in san diego with my niece for a couple of weeks. i explained gesture drawing to her and she drew my purse, stitching and all. 9 year old natural. i told her to sign it and she added some commentary.

today we did sunprints in honor of summer solstice. i always try to tie in some pithy theme with the projects we do, but i’m pretty sure i do the concepts little justice in my 2 minute schpeal of how ‘mmmm, well the sun is very important to many cultures…’ in any case, one of the better ones was the key and the cassette tape print– music is the key to my heart, she says.

like always, they abandon the ones they consider failures– too blurry or too dark. they always happen to be my favorites, though. i’m unsure whether i bring in too many butterfly /flower things and perpetuate “girl” symbols.

i did image transfers with the girls today (matte medium + paper + photocopy).
even when i tell them it’s supposed to look that way, they get annoyed because an arm and eye or a petal rubbed off. i tell them they gotta appreciate the accidents, but i’m a perfectionist like them and control is paramount.

amy gives me her mottled butterfly because she messed it up and why didn’t i bring a dragon, she asks. i add it to my discarded treasure collection.