Christmas Colors

"Give crayons." 

-- Dr. Sun Wolf

Crayons 12-5-14

"My childhood smells like a box of Crayola crayons."

-- Terry Guillemets

"Artists are just children who

refuse to put down their crayons."

-- Al Hirschfeld

Every year for Christmas I restock my little niece Sophia's art supplies.

Sophia is a true artist, and her voluminous output is pretty damned impressive.

She draws and paints and colors a lot.

Sophia's artistic fervor reminds me of myself, and I hope she never loses her delight, her need or her persistence in putting color to paper. (You can read about my personal love affair with art supplies here.)

Crayons 12-5-14

The world is a lot more colorful because of who Sophia is, and because of what she creates, and I want to be one of the people who encourages her to keep doing and creating and making her art.

So yesterday, as always, I went a little nuts at the art store and bought her a fresh supply of crayons, markers, colored pencils, paper and paint.

Sophia has come to expect this particular kind of gift from me. And I am OK with being a little predictable. I want her to know she can count on me. Sophia knows I'll get her art stuff just like her brother Marco knows I'll give him pickles and olives.

It's my thing.

And I happen to think it's a good thing.

A Change In Scenery

"The really happy person is the one who can enjoy the scenery,

even when they have to take a detour."

-- James Jeans

Red truck 3-30-14

"My mother said I should have a 'change of scenery.'

The word scenery made me think of a play.

And as we were driving around, it made sense that way.

Because no matter how much the scenery changed,

we were still on the same stage."

-- David Levithan, Every You, Every Me

White barn 3-30-14

"Sometimes a change in scenery is good,

sometimes time runs out in a certain spot.

It did for me here."

-- Phil Nevin

Tanker under red sky 3-30-14

We had to take a car trip to my hometown yesterday for a family thing.

It's a drive we've made hundreds of times. We take the Ohio Turnpike and interstate highways, and the view out the car window at this time of year is drab and gray and dismal and grim, with a guardrail slicing through everything. It is, as my 10-year-old nephew Marco would say, "Bo-ring!"

When we go anyplace with Leo in the car, I get relegated to the back seat because he needs the room up front for his giraffe legs. Plus, he wanted to drive.

I didn't feel like reading. I didn't feel like napping. I couldn't get into the music Leo was listening to.

So I started fiddling with some of the unused settings on my camera.

I had the most fun with the color swap feature. With a couple of clicks I could change the flat grays and boring beiges into vibrant reds, vivid golds and deep blues. The ho-hum view out my window became a kind of neutral canvas that I could color in however I wanted, turning the monochromatic unimaginative winter landscape into something far more ethereal and interesting.

Much better.

Sometimes you need a change of scenery.

But when the scenery is stubborn and won't change for you, go ahead and take matters into your own hands and change it yourself. It's a good way to pass the time -- at least until you get carsick from riding in the backseat and looking through a viewfinder with a teen boy at the wheel who is changing lanes, and radio stations, abruptly and often.

Then it's time to take a nap before you puke.

Shapes And Colors

"I found I could say things with color and shapes

that I couldn't say any other way --

things I had no words for."

-- Georgia O'Keeffe

Bottles abstract 3-9-14

"There is no abstract art.

You must always start with something.

Afterward you can remove all traces of reality."

-- Pablo Picasso

The View Through A Kaleidoscope

"Dreams dress us carefully in the colors of power and faith."

-- Aberjhani, I Made My Boy Out of Poetry

Beach glass kaleidoscope 1-21-14

"Gratitude doesn't change the scenery.

It merely washes clean the glass you look through

so you can clearly see the colors."

-- Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway

Some people make their own cookies.

Some people make their own jam.

I make my own kaleidoscopes.

I taught myself how during my 2012 "No Day Without Art" 365 days challenge, and I never get tired of the million little miracles I can make from one cardboard tube and handful of ordinary junk held up to the light.

The "junk" in today's kaleidoscope is a few shards of beach glass. My son Leo loves collecting beach glass on the Lake Erie shore near our house. He'll stroll the shoreline for hours, in all kinds of weather, head bent down, scanning for bits of blue, green, white, brown, amber. He keeps in in Mason jars.

He shared a little of it with me for this kaleidoscope. It's the first time I used beach glass, and I loved the results. It refracted the light beautifully, softly, and it's irregular shapes and sizes made some lovely and surprising designs.

The beauty of a homemade kaleidoscope, like this one, is that no two looks through the eye-hole are ever the same. The glass, or beads, or marbles, or whatever I use, tumble in random, endlessly unrepeatable patterns. 

I won't bore you with a million of them here. But I will share a couple more:

Beach glass kaleidoscope (2) 1-21-14

Sometimes you see snowflakes.

Beach glass kaleidoscope (3) 1-21-14

Sometimes you see flowers.

Sometimes, like in the image at the top of the page, you see a stained glass cathedral window. 

Since I have all of my kaleidoscope-making stuff out, I think I'll make one or two more today. Sometimes I give them as gifts. Sometimes I keep them for myself. This one I'll keep, though. Leo worked too hard to collect the glass, so I can't just give it away. 

When the view from down here gets grim or depressing or sad or hateful or dark, a peek through one of my kaleidoscopes has the power to change how I see things, and then change it again, and again, and again, and again. 

An argument can't do that. Politics can't do that. A pill can't do that. A weapon can't do that. A war can't do that. Advertising can't do that. Religion can't do that. 

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., who said and did a lot of good things and who we celebrated yesterday,

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness;

only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate;

only love can do that."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

A kaleidoscope is a good way see the light. And the colors.