Jackson Pollock On Our Fridge

Today I introduced Bean to the world of art...well, finger painting, to be entirely truthful. Having realized that we NEVER use our deck, and also having realized that late August through early October is the most beautiful time in Northern California, I plopped Bean into her chair with a tray, tied that cute toddler coverall smock on, taped some construction paper to the tray, and let her go with the paints.

Well, being a visually impaired kid, she is naturally somewhat cautious with what she touches, so her first masterpiece has a lot of Mommy input, but it was ALL her hands...just not always intentional :) That being said, she liked scratching at the paper to feel the surface and hear the sound, so we have some funny little fingertip dots at the bottom of the paper. She also got a little braver as time went on, and would look more closely at the bepapered tray, then swipe! Fastest hands in the west, but it did smear the colors around a little more. I think we'll try again tomorrow and see how she feels about it. I will say that I have not seen her that excited about an activity in a while.

The best part, though, has to be the comment from my friend Sara in Canada who had phoned while I was, yes, cooking up my own finger paints (cornstarch, sugar, water and food coloring, dead easy). In her inimitable way, she growled "augh, Heather, you damn hippie mom!". It would seem that California has taken more of a toll than I expected, but at least Bean can chew on her artwork without fear of beriberi, or whatever it is you get from commercial paint.

Tune in later this week for more West Coast Art World news (and I will try to post some pictures of her creations).