Mom Gets Crafty for a Punk Rock Halloween

Happy Halloween!

My very first post for Vida Viva, “The Crafty Mom”, is all about how although I am an artist, I am disappointingly untalented at crafts.  So you can imagine my excitement when I finally found my inner craftiness and made Owen his first homemade Halloween costume.  Punk rocker.

Most of  the costume was easy.  The t-shirt I just ripped some holes in and used fabric paint to paint an anarchy sign.  I was originally going to write “The Clash” but I thought that was kind of cheesy.  I thought the anarchy sign was more authentic and therefore hysterical.  More later on why I should have gone with cheesy.

The guitar was more work, but by far the best part of the costume.  I drew it on cardboard, applied a few layers of gesso, painted it with red and black acrylics,  and then cut it out with an exacto knife. I needed Tom to draw the strings with a gold paint pen, because even with a straight edge, I cannot draw a straight line.  I’m not sure what learning disability that qualifies me for, but it is no joke.  I even put my friend Veronica to work that night because the cardboard box  was taking FOREVER to cut through, so she did some of the cutting.  It was a group effort.  But when we were done, we were giddy anticipating how amazing Owen would look at the Embassy Halloween party Friday.

I glued a checkered ribbon to the guitar to act as a strap so he could wear it on his back, and thought he wouldn’t even notice it once it was on.  Minutes before the party I put him in his shirt and camoflauge pants and spiked up his hair.  He seriously did not want to wear the guitar.  Ok, I thought. When we get to the Embassy to trick or treat around the offices he will be distracted and he will let me put it on him.

We got to the Embassy. Again, he wanted nothing to do with it. I carried it around sort of next to him so people would “get” the costume, but I still got a few “oh he’s an anarchist…?” remarks that made me want to hide under a rock. After all my hard work, he had a costume that made no sense.  Not to mention Owen was too little to understand the trick or treating thing and only wanted to play with the elevator.  I called Tom at his office  in tears and we went home.

When we got there, our housekeeper was just leaving.  I drove her to her metro stop, and when I got back, I was greeted by Owen, wearing his guitar.  I nearly dropped dead. While I was away, Tom had somehow gotten Owen to wear the guitar to take the pictures I had wanted so badly.  Now, lets be honest.  This involved some tears.  But eventually, he wore the guitar and forgot he had it on….only to take it off  fifteen minutes later.

It’s too bad that the party ended up being such a disappointment.   But my day was saved  when I came home to see that my husband had gone through a battle of the wills with our son to take the pictures, and even a video.  That’s love.  Besides, if Owen wants to be a rock star anytime in the next few years, I have a guitar waiting for him.

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Monday Pick Me Up-Owen’s Nature Zip

The first time it happened by accident.  Owen was playing with one of those peek-a-boo flap books, and he ripped a child peeking behind a plant clean out of the book.  I thought, that’s a shame, and I taped it up over his coat hooks.  It looked pretty cute.  Before I knew what I was doing I was taping a post card with a picture of a giraffe right next to it. And it looked just perfect.

Later that night I was looking at Owen’s sleeping  nook, the little square alcove in his room that holds his crib, covered by glow in the dark stars. In between that, and his large wooden closet doors, is an odd strip of white wall.  I taped up a photo from our honeymoon in Thailand.  And then I got my idea.  The Nature Zip.  Parents go crazy with all kinds of decorating ideas and murals, many of which I have entertained.  But lets face it.  We are here temporarily.  Painting a giant tree over his crib doesn’t quite seem worth it. But a nature collage on a skinny “zip” of wall, this I can do.

The original idea was to cover the entire area, from floor to ceiling.  Unfortunately, I had to let this go when I realized that Owen enjoys peeling the photos off the wall as much as we both enjoy viewing them from the rocking chair.

Still, the little man seems quite fond of it.

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Monday Pick Me Up-Dangerous Beauty

I was telling our son Owen that for many people, Easter marks the beginning of Spring.  That where we come from, the trees are turning green and the flowers are starting to grow.  Some tire of the endless Summer of Caracas, but seeing the tropical flora of our neighborhood gives me the same rush some of you are getting back home on these first warm days of Spring.

What I love about these dainty little rose colored flowers (whose names I tried to find and failed miserably) is that they grow on thorny stems sharp as barbed wire.  I love painting cacti because they are so beautiful and so fierce, like South America.  I wish I could have taken a better photo with our Canon T1i, but when I am out and about I carry a small, unassuming camera.  Because unlike these dangerous beauties, I am unarmed.

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What I’m Working On Now.

I try to be conscientious in my creativity. I use discarded materials as painting surfaces and I paint with water soluble non toxic oil paints. Yet recently, something had been weighing on my conscious. A stack of unfinished paintings, in various states of progress, some started and abandoned in Bogotá, others started and left untouched since the first months of my marriage, over three years ago. Not to mention half empty books of canvas paper I lost interest in.

Yes, I have several people interested in portraits at this time. But lets face it, I have an ADD style (and what artist doesn’t?) so I am usually working on more than one piece at a time. I am tired of cringing every time I pass these wooden and paper ghosts in the closet. I am taking them out, and finishing them.

