Monday, December 29, 2008

More Picasso Heads


Inspired by . .

This (sunset) was inspired by
this (sunset on the Adriatic Sea, summer of 2008).
This (crocodile) was inspired by this book.
This (Charlotte's barn, the spiderweb, Wilbur the pig and a white picket fence) was inspired by this movie.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Some work

A Christmas tree (She is in the mood)
Her grandmother in the car (She was not allowed to move nor talk for a good half hour)
A bird (can't remember the story behind this one, but there was one)
The landscape of our last picnic; hills covered with olive trees.
And a girl with glasses. Don't know which girl, but it looks familiar. A cartoon character maybe?

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Camera

Hana has asked Santa Claus for a camera. She has asked so in front of her 'jiddo' (Lebanese grandfather), because although she is a great believer in the power of Santa Claus, she has somehow figured out the intricate system of the Lebanese wasta (vitamin C, and C = connections), and she knows that her 'jiddo' has great cloud with the American Santa Claus. She also knows that the Dutch Santa Claus, who drops by with gifts on December 5th, not the 25th, won’t go for a big gift like a camera. And so she asked her ‘'jiddo' to take up the affair with the American Santa Claus.

'Jiddo', being the smart father-in-law that he is, knows when not to mess with the didactic practices of his Dutch (I translate that into ‘sensible’, hubbie interprets that as ‘stingy’) daughter-in-law, and so he could not say ‘yes’. He replied that he would discuss it with her mom (me), and if I thought she deserved a camera, than he would take up the issue with Santa Claus.
Hana therefore has been making great effort to show me that she really really really needs a camera. And this was some of her work of today. We will see what Santa Claus thinks of this.
Her birthday is coming up this weekend, and once we start unwrapping gifts, we basically do not stop anymore until December 25th. Oooff, this is one heavy gift-unwrapping month.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Hana tries Picasso

Hana did not like the nose choices very much (“not one of them is nice.”), but she was quite pleased with the eyes.
Try to paint like Picasso for yourself.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Welcome to Bug Hotel

Inspired by Arnie the Dougnut, which features (among others) a hermit with aspirations to become an architect (but who would want a hermit in their house, so he ends up designing houses for bugs only) , Hana drew a number of bug hotels.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

The Moon Tree

I'm totally impressed with this work of Hana. I praised it at length, and as a result had to 'buy' it; cost me a hefty 1,ooo pounds (Lebanese pounds, which equals to approximately 0.33 USD). It reminds me of 'The Scream'. She named it 'The Moon Tree'. It is a tree at night, with a full moon.

But maybe I praised it a little too much, because she has suddenly started a mass production of this type of work; things at night. But this one still remains my favorite.
Her father bought 'The Owl' for a 1,000 pounds.

Friday, October 31, 2008

I Can Fly!

And Halloween finally arrived. Finally, finally and finally, could she go to school in her Tinkerbell costume. We met knights, witches, ninja fighters and magicians on the road, and also a few Tinkerbells, but nobody was as much Tinkerbell as this one. Could it be the bright green? Hard to miss.
And the party lasted all the way until 6:30 P.M. By that time the carefully hand-sewn wings (by Mom, yes yes), were pretty much crumpled up, and when - on the way back home from the party - she fell asleep in the car, there wasn't much wing on Tinkerbell left. Never mind. She could fly anyway.

Tinkerbell and her friend, the Fairy.


Her friend the Knight and the Princess

Thursday, October 30, 2008

"I made this picture because I am an artist."

"This is a girl dancing on a dance part. Around her are balloons. She is wearing a cherry dress. I made this picture because I am an artist."
This is a collection of balls; "Some of the balls are blind and the others can see because they have eyes."


Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Rain and Girls on Index Cards

A girl on an index card, fished out from the bottom of her book bag. She’s not at home right now, so I cannot ask her the finer details of it, but we’re all into hearts these days.
(Update; it’s Hana herself, and the red heart is a ribbon, not a heart!)

And now that the rainy season has started, she wanted rain boots and an umbrella. We did not find rain boots (other than the ones that sell for $50 and up, which I refuse to pay for a pair of rubber shoes), so we’ll wait for opa & oma from Holland to bring her a pair (from the Hema), but we did find her an umbrella, to match with her blue rain coat.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

The Letter

We received a long letter from her opa and oma in Holland. Hana wanted me to read it to her, and once we were done, she said; “I’m going to write a letter back. This is the result. This year she will learn how to read and write, and she can’t wait.
She made the envelop too.
I like the multitude of staples. It is going to snag behind every possible nut and bolt in whatever machine they have for transporting and sorting mail. We’ll see.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Paris is About Love

Paris is about love, right?” asks Hana this morning.

Right. Paris is about love. What brought on this Train of Thought? No idea. Maybe the fact that she remembered that her brother ‘has a love’.
But no longer,” I replied.
Why not?” she wanted to know.
“I don’t know. That’s what happens.”

And so she drew ‘Paris is About Love’.

The heart above the table is obviously cracked, but not yet broken, “because there are pieces of scotch tape. It’s taped together again.” Not very promising for the remainder of that romance, but whatever. The boyfriend (left side) and the girl friend (right side) are sharing a plate of spaghetti, and they will “suck the spaghetti until they kiss each other.” Spaghetti with meat balls, I think.
I think she’s seen that scene in ‘The Lady and the Tramp.’

And to complete the setting, there is the Eiffel Tower, to make sure that you understand that this is about Paris, and Paris is about love.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Photography

Hana has always been interested in my digital camera, like every child, and I usually delete her images. But today I figured that this is an art form as well, so here are some of her photographs of this week. Her gold fish feature, as well as her cousin and her foot.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Inspired

Hana spent the afternoon at the house of a friend of hers. The father of the child is an avid art collector, and there is literally not one spot in the house that is empty. He’s got paintings on every single wall, from top to bottom. A lot of it is local work, but apart from some European stuff, he also has a lot of Iraqi, Syrian and Palestinian works. Most of it is modern, or semi-modern.
Hana was greatly inspired by it all. Here are some results.
The girl in question was drawn, together with portraits of the other members of the family, in pencil. They were very rudimentary sketches, with some colors around it, but the eyes clearly showed it was Hana’s friend. And so Hana also made one of her friend.
This seems like a bit of modern art, which they had plenty of hanging around. It could of course also be based on her Dr. Seuss books.A bit of mosaic in chalk, cut out in an irregular shape.
This one is based on her birds. She’s got two parakeets, but they started breeding and now we have three. This green one is the mother.

Tinkerbell

The Tinkerbell costume is ready, Now being on Halloween!!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

The Ultimate Tinkerbell


Halloween is on its way, and Hana has decided she will be Tinkerbell. She wants to be the ‘ultimate Tinkerbell’, and so does not want a bought costume. It has to be homemade, with lots of different colors of green. She has even picked the design. Mom, however, has not time, nor skill, to fabricate her a costume. Luckily, Hana’s grandmother is a fashion designer, and so today she went to the workshop to pick out the fabric for the costume, and to have her measurements taken. So stay tuned for the ‘ultimate Tinkerbell’; Thursday we are going for our first fitting.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Randomn Work

A drawing of Hana's new 'old' dog. We picked it up from the side of the road, so it is not the new puppy she has been lobbying for, but it still is a very tiny dog, who seems to be willing to go along with Hana's game of 'playing circus', so I guess she is willing to overlook the fact that he is not really 'new'.
Hana's impersonation of Marie Antoinette (inspried by this summer's visit to Versaille); just one of the many uses for an old mop. Fire-breathing dragons (no idea what inspired her)


And Halloween is on its way.

A bracelet she made for me.