Hannah's Increasingly Prolific

Since the beginning of the year, Hannah has become more and more focused on her artwork. Nearly every day, she spends a significant chunk of time focused on perfecting her drawing and writing skills, creating people, flowers, big smiley faces with braces, and words. The collage below is a small selection of the kinds of drawings she was most heavily focused on creating in January and February (and many more are stashed in rolls around our very disorganized house). She has since moved onto to doing her "work" in a big spiral bound notebook that I finally relinquished to her (she definitely needed it more than I did!). It was probably one of those 350 page notebooks that I'd used for a couple dozen To Do lists. Over March, she filled every single remaining page with more drawings, and even some notes regarding playdates and such to friends at school. I think it makes a strong case against the "death of paper" due to technology advances. And I'm excited about a return to real letter writing! That said, she does also love making rainbow boxes and faces on daddy's iPad with Little Fingers...

Hannah Warhol

Hannah's prolific pop art period dates from

January 12, 2012 - January 20, 2012

The artist's personal favorite?

Upper middle square...

Medium: Left & Right Hands on "Little Fingers" for iPad 2

New Year New Canvas

Hannah, you come home every day with beautiful paintings from Parker School, and painting is clearly one of your favorite things to do. So, on your winter vacation from pre-school I turned the basement into an art studio and put an old door on its side for you to use as a canvas. There is nothing better than seeing you totally absorbed in activity. Before you applied your first touch of color, you sighed deeply several times as if to breathe in happiness and give thanks to your new friend, the door. Happy New Year, old white door: Prepare for a whole lot of new color!

Finger painting, foot painting, brush painting, dripping and mixing and spreading and splattering...
The door looks great and I can't wait for the next studio session! I think we shall leave the studio set up for a looooooong time, so we can enjoy many more hours of creativity.

Hannah Turns Three!

For her 3rd birthday, Hannah had a party at the SF Children's Art Center at Fort Mason with a handful of her "old" and new pals. Since her favorite activity is painting, it seemed like it would be the ideal spot for her party -- and it did not fail to deliver. Everyone had a blast, especially the birthday girl! Thanks to everyone who was able to make it!!

Horrible Photo of a GREAT Portrait

Yeah, not the best picture of Hannah with that plastered on smile. But we loved her portrait of good pal Josh, with beard and curly hair included...!

Giants Win the World Series...

"Hannah, what did you make at school today?"

"Look I make a picture of Buster Posey,
yeah, he play baseball.
I paint a baseball Buster Posey!"

Hannah Houdini's Incredible Crib Escape

On this day the Houdini resurfaced,
it was the part of the night that is really the inky dark "early-morning" night,
I recall the time.
It was EXACTLY 3:10 ante meridiem,
Hannah, when YOU ANNOUNCED
YOU CLIMBED OUT OF YOUR CRIB!

Hannah, HOW you did it is still your secret,
although you did say,
"See, Mommy, I'm o.k., I climbed out of my crib. I'm not hurt!"

The only evidence of any magic,
was the calling card that you,
Hannah Houdini,
left for your
Stunned,
Shocked,
Awakened,
Astonished
and surprised
admirers...
What will Hannah DO next!?!?!?
I do not know,
But I am pretty sure I will lose sleep over it!

Hannah Picasso

Hannah's portfolio from her summer art class at the SF Children's Art Center at Fort Mason.
Looks like she was in her Blue Period.

The Children's Mural at Old Orchard

Mommy and Memaw love to shop at the local outdoor mall - Old Orchard - which has plenty of activities for kids. There is a train to ride and a park designed in the shape of a giant dragon to run around, over, under and through, and a great big koi pond filled with HUGE koi. This together would make O.O. fun, but above and beyond these attractions, Hannah got an opportunity to paint a mural! What a great idea! Sponsored by the organizers of the local Art Fair that happened to be hosted the day we went, three wooden door-sized frames were converted into a massive three-faced plywood canvas and left standing in the middle of the walk-way, inviting any and all little artists to take part. Layer upon layer of vibrant colors and kids were swirling around the giant canvas. This mural was a constant buzzing of little painters dipping, swishing, dripping, wiping and waving... what a wonderful explosion of perpetual painting, and cool thing to be a part of! Pottery Barn Kids was especially happy when we walked in to wash Hannah's green hands afterward in their pristine bathroom....

