In an ocean of invented names and creatures we dove into the clay today. The children visualized digging shapes and tunnels inside the clay and giving it shape, so when they got out of it, they saw their own sea creature that they also named. We talked a little bit about mythical sea creatures and created our own mythical friend. Scary cuteness!

Trees

Trees of all kinds. We practiced a little finger knitting to settle down and especially the boys were so into it that we’re gonna have to try again next week. We meditated on trees, laying down and seeing the leaves on top of each other and the light coming in making colors mix or even blinding us through the cracks. These trees are a representation of what they saw, including some animals, the wind, a pond, and the emotions of happy, sad and mad because the trees can just listen to us. I love the different techniques they used for each tree, the different shapes, and how they came up with creative solutions to express the ideas that they had

Flowers

Today was for flowers. To look at them and feel them and to recreate them using mirror, felt and paint. There were ideas and questions about the life of flowers that we shared and built a collaborative poem that we printed and pasted behind each painting: “Excited flowers/ I like flowers”, “If flowers were magical/ I would be a magical flower /and would draw petals on everyone’s head”, “why do they die?”, “I like my flower at home”

Collage Poetry

Collage is Poetry. Just like we can connect ideas using verbal language we can compose artwork using different images or even better be guided by those images to see what else is there, and this is what today’s exercise was about. The kids loved learning about E.E Cummings and how there are some poets who are famous for playing and changing the rules of language. They enjoyed having permission to use part of his poem and come up with their own lines before I red them the entire poem about a wee mouse. We used paper, oil pastels and washi tape on cardboard. Im sure that E.E Cummings would be so proud of them and interested in their visual interpretation of his work

Clay Sculptures

“Clay, clay, how do you do, will you tell me who are you”. Today we FEEL the wind, textures and smells around us. We started with a blindfolding game, touching materials and guessing what they were. This was a great activity to do before working with clay. And when we held the clay we asked the clay who it was and what it wished to be by singing a little song. Nobody wanted to leave when it was time for pick up, they were feeling it!

The Return Home

And it’s a wrap! Our Hero’s Journey Story class was challenging but oh, so rewarding. The children were proud of their creations after 6 weeks of work and happy to share them in our group reading. There was so much admiration and respect for each other’s story. I love how the group energy builds up in a month, they don’t really know each other at first and then they share the deep experience that is to develop a story, create their characters, and allow themselves to be seen. We had chai tea and invited Paloma (my 13-year-old) as our guest for the reading. Congratulations everyone!

Whispering

Wow, these girls are such a joyful group full of creativity and willing to roll with all ideas. We played a whispering game in which unless they were silent they couldn’t hear my voice and that got them to calm down after school and into a state suitable for meditation. There is just so much noise everywhere and when the noise is down we can hear other stuff like the sound of our heartbeat, the cat purring or our friend’s tummy rumbling. I was surprised that they all had their eyes closed for a very long time while visualizing. When back in the room with our eyes open we took the same exercise that we did in meditation but into the page, and the results were so fun. With a little hint of something, an entire world emerges.

The Revelation

The Revelation and Return Home. We are almost done with our hero’s journey book project and next class we will get to enjoy a group reading and share. It has been incredible to see the children develop their own story with as little instructions as possible. They understand the stages of the journey especially since all faery tales and most of the films that they watch share this structure but it’s really interesting to observe how each one of them is able to engage with it in a different level and to express a unique style. Some stories are more visual, others have an abundance of language, and the illustrations vary in detail and abstraction. We will need to have another book making class soon since some kids are already thinking of their second chapter but next month we will work on weekly projects, get our hands dirty and explore different materials for a break.

Portraits

Today we made portraits of a friend without looking at the paper. The girls got the idea right away and made the most beautiful portraits of their friend sitting across the table using charcoal which they later painted with oil pastels. Some of them inserted themselves into the portrait as well ❤️ We finished with little wooden boxes to paint and decorate as an exercise to mix different shades of pink using white and red

Transformation

We are moving from trial and tribulations into the hero’s transformation and revelation. These are very abstract concepts for the children but they understood after I told them a story about how I was bullied at age 7 in a foreign country by older kids who kept stepping on my winter boots. One day I had enough and decided to step on their boots myself. They didn’t bother me again and I learned that I also had power and I could be at the playground and run around safely like everybody else. Maybe without this experience I wouldn’t have dared to move to NYC all by myself in the future! Who knows.. so today we focused on making the challenges colorful and exaggerated, the more drama the better for our story! There was zapping, falling on a portal, being stuck, trapped, breaking of things and more. Soon there will be lessons learned and wisdom. This has been a bit of a tedious project for the kids so we decided that next month we will do different projects each Monday to take a little break

Playing with Food

Crossing the Threshold. After the hero accepts the call to adventure there is a step into a new, perhaps strange world. Stuck in a hole, stuck at a new school, inside of a tornado, trapped in a forest, or entering a portal underwater.. it is through these challenging situations and how we deal with what happens in our story that we will learn something important about ourselves and experience some kind of transformation. Can’t wait to see what happens next.

