C Knotes

Panda Bears and Groundhog Day! Kids Drawing Class

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 15:55:27 -0500

In honor of Groundhog Day we drew woodchucks, aka groundhogs. I showed the kids photos and a cartoon character named "Johnny Chuck". Which did they want? Everybody call out what you want when I raise my hand! (They had already expressed their preferences in disunison.) When I raised my hand, they all said "natural!"(photo). The child who'd wanted the cartoon version forgot he was to say "cartoon!". We did both anyway! The cartoon reference came from Kidoons.com. They have a whole story line of cartoon characters built around the stories of Thornton Burgess but don't seem to credit the authorship of the stories (as far as I could tell).

We also did Panda Bears in honor of the pandas from the National Zoo who are being shipped back to China today (Feb 4th). We had some sumi-e painting and some photos as references. First we did the photo, then the sumi-e, but in drawing. I ask the kids to color in the black shapes as if there are invisible outlines to color in. We need a descriptive name for this process. One child's name for it is "invisible coloring in". I would like to have as many names as possible for it, so, suggestions please!

Scroll past pics for links to Panda info.

Tai Shan returns to China via FedEx, ABC News story.

Info on Panda's World at National Zoo from the Smithsonian Institute

How the Panda got his black and white markings - a Chinese folktale, and information on Panda Bears

KungFu Panda Stick Puppet to download from HP

Panda Cub at San Diego Zoo

Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? Board Book, written by Bill Martin Jr., illustrated by Eric Carle.

A Day's Worth of Facebook Comments

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:44:02 -0500

Experiment - a day's worth of my comments and messages in Facebook today (and perhaps another day)

mention of Philly College of Art -
T - did you go to Philadelphia College of Art? I went there '68 - with a break - through '74 (I think), and at one point also the Academy. At least, I lived in Philly til then!

'friends' in facebook significance -
There is no other pleasing and easy word in place yet to signify the facebook version. What the facebook friend circle really is is a network you can turn to to put a word out if you have news, want to share something, or need something - its a cybertown and 'friend' is the leftover word/name from its origins as a college network. We need a new word for this type of 'friend'!

reply to Mainer about possible old haunts
Wow! I only remember K. H. who later married J. E.. L. T. I met recently through her brother M., and him I only met after I moved up here. I had always heard his name though. I'm still not clear if you are talking about the Spruce Head Community Building or the Rockland rec center dances? I used to go to the Rockland dances every week in the summer for 2-3 summers in '67, '68 I don't even think after that. In Spruce Head I remember we used to hang out outside the community building - by then those dances were considered to be for the older crowd (the music was not cool enough). The cars would be lined up and down the street. There were a few times a bunch of us snuck in there at night during the week and hung out. One time everyone had to hightail it out the back because apparently a cop car had gone by or was coming.

the wolf moon
And, this pic C. struck me as being straight out of your moon video!
The snowy landscape's brightness last night - I could have tried reading by it, but let us read it as a good sign!

Got to have magic.

magic of the moon spoiled by inhabiting it? -
I can't see that happening in our time (or, I don't think I intend to be here to see it happen!) - and if that is what the people living then want, let them have it. People will either realize they love and want the beauty and magic of this life or they won't. Beauty and magic will always be. If we don't have it in our lives, we don't have the energy to live. We give up and die....(is what I think).

my angel band painting
..Thank you! ...Symbols for the other arts - writing: quill & scroll, dance: drum & ?, theatre: the masks, painting: palette & brush. Symbol ideas please...!

For the angel series - symbols the angels would carry, as they are holding instruments here. Theatre - anything else besides those masks?
...ballet shoes/slippers though!

ooh I like that angelic harmony coming from an angel band! I forgot already that it needs a name.

I'm looking for the objects they can carry - but of another time frame (before electronics! I want them in the sky. I want symbols for the other arts to go with this musical group.
A series of four paintings of the angels expressing the arts - music (done), writing/poetry, theatre, dance, image making. They really overlap. There are 5-6 arts here.

Thank you T., the juices are flowing!

Happy Birthday dear friend from cyber-space!

someone's new job -
"..being out there in the community.." - when it comes down to it, maybe that is what a job is really all about, though we may believe it is about the money.

Angel Band Watercolor Painting in Progress

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:31:25 -0500

A Slice of Birthday Cake - Digital!

Sun, 3 Jan 2010 13:11:25 -0500

A slice of birthday cake!

Happy New Year - 2010!

Fri, 1 Jan 2010 00:09:38 -0500

Happy New Year!

Here is my demonstration drawing of Father Time and the New Year's Baby with a kids' drawing below. Just before Christmas we made some paper ornaments - paper angels, bells, and houses. We had to use a jacket for a backdrop for the photo. Lucky it was a red jacket.

A Christmas Dove of Peace and a Poem

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:08:09 -0500

The Bird of Peace

The Bird of Peace
Flies high above
The cares of daily life,
And drops its seeds and
Leaves
With gracious ease,
In unknown seas and
Lands
Planting unseen stirrings
Among differing hands
Giving unto Earth
An everlasting birth
Catinka Knoth
12/21/2009

Santa's Arrival - Art from Kids' Drawing Class

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:58:30 -0500

Santa having just stepped out of the chimney into the livingroom, and a reindeer with Santa in his sleigh - my demonstration drawings and the kids drawings.

Mini Holiday Coloring Booklet

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:01:00 -0500

Download my holiday coloring booklet for some miniature drawings to color. These are demonstration drawings from past kids' classes. Wreaths, Christmas trees, a Hanukkah menorah, Santa, his sleigh and reindeer, the fireplace, stockings... Once you print it out, for the booklet effect, fold in half the long way, then accordian fold in quarters.

Kids Drawings for Hanukkah!

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:01:00 -0500

My Chanukah or Hanukkah demonstration drawing for the kids class, and the kids drawings which follow. One of these days we'll get the right spelling for these words!

Blue Calico China and Collaged Landscape Blocks

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 03:39:08 -0500

My series of fantasy landscape blocks will be in an exhibit of landscape art here at Lincoln Street Center in Rockland Maine for the month of December. The opening reception is December 5th, 3-6 pm. This group show takes place at the Jean Chalmers Gallery. You can read the article about the "XX" Landscapes at Lincoln Street Exhibit.

There is a story to these mixed media blocks, which I made back in 1985? I used to live by the entrance to the Holland Tunnel in New York City. One year they were re-landscaping it. I salvaged these blocks, ends of 2 x 8 planking that had been used to build something in the new design. I was always on the lookout for pieces of wood suitable to paint my fantasy landscapes on - like the old tempera paintings from Medieval times. Painting landscapes inside of broken crockery or small boxes was another format for my art. My favorite blue calico earthenware china, being earthenware, was subsceptible to easy breakage by playful cats. When a mug broke just in half, it seemed a good fit for a landscape inside, like a peephole Easter egg. Another version was a miniature paper mache window/box painted in the blue calico pattern.

There were also fantasy landscapes on canvas in mixed media collages using gift wrap paper of Medieval patterns. The blocks range from collages of these gift wraps, to papers I hand painted first in the blue calico, then in simpler calico floral patterns of my own designs. I wanted to create the effect of looking through a hole of the broken edges of china into another world. It's also a bit like looking through curtains.

At the entrance to most tunnels we cannot see the light at the end. We will only enter that tunnel if we have faith somewhere that there is a light at the end of it, or that we can find our way back out where we came from. And certainly only children might believe that we can dig a tunnel through the earth to China. And yet....

Would you like to see cards of these blocks?

You can see a collection of Blue Calico China from England at Amazon.