I thought the sparrow’s note from heaven,
Singing at dawn on the alder bough;
I brought him home, in his nest, at even;
He sings the song, but it cheers not now,
For I did not bring home the river and sky;–
He sang to my ear, — they sang to my eye.
The delicate shells lay on the shore;
The bubbles of the latest wave
Fresh pearls to their enamel gave,
And the bellowing of the savage sea
Greeted their safe escape to me.
I wiped away the weeds and foam,
I fetched my sea-born treasures home;
But the poor, unsightly, noisome things
Had left their beauty on the shore
With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar.

Emerson

From “Each and All”

As you can see in the photo above of my drawing table, I (and all the kids I walk in the woods with) collect things to study and draw later.  Yes, it gives me more time, access to field guides, etc, but the spark of amazement seems to die a slow death the longer I am away from the woods.  I have to be in their environment, with them.  Three more weeks until I can get back to my woods.  Then trilliums, orchids, hepatica and bloodroot will all be up.  I will go to the woods, so that I may live.

In an English Garden, Gallery of Sofa-Sized Art, Mike Licht

Something to cover that hideous fireplace.

Something to make you look smart and refined.

Georgia O'Keefe

Just a pretty picture.

Ok, so it’s not even a pretty picture (above).  But parodies of Kincaid (below), well, that’s another story.  (Click on the photo below for lots of other great parodies.)

Just a weird picture.

Art is about seeing connections and patterns, irony and subtext in our interactions and environment.

Art is about helping others see differently,more clearly and more deeply by highlighting, exaggerating, isolating what we see.

Art is about communicating our ideas, hopes and fears with others.

Art is part of the larger conversation about what we want our (personal and communal) worlds to be.

We have lots and lots of paper scraps in our house.  We jot lists on them (and promptly lose them!) and the Sage draws cars and practices writing on them but that doesn’t put a dent in our paper supply.  (Hello, my name is Salamander and I hoard paper.)  I love making these little notepads.  They can be made of repurposed/ upcycled materials.  All you need is a good glue (elmer’s school glue won’t cut it), paper and bulldog clips or something similar.  A stiff board (cereal box, back of a sketchbook, mat board) is a nice addition.  Knock the papers (and board if you’re using it) down so they are lined up.  Clip them together, spread a generous amount of glue (Aleene’s Tacky Glue is what I use).  Stand it up between two jars so the glue won’t drip and  (this is the hard part) leave it alone until it’s dry.

These would make great stocking stuffers or make small ones to use in place of a card on the gift.  Here are several variations:

Matchbook Notebooks from Design*Sponge.

Notepads from Chocolate on my Cranium.  I use Aleene’s Tacky Glue (the brown bottle at any big box craft store) instead of the padding compound, so don’t hesitate to try this.

Notepads with photo covers  from Photojojo.