I've mentioned regularly Carrie's enthusiasm for art. Painting is her favorite medium, thus far.
Last night (hindsight being 20/20) apparently I slacked off considerably in my supervisory role. She painted her ears, inside and out.
Need I tell you which color she chose?
We had friends over a few days ago. One asked me to explain our easel. For once, I was at a loss for words.
Sometimes Pearl hears things. Marcia and I have been planning for the summer. We have conversations, and we think she's not paying attention. For example, we've been thinking about keeping the girls home this summer. Pearl is thrilled with this idea. We've also talked about removing the downstairs television and using that space for something more creative. We didn't think she knew about this part of the plan, when she brought home the drawing below from preschool yesterday.
This is our home from an aerial point of view. The large rectangle is our house, and the small one on the right is Jay Jay's house. (Jay Jay is the dog we gave to another family over 2 years ago.) The house is filled with televisions. They have antennae and smiles on their faces. Even Jay Jay and Riah have their own TVs. The squiggles on the left are stairs. Notice there are even 2 suns in the sky. Paradise!
Our little Picasso (a.k.a. Carrie) seems to have enter a new phase of her artistic "career." The only color paint she'll use right now is black.
This has been going on for a week or so. Today I set her her up with her watercolors. Of the sixteen pigments, black was the furthest color from her pad of paper. She used it exclusively.
She calls it "dark" instead of black. She sometimes refers to the white spaces as light. Yes, friends, another day in Grrrlville.
Just in the past two weeks, Pearl has started "dictated" stories that we write down into a special book that she made herself.
Here's one of them.
This is Carrie's picture of snow. It's hard to see the transparent glitter in the scan. She did this one at school.
Carrie continues to be very action-oriented in her artistic style.
Eventually those paintbrushes become cumbersome, and she resorts to her hands. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.
Pearl is really into coloring books lately. She completes entire coloring books before moving on to the next project. Her favorite pictures are one of mother and baby animals. As you can see, the example that I scanned is clearly deficient.
She doesn't enjoy painting as much as her sister does, but every now and then, she joins in.
This is a picture of a house. She drew houses for about a month, starting in December when she (and we) learned that her best friend is moving away.
This one depicts Marcia, Jay Jay the dog, and Riah the cat. The wee bairn in the top left corner is Carrie, looking down from the top of the stairs.
Pearl has made dozens of drawings of this type. They're all different combinations of dinosaur families protecting and waiting for their eggs to hatch. Maybe those of you who guessed she wants a baby brother know more than we do!
I suppose you could argue that there's a little Jackson Pollock in each of us, but in Carrie, I fear it might be more than just a little. Here are two of her paintings done on Monday.
As a subtle strategy, I'm considering removing the book OLIVIA from her room. In the story Olivia creates a giant Pollock-like masterpiece on her bedroom wall and gets a major time out for it.
Carrie strictly refers to Olivia, the main character, as PIG, by the way.
Carrie loves to paint. When Pearl was this age she kept a journal. But for Carrie, watercolor is what she wants and where it's at. Often Carrie paints twice a day. She completes her picture with emphatic finality. I'M DONE, she announces, and hands the paintbrush to the nearest human being, and stomps away.
Art (colored pencil on torn paper) by Pearl
Pearl did some scary drawings for Halloween. On the left we have a Frankenstein monster flying. On the right, check out the stegosaurus frightened by his shadow.
Pearl's last few days could be characterized by the phrase "leaps and bounds." She has made major playground progress. She slid down "the shiny pole"
at the park this weekend and managed half the monkey bars. This coolest thing about this was that she announced before we left that she was now able to do these things. Creative visualization? Whatever you call it, she was correct.
Tuesday was Pearl's first day back at preschool. She said it went "great." She has returned to Montessori school and has the same teachers and some of the same classmates as last year, including her best friend Alex. Below I've posted a picture that she made. She said that it's her. And also a rocket ship. And a dinosaur. Named Raiser.
Carrie has had her fair share in the milestone extravaganza. Tune in tomorrow to learn everything you want to know and more about: The Squirrel Bed.
They say that in childhood we were all little Picassos.
This picture is one of Carrie's. She's still mostly interested in making marks on her page, but she has expanded her color repertoire, and she's experimenting with making basic shapes, such as lines, dots, angles, and "o-balls," as she calls the ovals of our universe.
Pearl continues to create intricate "story maps." She follows the paths with her finger and tells the story by interpreting the images. She gets very animated and involved with these tales. Sometimes she actually scares herself.
Both girls are into art on their own terms this summer. The first two are watercolors by Carrie (age 20 months).
As you might expect, at age 40 months, Pearl's work is more representational. First we have a mommy stegosaurus with her baby riding on her back. The dot on the ground is an egg.
The other two pieces are what Pearl calls story maps. As she draws the map, she tells the story. I must confess, I don't always understand these stories, but it's cool to watch and listen as the tale unravels.
One of these is a dinosaur egg which she referred to as "the world." Maybe Marcia will explain the last one in the comment section. (Hint, hint, honey.)
Houston hosts the original and biggest (in TX bigger = better) art car parade in the world. I took Pearl and Carrie to see the crazy cars on Saturday afternoon. Pearl really enjoyed seeing the wacky cars. Carrie preferred the wonderful people-watching opportunities. The parade is sponsored each year by The 
Orange Show. 
The week in review....
The first one is Alex, Pearl, and Carrie, who is holding a huge balloon. The second one is a rocket ship. The third one is Carrie studying a fossil. (Carrie is the one with the two strands of hair.) The last one is a picture of Mommy and Baba. Notice how Pearl has written our names above the drawings so that you can tell who's who.
Yes, this little girl is making her mark(s).
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