First Attempt to Map Making

This one is inspired by maps. She has seen me studying a map last week, and has created her own map. I don’t know what the writing on the left means, but there is a boat (she went on her father’s boat last week) and a wooden bridge (the boats are moored onto a wooden pier). On the left is another boat (circle with cross) that can be reached by gangway (she visited someone else’s boat and had to walk over a gangway). On the right is our house.

Juggling

We suddenly have a recurrent theme; Juggling.

Picture on the right
H: "That one is with a boy juggling up in the tree. He wants to have a party with his friends. And there are fishes up. There are balloons. That is the party sign (right). "

Picture on the left
H: "That’s another boy juggling. He is a clown. And there is a boy standing next to him thinking - he's got his eyes closed, see? - that he is going to the circus. "

Conversation
M: "How do you know about juggling? "
H: "I learned that people juggle in a circus. "
M: "Who told you that? "
H: "My brain told me that."

Oh Christmas Tree

Hana is in the Christmas spirit. It's stars and Christmas trees now. There is of course the traditional Christmas tree with the yellow star on top. This one is a mix.

"That is a mermaid jumping in the air (note the bra, or the boobies, I am not sure which one was intended), and a little bird is flying to its nest. It is very tiny. There is a snake on top of the house. And there are Christmas stars on the house and there are people coming out of the house. The tree is a Christmas tree. "

Letters in Jail

When she first showed me this work, I had to ask several times what it meant. ‘Letters Indjale’, she said, and repeated it several times. Finally, exasperated with her mom’s dim logic, she explained; “The letters are in prison, and the smiley face too.”
I got it. She used the lines of the paper as bars of a jail. And thus the letters are in jail. Hence the name, 'Letters in Jail.'

And this is what it looks like when it is mounted on the wall (with 3 pieces of scotch tape).

She does not know how to read or write yet, but letters have a great attraction on her. She experiments a lot with letters.

Christmas Tree

Inspired by the Christmas tree, Hana made this multi-media piece of art. It was ‘for the Christmas tree’. Whether it should hang in the Christmas tree, stand before it, or be a Christmas tree in itself was not clear to me. (I banned it from the house out of fear that displaying it near the Christmas tree might lighten her enthusiasm and make her produce an entire line of this).

She spent a good tie hammering it together, adding bits and pieces of material; some glitter, a button, a ribbon, a sponge and a drawing of her and her mom with a big red hart (see inset).

A Valuable Brain

Hana says: “This picture is about his brain. His brain is valuable and he never brushes his teeth, you know that? His name is Earlin. That’s his hair (pointing the the top). These are his ears (on the side).”

Curly

'Gekruld van buiten, gekruld van binnen' is the Dutch proverb. Another one, similar, is 'gekrulde haren, gekrulde zinnen.' Both mean the same; If you are curly from the outside, you're curly from the inside. And curly Hana is. This is one of the first pictures where there is a distinct difference between girls and boys. Girls get dressed (green) and curls.

Letters

Hana is experimenting with letters, and numbers. She reverses them, but she is much interested in writing. She writes and illustrates books all the time. She is starting to recognize rhyming words and similar word beginnings. I know in Holland you learn to read between the age of 5 and 6, so she should be reading by this summer, logically speaking. We will see. I don't think they teach it in KGI.

This is a Christmas letter (the star).

Green Cucumber & Blue Beads

Every week or so, a parent comes to my daughters class, to talk about his/her job. It is part of their social studies curriculum. ‘The World and I’, or something along those lines. And she’s been talking for weeks now about the mom of a certain girl who was doing things with creams and lotions and I don’t know what. Today, while we were having dinner at Zaatar & Zeit (place on Bliss Street in Beirut) she showed me this. “And this is what her mom does.” It finally dawned on me; The mom is a beautician!

A couple of days later we visited a glass blower between Sidon and Tyre, on the coast of Lebanon. And what you can do with cucumber, you can do with glass beads too.

Mr. Ramsey

“This is Mr. Ramsey, Andrew’s Dad. His job is to buy all kinds of stuff for the school, like chairs and paper.”

Hana’s impression of the father of one of her classmates who came in to talk about his job.

The Meanies

Hana has been quite impressed by The Meanies, a story read to her by her teachers. They only do mean things.

These are "a bleu and a purple Meanie. They play splashy splashy with the paint and the paint splashed on the window, and the ceiling, and the wall and on the wooden door.”

Drawing Dogs of Different Sizes

Chalk Murals

Her the artist poses in front of her work; a girl. Her material is beside her foot.

The balcony walls, rough stone on which the chalk hooks really well, are her favorite medium at the moment. We get entire people now, not just faces.

Fairies

It is the time of fairies, with magic wands that throw out stars. Little humans get hairs now. She skipped the stage of drawing hands and feets like rakes but instantly went to the five-finger model. The feet are a little climped though.

My Self Portrait

Memory Drawing of the Puppies

Memory Drawing of the Puppies

They went to the dog pound. I didn't even know they had dog pounds in Beirut.

Drawing Dogs of Different Sizes

Second Memory Drawing of Dog

My Dog Boeffie

Hana had helped me wash and clean the cut, and give him a haircut.

Memory Drawing of Antar and the Puppies

Antar, the dog of the school's principle, had puppies. Hana went up to his house with her class to observe and draw her puppies.

First Memory Drawing of a Dog

Monsters

After the bugs, we get a period of lots and lots of monsters. Crocodile type of monster with eyes on sticks and jagged teeth. These particular drawings were made inside her (dark) tent. Maybe to get into the mood.

Caterpillar

Self Portrait

One of a series of self portraits