About Meditation

I asked the kids today what is it that they understand about meditation and their responses were similar: meditation is to be calm, it’s breathing, it’s ohm, it’s sitting criss cross apple sauce. We sat for a short moment and after a few breaths we imagined how it would feel to draw something that we love, exactly the way it is and how satisfying that would make us feel. We used tracing paper to draw images form children’s books and pasted them on paper working on a composition with soft pastels. The results are beautiful and we learned two lessons: we can always do more than we think and the messier we end up after class, the more fun we had.

Crossing the Threshold

Crossing the Threshold. After the hero accepts the call to adventure there is a step into a new, perhaps strange world. Stuck in a hole, stuck at a new school, inside of a tornado, trapped in a forest, or entering a portal underwater.. it is through these challenging situations and how we deal with what happens in our story that we will learn something important about ourselves and experience some kind of transformation. Can’t wait to see what happens next.

Faerie Doors

I am always surprised by how amazing imagination is, meaning it is always more than I can imagine. We started with a little walk in the woods placing faery doors where we could feel the right energy for them, then worked with paint and dried flowers to create our own faerie doors on wood. We talked about the things that we would do to others in the room if we were faeries to let them know that we were present. I got a whisper in my ear that said “I am here!”

Mushrooms

Mushrooms, 🍄 have always been magical and an element in faery tales such as #aliceinwonderland but there are others stories too like #thekingofmushrooms. A #faerycircle is made when mushrooms grow making a ring next to each other and myths and superstitions have been built around this (cause faeries aren’t necessary gentle!) The King of the Mushrooms is an Estonian faery tale that we red today where mushrooms are the magical potion in providing strength to slay the 12 headed dragon. We talked about how one little mushroom is just the fruit expression of a fungi that’s connected by an underground organism called #mycelium that keeps it all connected. These dyptiques were made with stickers, white paint, red pencils, pastels, sharpies and clay and they all got a surprise crystal mushroom that will keep them connected in art and friendship.

The Call to Adventure

Something happened in class today that was beautiful to witness. We meditated about our hero and visualized it’s “call to adventure” and when finished, a child said “I need two more minutes” and immediately put his hands on his face to keep his thoughts from escaping. And for those entire two more minutes, everyone was in complete silence respecting his process and energetically reading the room and allowing him to retrieve his story. This is what we adults call “holding space” but it made me think that space can never be held, we only sync in response to another’s energy and these kids did that

Today I Feel Silly

Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis is one of my favorite children’s books and now this group loves it too. Such a sweet story for young kids to understand that emotions come and go, that feeling great or left out will both happen and that being angry or having a bad day for no reason and having someone just hold our hand sometimes helps the most. We talked about being dropped off at school or a class and crying not feeling ready to let go. After story everyone shared how they were feeling and we had from happy to crazy and from sad to feeling all feelings at the same time. We made self portraits wearing our feelings and a sparkly dress to dance the night away

The Hero’s Journey

Super heroes or simply Heroes Journey. Not just a comic book but the intentional creation of a book where we are our own hero even if it is through the face of a dog, a lizard who’s terrible at dancing, a ferret that falls into a hole or a girl who can control water. Every heroic manifestation that the children are working with is an expression of themselves and their trials and tribulations mirror whatever it is they are working through in life such as a fish who goes to school and needs to make new friends and a dog who will not stop barking but who is very sweet inside. I cannot wait to see what they come up with as with every long project their ideas adjust and evolve. What a privilege to work with this group who is able to meditate, laugh, discuss philosophical concepts and share their vision while also listening to everyone respectfully!

Color Flow

Same materials, exactly the same colors, and absolutely different outcomes. We had a full class today from 3.5 to 6 year olds. The kids are adapting to waking up early and being back at school with a lot of instructions so we painted freely and just enjoyed the colors and added a touch of oil pastel

3 Magical objects

Since today is our last day of Summer at the Farm I asked the children to draw 3 things that they could take with them for the future: A key that can open any door, a container that holds any kind of potion, and a path that will take them their way”. Here are some of the results and what they said

Pinch Pots

Today we made pinch pots, sculptures, sunflowers and bees. Children love mud, children love clay

Wool Babies

Wool babies camping in a sleeping bag. We have one more day of Summer in the Farm and it feels like only a week has passed

August

There’s a raccoon eating the garbage! We connected to this amazing animal today and everyone who lives here has a funny story to add to racoon tales. What is yours?

