Tuesday, June 1, 2021

A Budding Artist-Poet

The sky was painted in shades of gray as the rain washed the stones on the patio. Inside, the fireplace burned brightly creating warm tones. Out came the Disney Princess crayons, fat enough for little hands. Eyes opened wide. "Grandma, do you have paper?" With excitement, the toddler entered the creativity zone. 

The first stroke produced a curved line. With permission from the young artist, Grandma added leaves. Sierra decided to color them in with bright tones of spring. Then, she added grass. The flower needed petals so Grandma made a large one and Sierra reproduced it in a smaller size. The daisy was now ready to stand against the rain that was coming down outside. 

"What does your picture make you think of, Sierra?"  She replied, "A rainy day."  "Shall we write a poem?" A quizzical look appeared on the little face. Her thoughts about a rainy day were verbally woven together. Grandma wrote them down and added the word chasing. Since blue is one of Sierra's favorite colors, the poem ended with that thought and a few more strokes of blue. 


Sierra's first image poem was created. Grandpa, Uncle D, and her parents were proud of the work accomplished. Grandma followed up with a blog post and a lacey graphic ready for a blog post presentation.


creativity
sparked by crayoned thoughts-
touch of spring

©CV, 2021


💮


It's Slice of Life Tuesday this first day of June. My blog post is offered to Two Writing Teachers with permission from my little budding artist-poet. 

10 comments:

  1. Carol, I love this. A collaboration to two creative minds producing a stunning visual poem to go with it. I like the note of surprise your granddaughter showed when you asked her if she wanted to write a poem. I think she met the challenge beautifully. Definitely something for her scrapbook.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bob, I am definitely sharing this with Sierra the next time she visits. I hope someday she will look upon this with happiness. My daughter and son grew up to be both readers and writers. Sierra was always a reader and now I hope she moves forward on her journey to be a writer.

      Delete
  2. Oh, Carol, what a great description of this rainy day visit and her creative "touch of spring" here. You are lovingly taking her on that journey to be a writer you mention in your comment to Bob. So beautiful. Thanks for sharing the process with us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am hoping that my little Sierra starts enjoying her early writing attempts to create more thoughts paired with her artwork.

      Delete
  3. I love your opening scene of the fire crackling in the fireplace against the gray of the weather. Springtime rain outside, a fire burning inside... one grandchild + one grandma = just the right conditions for Disney Princess crayons in little hands to produce their magic. Sierra's very first image poem is so bright, warm, and fresh. A treasure - as are the moments spent together. What a gift it is to spark the love of words and poetry, and to pass on your artistic legacy, Carol!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The teacher librarian in me loves the interweaving of literacy and creativity in this moment of togetherness! She will have warm feelings about poetry and writing because of her time with you--just think of the wonderful implications of this! Thanks for sharing such a special activity with us.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You are like Vashti's teacher, giving notice and inspiring a new poet in the process. Love it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Margaret, I had so much fun watching Sierra create and encouraging her to write as well as draw. Thanks for the reference to Peter Reynold's fabulous book. This reminds me to ask Sierra to draw a dot for Dot Day this year.

      Delete