Lessons Learned

Parenting and art have taught me some amazing lessons.

Dear readers, First-Year Ballerina is done!

The biggest change to this piece was my addition of the sequins that were originally on her costume and that I felt too overwhelmed to work on years ago. I also repainted much of the background and corrected her ballet shoe. I still wanted the distressed look of the dance studio, so I kept that. Finally, I put a few thin, blue streaks in her hair. They kind of remind me of electricity.

Revising this painting so many years after I originally painted it was a wonderful lesson in patience, detail, perseverance, and trust that it would turn out fine.

***

As I was revising this painting over the last few weeks, I kept thinking back to my daughter’s childhood. How could I not? Looking back, I tried my best to be involved in her life, which included volunteering to help teachers with class-related activities. Here are three scenarios where I went into the volunteer experience with high hopes, but things didn’t go as planned.

Vignette 1: Kindergarten

Parents had the opportunity to visit the classroom and share what they did for a living.

I explained to the children that I taught college students. The kids formed a cozy circle around me, and I slowly turned the pages of the college textbook I brought. One girl asked if she could come closer to see the pages better, so of course I said yes. She came up to me, looked at the book’s pages, then sneezed in my face.

I developed a nasty upper respiratory illness soon after my classroom visit.

Vignette 2: First Grade

I volunteered to teach my daughter’s class a craft at a school Halloween party. My idea: to have the children learn to make Halloween-themed bracelets. I brought plenty of thread and small foam Halloween figures that came with holes, so the kids could create their bracelets.

But mayhem soon erupted. Some kids understandably didn’t know how to tie a knot in the thread of their finished bracelets. So I spent the ever-so-short session trying to help them. I made the knots for several students, but then time was quickly coming to an end, so I told students who didn’t yet have a knot on their bracelets to bring the separate Halloween pieces and the threads to their parents, who would certainly thread and knot the bracelet for them.

I should’ve chosen a better craft, and I’m sure the kids’ parents hated me that day.

Vignette 3: Second Grade

I chaperoned students on a trip to a local nature center. The center’s staff told us that we would first hike, then watch a documentary in the auditorium. Each chaperone was assigned a group of five or six kids.

In my group, one of the kids consistently misbehaved and tried my patience. During the nature hike portion of our trip, this particular child kept purposely lagging behind his classmates, as he wanted to explore nature by himself. I kept telling him he could not do this and to keep up with the group. He didn’t want to comply and therefore needed constant attention.

We finally made it to the auditorium for lunch, where the nature center staff told us to eat our food while we watched the “documentary.” The film showed, in great detail, a lion hunting and killing an antelope. “Mommy, I’m scared,” my daughter said. I told her just to look down at her lunch and not on the screen. The problem child in my group, who was on the lion’s side, started yelling, “Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!” Then the film continued to show the predatory chain of animals feasting on the dead antelope.

I collapsed on the bus ride home.

***

After completing First-Year Ballerina, I decided to revisit creating a landscape in watercolor. I’ve painted cherries and other things, but never really had luck with watercoloring a landscape, nor have I spent a lot of time on watercolors, to be honest. So this week I watched several tutorials, where I could see how artists created beautiful landscapes that a beginner could master.

Unfortunately, my version is not very good:

The clouds are okay, but the grassy area, rocks, and the pond, that latter of which came out of nowhere, have a lot to be desired. But for the first time, I was experimenting with watercolor brushstrokes in a different way than I’ve done before. It really helped watching various artists using all sorts of techniques to create a landscape.

So, despite my not being satisfied with the landscape, I loved all the experimenting I found myself doing. So this experience was an overall win. I just have to keep at it.