Glow when it’s Dark

Today we created Glow in the dark genies, magicians, and super heroes for our bedside table. Some hold day jobs, some fly in the sky. Some take care of a tree while others tend to a star. And they all have a face that shines bright at night.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers and another glorious day due to the joy of witnessing the small and big leaps in the children’s creative process. There is risk-taking, first times, mind changes, and getting over obstacles.

Kingdom of Van-Gnome

Today we explored the kingdom of Van Gnome at Harbor Waldorf’s Summer Camp. It was great that most were familiar with Van Gogh or were immediately able to recognize his paintings. Some gnomes are suspended in a hammock while others ride a canoe. One gnome is gazing at the starry night and standing still. The children had to put many materials together for this activity: felt, clay or beads and origami paper on wood. They were delighted with the results

Spirit Friend Magic Wands

Spirit friend MAGIC wands to open doors of goodness, always guided by the North Star ⭐️ made at Harbor Waldorf’s Summer Camp.

Paper Cuts Storytelling

Some of the children’s artwork during our first 3 weeks at Harbor Waldorf’s Summer Camp in Springs. We have worked with color pencils, cutting, and tape to tell a story, draw our family, and even flowers.

The energy of Symbols

My intention in teaching children energetics of emotional intelligence through arts is to enhance their abilities and guide them over and over again through the process of connecting, of quieting the mind and listening, of interacting and having a real experience with that which we are visualizing, creating, or getting a message from. The children feel free and safe when they can express without rules or judgement something that they have just discovered, seen, made up, invented, or spoken with. And when using that experience to make art , I have seen that they feel tremendously empowered. Today we talked a little bit about symbols but before the talking they had the space to connect to their own symbols and to create their own meanings. They came up with some traditional symbols like a Celtic cross, the Infinite upside down, the peace symbol and others without even knowing most of them because we were energetically connecting. I didn’t tell them what to see but to open a box and discover it. They created symbols for love, for magic, peace and power. The symbols were placed on a painted canvas in which colors were chosen intentionally. And from that work individually every child brings something to the table to discuss, like the importance of negative space, or the different ways to mix two neighboring colors, or keeping the same aesthetic that’s in a symbol in the abstract painting that supports it. Creation is infinite.

Rhythm, Strings and Lines

Today we played with the rhythm of music adding some joyful movement and letting out energy move through a string. Then we drew with string on the floor and connected our circles learning about the concept of intersection which was adorable to hear the girls pronounce! They got it, how our hearts intersect with each other in love in friendship in kindness. Drawing to tte music is something children love but today they had to then glue strings onto their lines calling for careful attention and mindful work. Once they got it, I let them relax by adding simple shapes. They congratulated each other for their work and headed home proud and happy for what they were able to make

Over the Ocean

So much goes in the process that the painting itself is but a reminder of a moment and all the choices that we made and the energy that we allowed to come through. Today I worked with two boys on two very different processes inspired by #overtheocean by #tarogomi One boy saw himself standing by the ocean while another kid was standing on the other side, just like the story, but at the very end he decided that that other kid was actually an angel, his little sister, discovering the force and meaning of his painting. Another boy was mostly interested in the texture of the acrylics, testing and mixing colors until he learned that if we mix them too much everything becomes the same dark tone. So we worked on that by becoming more aware of our relationship with the brush, with the clean water, and the wooden board. He was delighted when he was able to carefully add a new bright clean color on the negative space that was left and get a sense of control over his work

Poetry in motion

A poem is sound, a poem is form, a poem is word, meaning and all. A poem is dynamic, made by one or by a group. A poem is energy, surprise and repetition of a concept in multiple ways. The children wrote a poem together after our relaxation and they all agreed on the order of the verses making for a perfect flow. We used string because a poem needs connection, images that represent words and used paint for the feeling and expression of our moment in time

Paper Mache planets

We took off from the Mothership laying down on the floor today. The Monday group is usually really into the meditation part of class, they’re curious and love the exercise of articulating their connection and sharing experiences. Our flying saucer shaped like a donut took off in a spiral 🌀 and we laid down in the inside of the donut as we went up, up, up. Suddenly we landed in a new planet. Some planets were rubbery trampoline black made of cornstarch while others were made of sponge, wood or blueberries. In any case, we went somewhere and came back. We made pictures with paper mache but they will take 24 hrs to dry ;) Some of these pieces aren’t finished since the kids want to paint them but I still think they look so beautiful and scrumptious

Overlapping

More transparencies. We had so much fun playing with these that I had to bring them to the Monday group where we have started an exploration of materials. Today we worked on a triad of 3 different compositions. Are we choosing warm or cold colors, or both? How do colors multiply when we put one on top of the other? How does one composition guide us towards the one that we create next? How do we create spontaneously just by choosing one color after another versus having a plan? Are our compositions connected to each other?

