AlishaVernon.com

Ever since I’ve started babysitting on a regular basis, I’ve noticed that one of the things I get most excited about are kids art projects. I plan an art/craft project each time I go to babysit (as long they’re old enough) and I really love seeing what each kid comes up with and how they all differ, given the same materials and instructions.  Even before I got back into babysitting, this idea of kids and art has always been so interesting to me.

I’ve thought that I would love to run some sort of art school for toddlers and gradeschoolers at some point in my life.  Just learning about different project ideas makes me giddy.  I think, really, it brings me back to a time when life was simpler, and art had very little rules and expectations, and I could spend all day making a “racoon hat” with paper and crayons or a “dinosaur land” with sticks, without ever asking myself “Why am I doing this?  What will I use it for?” “Man, how much do these supplies cost?” or “I wonder how much money I could make from selling these?”   (…and yes, I really did do those aforementioned projects as a kid)

Creativity was so much more pure and innocent back then.

[I bought the above book at Borders.  I seriously want to collect books like this.  There are so many of them!]

…… I just got a great idea.  I should post photos of some of the work my kids (that I babysit) come up with.  I don’t know why, but I think it would be cool.

I realize that I’ve really put this site, as well as art, on the back burner for awhile.  My original plan was to use this blog to record my year long journey of finding my place as an Artist.  I guess I was a little disappointed when I realized that the year had come and gone and I had not emerged victoriously….as I had envisioned.  In all honesty, it’s pretty obvious that I didn’t put very much into this whole process.  I did get distracted quite a bit. I’ve had times where I’ve been sure that painting is my calling, and even an inescapable destiny.  Other times I’ve been sure that I should escape.  But here I am, at 25 years old, with this odd feeling that there is more to it all than I know and this strange feeling that a paintbrush and canvas will always be able to call me back, no matter how old I am.  I think it will all fall in to place when it’s supposed to.

Lately, however, I’ve noticed quite an interest in, shall we say, less glamorous art forms.  Ones that are simple and even quaint….like beeswax candle making, calligraphy, bookbinding, and sewing.  Speaking of sewing, I’ll leave you with my first major sewing project.  (Let it be known that I bought my dogs’ costume)

The Bee Family on Halloween

Serious Bee “…why did my wife make me dress like a freakin’ bee?”

Goofy Bee “…buzz buzz, look at my wings”

Mama and baby bee