Check out this Print Made by an 8 Year Old

A week ago, an 8 year old named Mia came in for a slime workshop and once finished with the slime, we all started making some prints. Mia created a few drawings of flowers, scratched them into her foam plates and we started making prints - along with ghost prints.

I had these long sheets of paper and tried to convince the kids to create a patterned collage. I also had put out these rainbow lino-cut pieces I had carved a while back. Mia spent 1 full hour on this particular print and I just love it so much!

When I started this workshop, I had hoped prints like this would happen. I tried it a few times in the last few years - with some success, but seeing Mia work through this print - I am going to start pushing this technique a lot more at our Printmaking Workshops and our Art Studio for Kids on Monday & Wednesday afternoons.

OH, AND MY GRATITUDE DOODLE JOURNAL FOR TODAY...
Every morning I wake up and come up with three things to be grateful for and then I write and/or doodle them in my journal, which is a simple b&w composition book. It helps start my days in a positive way. Today, I was grateful for:

– SALMON
- LAUGHING OUT LOUD WITH MY WIFE AND KIDS!
- OUR NEW PUPPY!

Yes, what a day this has been, and even though I am trying to use this blog to document my daily routine and all things going on around the shop - this morning began up in Syracuse, actually about 30 miles north of Syracuse, picking up our new puppy, who we have named Bowie. She was born on David Bowie’s birthday, which also happens to be Luke’s birthday. Luke is our 13 year old, seen at the far right of the above pic.

It was ice cold and windy up north and when we stopped at a rest area to relieve ourselves and let Bowie relieve herself - the wind was blowing so hard, she’s so light & little - she almost blew away. It was as if she was skating on ice - her cute little puppy-ness was moving horizontally across the tightly woven grass field in the parking lot of i87. This was just one of the events that caused us all to laugh outloud - it’s a good thing we stopped at a lot of rest areas, because we laughed so hard, we all would have wet our pants. It really felt good to laugh like that - it’s been a while.

More to come on our adventures with Bowie - but I really want to keep this blog about printmaking and creating art with kids. Until Bowie comes in and starts inking up her paws - we will try and keep her separate.