Dream Catchers

The children’s Dream Catchers are done and they will be using them intentionally. One catcher is for transforming bad dreams into good dreams as they go through the net. Another catcher is for catching all the dreams in case any particular dream feels really good or needs revisiting. Another catcher is for catching all dreams one by one, until they can all be let go of inside the room and coexist.

Transparencies

On memories and transparency. Just like the memory that we retrieved today after reading the story of Beegu of someone (or some people) that we don’t see often but who have left a kind mark in us, these colors interact and overlap revealing surprises to the children. Some of them enjoyed discovering a third color while others kept it simple or played with the surface using tools to scratch. We kept wondering what do we see, what can we find, what do we imagine shapes to be or what do they remind us of? There were stories of playground friends, missed baby sitters, and even someone playing music during their birth

Drawing with thread

It’s true that sewing requires great patience and dexterity but we’re not trying to sew in a straight line; we’re drawing a picture with thread, beads and felt. Threading a needle and learning how to make a knot are definitely challenging activities for kids and some of them had to huff and puff so we all took a loud huff and a puff together and then we got back to work. Everyone figures out solutions in a different way, at a different timing and with a different degree of help and I think that each one of these pieces is beautiful and special in its own way. I love to see the process, their overcoming frustration, their being in the flow until the needle requires more thread or a knot, and the perfect result.

Dream Weaving

Dream catchers, continued. The children weaved their Drem catchers like spiders at work today. Look at each catcher, they look similar but each pair of hands weaved them with their own energy, patience and observation, and they also helped each other.

Birds!

Today we read “The Lovables”, which reminds children how lovable they are. Then, we used old-school transfer paper to draw birds while carefully listening to step-by-step instructions and planning our compositions. These children don't get enough credit for how hard they work to stop themselves from grabbing the paint before it's even time to paint. Impulse control is a big part of the class, and I love to see their proud expressions when they realize that all their hard work and patience made something beautiful, and now they know that there is one more thing they can do. When I feel that a kid can do something, I will push them until they realize they're doing it! Some of these children are just learning to hold a pencil, and they can see that every time they hold it, they are improving in their drawing. There's a perfect balance between boundaries and freedom, and it is in the space between those where creativity flows.

Grandmother Spider

This group of children asked me if we could make dream catchers and I had no idea how to even make them but of course we would figure it out. Reading about the tradition of dream catchers I learned about Grandmother Spider in various Native American traditions and felt that the right thing to do was to connect to her before starting since we would be working with our hands to create an object that has the power to interact with the spiritual realm. The kids understood the need for reverence and the importance to acknowledge something that we are borrowing from another culture to use for our own spiritual well-being. We asked for permission to Grandmother Spider in our meditation and I wonder what dreams and if any interesting encounters with spiders we will be having during the week. Class was mostly silent, they realized that their concentration lowers when we’re chatting. I can’t wait till next week when we start weaving our nets. This dream catchers aren’t only for protection but to also catch the good dreams that we don’t even dare to think of

Breakfast in bed for Mom

Our Wednesday class was all about celebrating mothers. The children chose breakfast in bed on a tray or dinner on a table which I didn’t want to post earlier to keep the surprise. Flower arrangements were a must and some made them their first, second and third course. Happy Mother’s Day to all, especially to my mama who is such an inspiration when working and creating with my hands

My Book of Emotions

The Joy of teaching energy through the arts, of seeing children reflect, articulate and express. We’ve had some real emotional moments during our Monday class because these kids say it how it is and aren’t afraid to bring in real life situations, things that scare them or make them nervous, angry, sad or mad. It was beautiful to see them design, create and develop their books during these weeks but the most important thing was to see them tune in to how they really feel and to express it artistically and look forward to share it with their families back at home. I know they will treasure these books for a very long time.

