Autumn Window Trees; the reprise

Just a year ago (was that all it was?!), we created our window trees - see their first Autumnal incarnation here.  My goodness, I look back at this and it seems me and the Boo had all the time in the world, now we snatch babe's naptimes as our together time, and to be truthful, mostly we are are outside hunting for spiders and worms rather than creating anything much.  But the trees have been taken to heart as tradition so on they must go!

My current motto for living 'keep it simple' was applied to the trees this season and we simply did some wax leaf rubbings, cut them out and stuck them onto the window.  I say 'we' but Boo only did a couple, leaving me to ensure the trees didnt look completely bereft.  Boo enjoyed applying some of them floating down and on the ground. 

We are loving Autumn right now, with it's bright days (for now at least!), plentiful spidery wonders to be found, funghi sprouting everywhere, leaves fluttering and bulbs to be planted. 

My daughter, the collagist

 
If I have perhaps been feeling rather guilty of late in that I haven't been devising exciting art projects for the Boo, she has managed to lift my spirits and reassure me that given space, kids mostly just get on with what it is they need to do as and when they need to for their development.  I've provided scissors in Boo's making space since she was two and have tried on numerous occasions to teach her to use them with little lasting success.  Now, however, she has seized upon them and it seems to be all she wants to do.  Cut, cut, snip, snip, snip.  We have amassed a collection of old cards, magazines, fabrics etc, and she seizes upon any bit of printed junk that comes through the door to add to her burgeoning collection of material. 

Her collages are completed on the easel, often over a number of days and with multiple layers.  They are often based upon figures which are embellished with different clothing, strange objects for limbs and other people's eyes.  I am wondering how much of an influence on her young mind was our recent visit to the Surrealism exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery?!

 
Meanwhile, I have been busy working on a project of my own, which incorporates use of collage.  Like mother, like daughter.