How I wish I had a photograph of this painting from before! It was atrocious! I started it in April 2007, and worked on it now and then over the next year. The colors were very dark, and there was a bird, and a pink bracelet hanging over one branch. When I sat in front of it Saturday night I was horrified and overwhelmed. And then, inspired by some Emilio Pucci images I had been researching, I decided to go purple. After an hour, although not anywhere near done, the painting was transformed. It was now something I was excited to work on! Although in the light of the morning it did not look nearly as colorful or purple.

Then I went REALLY purple.  It occurred to me suddenly that this was a night painting, that the tree was lit from within, perhaps from lanterns for a party, perhaps because it is a tree house.  I was hoping I would have photos of it in a more finished state for today, with flowers even but this is as far as I’ve gotten.  I have a heavy hand (or you can call it “painterly” if you want to flatter me) and sometimes the paint needs to set a bit before I can continue.  Also, I was working on these two paintings.

These are two halves of a wooden box. FYI: I would love to find some old wooden boxes to repaint, if you have some you don’t want, send them my way!

The first one is a collage.  The  background image is torn from an old book. The tree was part of an acrylic painting on canvas paper I did in Bogotá, that I cut out with an exacto knife.  Why is a long story, but other parts of that painting, including another tree, Charlie, and Tom, are still waiting to me collaged into new works.

The aloe plant sat in my studio in Bogota and I miss it to this day. If only we could take our plants from post to post!  I painted this there, but it was a little rough around the edges.  I freshened it up this morning and am quite happy with it.

Not sure yet what do with the outside of the box halves….

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Monday Pick Me Up-Retail Therapy

I often find myself looking for a pick me up in in Caracas, and not just Monday mornings. When a cup of coffee or a chunk of Miss Poema’s dark chocolate just won’t cut it, I turn to my newest vice. Online shopping. If, like many people, you think of South America as cheap, let me be the first to burst your bubble. Caracas is actually more expensive than NYC! And so, what was once a godsend for diapers and detergent has become my personal pick me up. Allow me to share with you what arrived last week, and introduce to you a talented young jewelery designer who surely won’t be this affordable much longer!

This is me in our garden sporting the Gold Hamsa Toggle-Clasp Bracelet by Alexandra Beth Designs. These come in several different colors and are available at http://www.alexandrabeth.com/. What impresses me about her jewelery is that it has a vintage appeal, while being new and refreshing at the same time. I love her bracelets with zippers, and her leaf earrings. Check her out!

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We did manage to get out of the apartment a bit this weekend. The men and I went out for lunch to Rey David, a very cute restaurant at Plaza’s. It seems to be Kosher, Italian, or some sort of mixture of the two. Either way, its delicious, and we had a great time. Rey David is actually a restaurant and a store, with the restaurant on the outside patio, and the store inside. If you are ever in Caracas, it is one of the more charming places to visit.

Here comes my Retail Therapy story Part Two. On each of the tables, there was a large glass Evian bottle, with a swirly, colorful pattern designed by Paul Smith, and I decided that I simply had to have one. I thought it would make the sweetest stem vase. Back in college, I would decorate my first apartment with a stolen flower or two, plucked from a near by park in the middle of the night. We’d use old water and wine bottles in place of vases. Now, all these years later, after bridal registries and showers, and collecting things in our travels, we have more than enough vases, and I love to fill the apartment with flowers. But I still love decorating in resourceful and unexpected ways. I may be a mama, but I’m a mamita bandida!

P.S.-Check in tomorrow for a new post, “What I’m working on now”!

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Monday Pick Me Up-Orange, Brown, and Blue

Here it is, your Monday Morning Pick me up.  A rich color scheme of orange, brown, and blue, that pervaded the photographs taken of our Sunday morning spent in the Embassy playground with our friends and their dogs.

Though these images were taken here, in Caracas, Venezuela, the colors make me think of the American South West….

Caracas is a difficult post, but getting together with other members of the Embassy community helps a lot.  Especially those with dogs and/or babies!  Look how happy they are! Although Charlie was MIA the moment the photo was taken, rest assured he was off being traviesito somewhere close by.

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…And so, our outdoor photo shoot (so to speak) in the morning inspired an indoor photo shoot of the same color scheme in the afternoon.  Here I am cleaning off our young model after a pre photo shoot oreo.

Orange tee-shirt by Penguin.  Rug by Dwell Studio for Target Kids….or something like that.  Adorable blue knit teddy bear by Baby Gap.  Modeled by Kate and Owen Laufert, of Vida Viva

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Monday Pick Me Up

It occurred to me last night that I should post a blog each Monday morning with an image that inspires my work.  Just the cure for the Monday blahs.

I bought this vase at the Ice-T (I know, bizzare name!)  Murano glass factory recently.  Our trip to this factory has been one of the few highlights in our time here in Caracas.  I love this vase because of it’s retro, almost psychedelic style.  Yet  it is also so undeniably Latin, with it’s swirls of  flamboyant canary yellow. Doesn’t it make you want to throw on a Pucci print dress and go salsa dancing? Very Vida Viva.

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