Connecting

I have been enjoying the results of offering more freedom to the children as they figure out original ways to work with the materials and the few prompts that I give them. We worked on connecting many layers of work. There was tracing of animals, cutting and pasting, coloring and collaging. They had to find a way to connect every part of their work as a whole and some did it using composition while others connected via oil pastels and even tape. They were proud of their work and each was able to articulate to me one thing that they did during class that they didn’t know they could do by themselves. For one kid it was coloring between the collage pieces and for another being able to trace. Art is a great way to go beyond what we think we’re capable of and the satisfaction is real at any age.

Emotions

We are almost there with our book of emotions. Binding the pages together is next and then allowing them to realize the importance of what they have done. I love working on longer projects with this Monday group.

The Farm Inside

It’s a rainy day today so we took the farm indoors. As the children came in, there were farm sounds coming from the speakers and this made them laugh. Where is the cow? What if we had a cow in our art class? None of them wanted any fences for their farms. We carefully prepared the land to make it nice to live for the sheep and they figured out with no help how to create a sheep with the materials provided. I have them many options and they were immediately clear on their choices. Everyone did such great work and interesting compositions

Diptychs

Diptychs day! Today we meditated visualizing that we were breathing in front of a mirror. When breathing in the cold air we could see our face neatly but when exhaling warm air the mirror got foggy and our image blurry. We worked on the idea of connecting two paintings that are not the same but belong together. They choose from neon colors and paper cuts and the results are amazing.

My Anger Monster

Our books of Emotions are almost finished. I love to see the consistency of their styles, expression and design. Today anger was a prevalent emotion again since the children don’t work in the same one every class. They expressed the frustration of not feeling heard and feeling angry when the moms (I’m one of them) are on the phone. We also explored the feeling of proud, how proud is usually associated with something negative but there is so much pride to feel in life

Earth Day

Earth Day with the youngest group. We talked and played animals and humans and made art about the earth, water, and some animal friends. A flower with anthems , a butterfly, and a horse and a cow laying right on top of each other.

Flowers

Today we practiced a fun drawing exercise and the children got to draw to The 4 Seasons with their eyes closed. They really enjoyed the freedom of just feeling the music and letting the pencil be an extension of their body. After that we worked on copying flowers using pastels and each composition was absolutely original.

Emotions

Some things that came up today in our emotions book making class were the children’s feeling of anxiety and fear when not being in control, and the feeling of being grateful associated with happiness. For one child feeling anxious about not being in control happens when traveling and he hasn’t been told enough information about what the plans are, and for another one, feeling scared is something that happens when an adult looses his temper and they feel powerless. They feel grateful about their blessings and I love to see how at such young age they do not take them for granted.

It’s a Gnome’s World

Our Saturday class for the little ones is for making toys that they can play with. These are the gnomes’ garden, forest and magic carpet that they each designed. We also spent time organizing a house, choosing where each gnome bed would go, filling the tub with water, making space in the closet and taking a nap.

Beach Time

Beach time is around the corner. Working with the youngest is mostly silent and model based. They observe, they smile, they copy, they giggle and ask questions but more than anything they are present and all their energy is in the moment. Creating animated objects and giving life to anything might be one of the best activities to play with a 3 or 4 year old and it reminds me of such nice times with Paloma when she was this age.

A field of Flowers

“I am walking in a meadow and I see that I am not anything but a flower”. “This is a pond in the sunset, there is a blue ocean and purple water”. “This flower represents that all flowers can grow and nothing can die”. “This is my lake in a field of flowers”. “This is a lake and me”. “These are flowers and moss and a mushroom”. Mini art boxes by Panther, Una, Gaia, Veronica, Tahllula and Sal

My Fear Monster

Sometimes I feel fear. “This is my fear monster, he lives in the fire alarm at school”.
Today the children expressed how much fear they feel in their bodies every time that there is a drill at school. What is scariest for the children is that they never know if these drills are real or just practice so their response time gets tested fully every single time in a complete rush of adrenaline. They feel confused because since they’re so young no one tells them what is really going on. As a mother, what I tell my 7 year old is very different from what I tell my 12 year old. After the drill comes relief, feeling secure, and even joy. One boy mentioned how when the alarm sounds, he immediately grabs all his snacks. What is interesting with kids is that once they have been heard they don’t dwell long in a subject and quickly choose something else to focus on.

Food for the Mouse

The younger group of 4 year olds was a delight to create and play with today. I got to know them by playing with some creatures in the wooden house and then we met a hungry mouse who was wondering around. Sadly for the mouse the owners of the house were so clean that they left no food around. He was very hungry and had a family to feed so we sat at the table and made a couple felted mice and worlds of food where to eat from. It was a beautiful work of fine motor skills, composition and kindness!

