An Art House

We live in an art house.

Art is a huge part of our lives.

It is how we pass the time.

Sometimes it is how we communicate.

It is definitely how we express our emotions.

We eat off of hand made pottery.  We draw and paint for each other.  We sew, felt, paint, sculpt, carve, mosaic and "throw" (that's the term for making pottery on the wheel) our gifts and offerings to the world. 

You might say we eat, drink, and sleep art. 

And last night, we dressed it.

Or rather, Jonah did.  He dipped my socks into the clay water.

After he dropped all of my almonds into it.

There are a lot of things about our lives that I wish we did better.  I think people who have the courage to ditch their TV completely are super-crunchy and way cool.  We turn on the boob tube and sit all square-eyed way too often.  And then there is the sugar thang.  It is my bestest-best friend on woesome days.  I won't say that a good mother would trade her kids Halloween haul for granola bars and trail mix, but she might not let them eat 2 lbs of it in 6 days (did I say I did that?  No, I did not.)

(I did that).

But in this one thing, I am tickled mauve. 

My children are artists.

I have not taught them much.  If they were fish, I would let them swim in clean water.  If they were rabbits I would set them free in a meadow.  But they are children, so I let them loose in the studio.

They are creators to their very cores. 

Last night as I sat at the potter's wheel singing along to the song Guy was playing on the piano, I felt a rush of joy that I have had the blessing of the arts in my life.  Soon the kids were all around me asking questions and poking fingers into wet clay.  And even though Jonah used my socks as mops, he also stood next to me for an entire hour while I worked.  I gave him a tool and a lump of clay and he dug away at it with glee. 

As part of the homeschool philosophy that we follow,

there are principles that I am learning to embrace.  Right now, my favorite is:

"Inspire not Require"

It is sort of the "If you build it, they will come" principle.  And it is all about mom and dad modeling a joy for learning and the habit of being anxiously engaged in life.  We can't force another person to learn anything, but if they are inspired, they will fall all over themselves to learn.

I don't know if any of my kids will grow up to make art for a living,

but I know they will all be artists. 

They already are.

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"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."

Pablo Picasso