Art and About
Engaging with the creative force in everyday life

You can see by my stellar record in keeping up the Art and About “column” since it evolved from newspaper to Web, that I’m not as sparked to write in blog form as I was for the paper. I think I was fueled by the fact that at one time, all newspapers with my column were being delivered to homes and newsstands at the same time and potentially, being read within a certain timeframe. There was a sense of immediacy with the communication, real or imagined, and that helped my initiative. I may not having been writing breaking news stories, but there was an energy to being in print that made me feel like I was. (Ironic, I know, with the death of the dinosaur newspaper and the 24-hour news cycle on TV and the Web.)

I like that on the Web, my columns can live forever, and I never know when someone, somewhere in the world, will get introduced to Art and About. That’s why I leave everything here. I DON’T like knowing I have a stale posting. Since most of my writing isn’t timely, in reality, it is not any more stale than a book published years ago. But I know in the Internet world, someone could come to my site, see the latest posting date being months or years ago, and think that nobody cares about Art and About any more.

NOT TRUE.

I still care deeply about showing people how to recognize and appreciate the arts and creativity in the world around them on a daily basis. I continue to talk to my family and friends about it. My work with children’s choirs means I get to touch young lives weekly and teach them to keep their senses open to the Creative Spirit at work among us. In my personal laboratory at home, in which I keep my own children in Art and About petri dishes, I have seen that by showing children how to live creatively, they themselves live creatively. My children are 6 and 8 now, and they are very open and free creative thinkers, both in how they approach work and play, and in how they remark on creative encounters in the world. They never, ever think inside the box. They refresh my way of thinking on a daily basis.

If I feel compelled to write a blog column, I still will. In the meantime, there are people past and present encapsulating the Art and About way of life as well, if not better, than I do. If you need a fix, check them out.

Thank you for embracing and spreading the Art and About way of life!

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
–Pablo Picasso

“Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It’s the rhythm of your life. It’s the expression in time and movement, in happiness, joy, sadness and envy.”
~ Jaques D’ambroise

Jean Van’t Hul in North Carolina TOTALLY gets it! Check out her blog,

The Artful Parent

Here’s an interview with Jean on Creative Construction. Did I mention she TOTALLY GETS IT?

You must get your hands on a copy of “A Child’s Book of Art: Great Pictures, First Words” selected by Lucy Micklethwait. Here’s an excerpt from the inside cover:

Every child loves to look at pictures. If we give them paintings to look at, children begin to develop a lasting appreciation of art. Children look at paintings with freshness and honesty. They are eager to explore, find something new, and study the details. A Child’s Book of Art presents more than 100 pictures for children to delight in as they start to discover the fascinating world of art.

Each picture in this book is accompanied by a first word that can be the starting point for conversation. Scenes from everyday life around the world and throughout history offer endless opportunities for discussion.

At my last posting, I was agonizing over the definition of art and my own hypocrisy regarding that definition. In my cliff hanger ending to my column, I was staring at two blank canvases thinking that my art, or any art created by my family, wouldn’t be good enough to justify displaying in prominent parts of the home. I am happy to report that one Saturday, I put one canvas in front of myself and one in front of my daughter and we just jumped in and made art. Neither of us knew where we were going to go with it, but as the day ticked by, we filled our canvases and both felt satisfied with the results. As with any good art relationship, I have come to enjoy the pieces we made more and more each day and I wonder why I ever felt stifled by the prospect of making them.

However, my feelings toward art purchased at Home Goods continued to plague me for months. Many times, Oprah has said that when the Universe wants to teach you something, it will keep sending you lessons until you learn it. The first lesson might feel like a pebble hitting you on the side of the head, but if you don’t learn from it, then the next lesson will feel more like a rock. It will escalate to a brick, a wall and so on until an entire metaphorical house falls on you, if that’s what it takes to get your attention.

Generally, I have found this to be true and it certainly was true regarding this art crisis. The barrage of lessons came over a number of weeks as I tried to creatively punch up our landscaping without spending a fortune on tearing up a crumbling patio or buying a lot of new plants. Once again, a solution blindsided me at Home Goods when I spotted two separate sculptures of metal frogs playing instruments. I immediately saw that I could build a little stage area off to one side of the yard and have the five frogs that comprised the sculptures serenading that corner of the garden — a fun and unexpected vignette to add a mini focal point within the middle of the hardscape.
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