Swimming w/ mom

We went swimming in the water in another form today. Deep underwater, feeling the softness of the water against our skin. Some of the kids were dolphins, turtles and penguins. We saw another big animal swimming next to us, it was our dear mama. The dolphins swim next to each other while mommy turtle carries turtles on her back and penguins waddle. We recreated our swimming as a mommy and baby plate using air dry clay. We’re working on an outdoor kiln to be able to use real clay in the spring!

Book of Emotions

This project about emotions is evolving as we go. I have decided to give the children as much freedom as possible and let them guide the expression of the feelings inside. We will be making a book of feelings, emotions, states of mind. One emotion was expressed in an animated way as with this JOY monster who lives in all good things. FEAR was depicted as all the things that one child is afraid of: creepy crawlers, blood, and a world of poop. CALM showed up as a state of mind in an 8 year old who knows exactly what makes her heart sing. ANGER was the chosen one for a 12 year old who wonders what’s under the feeling of anger. And the one that made us all laugh was the feeling of SASSY, of feeling like a teenager, when in her words she isn’t even 8 years old yet (“or I would know how to spell truth!”)
I love the honesty and the sense of humor of this group and look forward to see what they bring next week.

Lucky Prints

This group has been practicing respectful listening and solidarity. Everybody gets a chance to talk and no one can interrupt until they are finished. Who wouldn’t like that?! That’s is the idea but of course it’s a practice and not always easy so every attempt to get better is celebrated. Today we worked with prints in a process of visualizing and then drawing. Every print was a risk since we didn’t know how well they would work and the more that they wished one another good luck and cheered for each other, the better that their prints came out. So is it really just luck? They created hearts, doors, animals and magical abstractions, all connected by coloring with black silver and gold pens at the end.

Reading our Cards

After six weeks of carefully drawing and coloring their cards, the children finally finished their decks. I am sure that parents will get a nice surprise at home when they experience an interpretative reading by their little ones tonight. I enjoyed receiving the revelations of their minds as they were so excited and proud of themselves for having finished such hard work. In listening to what they red to each other and what was red to me, I was reminded of how much this generation has to teach us, like every new generation has the power of upgrading an old short-circuiting system.
We finished our cards project learning a little more about sitting right for meditation, an activity that we have been training on to just get used to it as much as possible as we grow. The more that we normalize healthy habits, the more that we’ll be able to access those habits as needed in the future

Coloring with Food

Every class has a plan and every plan needs the flexibility to adapt to the unexpected, for example when little girls become little kittens so we start crawling on the floors and licking our paws. Kids need just a moment of us giving them exactly what they need and will soon be ready to follow instructions. We meditated on a feast in the forest with animals. Beautiful foods were spread on the table and suddenly honey started dripping from a beehive on the tree above us. We tried the honey and then started sticking the foods onto the honey glue, which gave them the idea for their beautiful compositions. In other words, we welcomed the honey and played with our food. They created Unicorn Land, Leprechaun Valley (aka New York City), and Rainbow Unicorn where the red bad guys were coming trying to get the sprinkle sand to put it in the black water. The best about this activity was that they were allowed to do anything they wanted. One girl didn’t stop saying “I am doing whatever I want to do today” as she meticulously and so carefully created a beautiful composition. There was respect and so much gratitude for their opportunity to build, design and color with food

The Little Prince

Once upon a time there was a little prince who lived in his own little planet and took diligent care of a flower. The children visualized their own little planets today and meticulously painted, glued, and decorated them. Each planet had its own vibe and name, one was dedicated to growing vegetables, another one to peace, there was the dark planet, Rosie planet, rainbow pink planet and more. The best part was seeing the children meditating holding their blank planets before they moved onto the table ready to give them form and life.

Mischievous Faeries

If you know anything about faeries then you know that faeries are mischievous! For some reason the children wanted to share some of their worse nightmares today. Is there anything scarier than a nightmare, we don’t know, but the relief of waking up and going to mommy’s arms is undeniable. After our spontaneous sharing and respectful listening we meditated on an airplane trip to the forest next to mountains and volcanos. In the forest we found some faeries up, up on a very high tree. They were having so much fun that we really wanted to see what they were up to and take part of their mischief for a little bit. Gemma’s faeries were hiding behind their hair and flying away; Sybi’s faeries were building a house but being so silly and forgetful that they couldn’t remember a thing!; Panther’s faeries were messing with the sun and the moon, moving them closer and creating more of them; Zane saw a faerie so so mischievous and even scary that he felt she could even kill; Una’s faeries were building a house to be safe and warm and did not act mischievous at all. Tahllula’s faeries were incredibly busy moving all the water into the the trees and flooding the entire forest. The children loved having permission to join the faeries funny doing for a little bit before coming back into the room… In other words, everyone needs a little bit of mischief once in a while!