Artwork with Kate

"Hi"

Hannah, today you copied Mommy's perfect letter "H" with your own H's!

H is for "HOW COOL IS THAT?!!"
Then you copied some X's, a J, and a whole bunch of BIG i's...
(open your EYES as wide as possible when you say "BIG I")

Woah, that's a big I!

After you made many BIG I's,
you made a very little i...
(here is a trick question: can you spot the nine i's in this picture?"
hint: 6 of them are eyes and three are i's
When Mommy asked you to put H and i together to spell "Hi"...

YOU DID IT!!! HI!
(You like to draw the i first and then the H).
Hannah, "Hi" is a very good choice of words to begin spelling!

After your first "Hi" you gave Mom and Dad each a high five!
Bye!

Just Another Day at Art Class

Hannah, Reece and Kayla continue to love their new art class at Fort Mason. But even more than playing with paint and play-doh without their mommies around, they LOVE running around the "stage" built out of recycled goods in the parking lot with "Tanner Baby" (now a full-fledged toddler) while actual Baby Sloane looks on...!

Top 10 Interpretations of Tanner's Grunts and Growls Above:
10. Hellooooo ladies..... I'm not wearing any pants!
9. What's a hexagon?
8. Stroller? Are you kidding me? THOSE are MY rides back there!
7. Sorry ladies, you must be UNDER 30 inches to ride the ride...
6. I make MAD Money, the E-Trade baby gets his tips from me.
5. Which one of you is gonna change my diaper?
4. Hellooooo ladies..... I'm still not wearing any pants!
3. I've got hiney-kins and chilled bottles of milk behind the bar.
2. HAHAHA yeah, I farted.
1. I am the most interesting man in the world:
(I may not always drink milk, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.)

Of course she was not running around chasing after Tanner (and vice versa) like the other maniacs above. But one day, Baby Sloane may have the advantage of youth, and a steadfast gaze, when it comes to winning Tanner's affection.

Like Mother Like Daughter

Like mother like daughter at 2 1/2 years....except for the mullet
(and now you know why I refuse to cut Hannah's hair!).

Express Yourself

Kristina sent an email to me today at work.
She had written in the header, "Teacher says Hannah LOVED painting."
When I opened up the picture file in the body of the email...
This artist's happy smile popped out!

More Drawing Faces

Hannah's dad has always been excellent at drawing, from a very early age. So it's no surprise that Hannah derives great pleasure in watching him at his craft as he whisks up Elmos and Cookie Monsters, and lots of other interesting creatures too. Maybe this is where she draws her own inspiration from - watching daddy draw away. She is still always begging for crayons or pens so she can do more artwork, something we wholly encourage. Lately she has been more focused on drawing faces, and getting really good at it too. Especially the head and eyes, as she loves drawing circles. But then also coloring in things. She gets really focused, which is super fun to watch. Especially when she looks up and says "Look Mommy! See?!" She is always saying things like that too, which is so cute.

My turn!

Hannah can't get enough of this magic travel drawing pad from Auntie Marci - the "pen" is filled with water, so it eventually evaporates, but lasts long enough to make a picture of some sort. Thanks Marci!!

Hannah's First Smiley Face!

This is Hannah's first seriously legit drawing of a face, and it happens to be Uncle Eric. Unassisted (except for naming the parts of the face she might consider drawing in next), with eyes, mouth, nose, ears (constricted a bit by the edges of the board) and hair, I must say, I think it's pretty darn good! And it looks just like him when he wakes up on the weekend...

HWL @ SFMOMA

Hannah, this retrospective of artwork was created by you over the last 12-18 months. Scribbled, thrown together and then immediately forgotten, this amazing body of work amounts to nothing less than Abstract Expressionism's critical comeback.

When you are rightly famous, this period of formative, experimental art will be called by your critics and collectors as your "Big Eric" and "Little Eric" years, or your BELE period...