08.08.10

Remember a few days ago when I showed that huge painting in the dining room? Well, today was family day. No computers. No blackberries. No phone calls. Just unadulterated family time. It is an experiment. We went for a hike. Collected things for our family altar. Read books. Played games. Which to be honest, we found it slightly challenging at times. What to do? We usually have activities, then spend some alone time, or individual times with the kids, then family time again. it is bloody hot here, so outside activities were slightly limited. After our hike, we realized that the mosquitos were awful on top of the God-awful humidity. So we wanted inside projects. I suggested we do a family painting and we just paint over the whole painting and create something together, but Sam loved the colors of the original and the "You are my Sunshine." Sam was so timid when we started. He didn't want to do anything, so he took red and began painting on top of the red. First he started with a circle, then some designs in it. I kept yelling at them, "YOu can't mess this up. Just go for it. It is a family project. Paint, splash. Do anything. Cut out pictures and paste them to the canvas." I finally got them to really play with the paint. Sam made this cool design that looks Native American, he used some black, which he hated, so I gave him a brayer and told him to roll the design, and it came out looking like spray paint. I pasted small prayer flags to the piece, to show that I wanted our family to have wishes whispered on the wind, and I used an old linoleum block design of the Buddha and stamped Gold Buddhas all over it them rolled them out. Beatrice used white and red and yellow and just painted on top of everything. You can see her pinkish contribution on the top middle of the canvas. Sam also painted little stick figures of our family in the corner, with Lucy by his leg, which broke my heart a little. All in all, it was a great day.  

I have been really re-inspired with my jizos from Janis' gift this past week. The top jizo is a commission. The canvas didn't work for the mama either (The one from last week), so I thought I would go a different route. It still needs the beautiful poem she wants written on it. I am slightly nervous about the writing, which can always make or break these jizo paintings. I also somehow managed to squeeze two more watercolor jizos into my afternoon while no one was looking.

Mizuko jizo and twins. 22" x30" Watercolor.



























Close up of jizo. Watercolor.

Jizo with lotus. 7"x10". Watercolor

Meditating jizo. 4"x6". Watercolor.