Deck of Cards

This deck of cards project has been such a special journey. We will work on it for one more week as everyone still has images to add. The children chose unique ribbons for their bags while more and more creatures kept coming alive to interact with each other. Poetry is making its way in as we prepare for the upcoming weeks where words will accompany images in an adventure to understand our emotions better

Collage & Water

So much can be discovered through art and it’s in the process of creating that we end up discovering beyond of what we started with. Today we had 10 children in a circle introducing themselves and meeting new friends. Each child had to say their name and something that they liked about themselves. Whenever there was a blank in response the others generously added, quickly naming special qualities and playground memories of having had a good time together. We did a special visualization of our bodies but most of them visualized butterflies and flying , cosmic scenarios, which they then painted with watercolor adding some details with paper. We talked about composition options, the way that colors mix, and they were reinforced that this class is to go with the flow and make a mess if needed. Watercolors can be completely mixed up in the trays because it’s really easy for me to wash them. The more they feel that they can just be at the art table, the more they give of themselves to the process and the more surprised that they feel at the end.

Deck of Cards

The children created more cards today after a long meditation laying on the floor. We felt our skin, the only thing that separates us from the outside world and through which we can feel so many things. We felt the weight of our scull and bones against the carpet and the weight of our eyelids after a Monday school day. We rubbed our hands to feel the energy in between them and placed it on our faces, then directed it all through our bodies. By the time that we were ready to work everyone was calm and connected to their idea. It’s in the little things, the feeling of friendship, a project to look forward to, and the pausing in the joy of making something that we have no idea how it’s going to turn out. With conscious intention, magic happens.

Memorivorous flower

A Memorivorous flower is a flower that eats up bad memories like conflicts in the playground or things that someone may have said to us that hurt our feelings. Sometimes a Memorivorous flower will swallow the sadness of a grandparent passing, the fear of being locked in a bathroom, or simply make room for questions or emotions that are just forming because emotions are energy in motion and it is only with age that we learn how to articulate them. These flowers are beautiful and as one girl said, they will be placed by our bedside table to even help take our bad dreams away.

Deck of Cards

Our deck of cards project got even more interesting today. The children learned more about the alchemy symbols for earth, water, air & fire and had to solve problems such as adding the air symbol to a flower when they intended to draw the earth symbol. “So how do we make this flower be an air flower?” “It will be a celestial flower!”. The possibilities are endless and as we are learning, there is no mistake when it comes to making art. Things can always be redone, painted over and transformed. A lot of imaginary creatures both animal and vegetal were added today as well and we were able to connect to one card each at the beginning which gave the children the space to express how they were feeling.

Center of the Mandala

We are the center of the mandala as from our waist spreads -like a tutu - the entire gallaxy! The five year-olds imagined their ballet tutus expanding in ripples of geometric shapes all the way from inside out as far as their minds could go. At the center, a pink beating heart, driver of the visual expansion that they drew and painted. It’s in the simplest exercises that we learn the most and, in the drawing of lines, learning how to slow down and be more gentle, that the pencil and the breath connect.

The lovables & kingdom of self esteem

Todays class was inspired by The Lovables in the Kingdom of Self-Esteem by #dianeloomans
We meditated on our physical senses to bring some calm to our systems after a long school day. They were guided through what they could smell, hear and touch at the moment, and were happy to open their eyes and be able to see their friends in the room. This exercise prepared them to be able to listen to the story of #thelovables where they connected with each animal’s special qualities. Everyone chose an animal to draw with oil pastels afterwards and we got three peacocks, a dove and a deer. The peacock teaches us that beauty comes from an inner glow, the dove reminds us how much we can show our friends that we care when we truly open our hearts, and the deer gently tells us that in order to treat others with kindness we must always be kind to ourselves.

Animals Deck

Today we explored different decks of tarot and playing cards. Animals was immediately the chosen subject by the children and after a meditation on their spirit animals they started drawing, designing and coloring their very own decks. One of the things that are impressive to me is how each of their styles is so unique, and there is continuity in their drawings. I look forward to the following weeks and seeing their finished decks that they will be able to use for a very long time. We even got a spirit animal go fish game that includes mothers and babies.

Oh the feels!

Oh the feels! To get your tiny boat and take it into the middle of a calm ocean and spend the night under the stars and the full moon. You don’t even know how to row but somehow you figure it out. Waking up with the sun and going back to the dock to see all your friends boats arriving safe and sound.

Winter Solstice

As we celebrate the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere today we dedicated all of our attention to the magnificent Sun. Gold leaf for His Majesty, yellow paint for joy, orange paper cutouts for the power of creation, and ocre and orange felt pieces for keeping us warm in such a perfect system. Big thank you to all the parents and children who came to our wonderful Spring and Fall art classes. Enjoy the holidays and see you in January for more hands on magic.

Art Boxes

So proud of the kids art boxes which they created with such love and dedication over 4 weeks. They are full of all the things they love inside, including tiny mirrors to always find their lil faces.

Rainforest

This painting exercise was related to our meditation: in the forest we saw a pattern of colors. It was just color but it turned out to be an animal when we allowed for perspective. The children chose one piece of a creature to work on, staying with the color palette or adding more. How spectacular are these spiders, owl, whale and caterpillar mystery portraits? Works by Tahllula, Owen, Mima, Waylan, Una and Maxi.

Rainbow Sky

The sky was grey today, only clouds and rain in the sky. But we know that just as sadness lifts from our hearts, the sun eventually shines between the clouds and then, even better, a rainbow happens ! We were going to make a necklace for the sky but the rainbow symbol superseded and the children created window art as a reminder that the sun always comes out. A lot of concentration and neatness were required but they made it look easy.

Imaginary Creatures

The children gave life to their imaginary creatures today. We embarked on an adventure to visit them again, and took a good mental picture to bring back with us. After drawing their visualization on paper and describing the many facets of each one, they made them into little sculptures and gave to each their brand new home.

The Joy of fulfilling a wish

Today we met a magical creature in our imagination. It looked many ways, even scary at first but then we discovered his friendliness. This creature asked us to please go back to our world and build a cozy home for it and to this message the children reacted immediately. I’ve never seen them so eager to build the perfect project. Children understand the joy of fulfilling a wish. Art by Tahllula, Colby, Lake, Gaia, Maxi and James 👏 They will be recreating their new friend next week.

Gratitude

Today’s class was extra special bcs we started with a meditation to exercise our energetic connection. By being aware of our body we can feel sensations like the feeling of electricity or an electric tingling that’s evident after rubbing our hands against each other. Physical awareness goes hand in hand with emotional awareness when asking what are we thankful for. I am thankful for my birthday. Do you mean for being born? Yes, for existing. How do you draw that? Waterfalls. I am thankful for turtles. Why? what do turtles mean to you? They mean happy and sad, I’m thankful for happy and sad. I am thankful for animals, I am thankful for my home, I am thankful for my family, I am thankful for my human body, I am thankful for teachers, I am thankful for God. With a range of religions in the class I thought it was interesting how God, the Universe, Jesus, Buddha were all welcomed into the thankful circle. The dialogue of these children is open, curious, and they thrive on data instead of opinions.

Time Machines

After guiding the children into a visualization about themselves in the future, they took a mental picture of it, carefully gathering every detail. Waylan saw himself as a rockstar playing the guitar in front of some people, Quincy as a pilot of the Air Force (but his dog showed up and the skies were army green), and Maxi was in the Arctic with an Orca and a penguin enjoying the beauty of the Aurora Borealis. After sharing their mental pictures they painted what they saw and built a board to work their time machine, full of buttons, handles and sensors to navigate time travel.

Cosmos of Patience

In our Kindergarten after school Art class we practiced patience today. The children started with a short stretching and relaxation exercise where they visualized their umbilical cord attached to outer space. They created their own cosmos by sewing and gluing felt on fabric. They didn’t like the idea of practicing patience but I pushed them to keep trying again and again every time they felt they had ruined their work. Sewing for the first time is not easy but they all managed to sew in a line, to add ornaments, and the spiral that they visualized going onto the stars and we’re very proud at the end ✨

I am Loved

We traveled to the rainforest today, some boys climbed a tree while others got inside and then up through the trunk. A special message was given to each of them about who they are or what is it that they are really really good at. There were some sports mentioned and a couple of them got “I am loved”. It’s been quite special to work with the same group of boys for an entire month, I see their progress, tenderness toward each other, how they feel more comfortable, find more ease in expressing and connect the dots, by for example adding to the art something that they visualized during meditation. They created this wooden creatures to place on their bedside table for protection. Next weekly class in April.

Milky Way

I might need to open a kids gallery soon, look at the amazing work by my group of boys today. They were all dinosaur ferocious showing off on our first class but today we really connected and traveled to the Milky Way where each of them retrieved a message to paint. March class is in session but dm me if you’re interested in signing up for April. Are you an adult and need to express the child inside? Everything’s possible, just ask! ⭐️🙌

Flying

-