art

Leave a comment Posted on parenting, Storytelling

How Great Thou Artwork From School

September 9, 2013 at 11:25 pm , by 

2 years, 9 months.

Dear Jack,

Our fridge never ceases to be covered in at least a few of your artwork pieces from school.

I especially love this “frame in frame” piece which features a picture of you (not smiling) fingerpainting for the first time, superimposed over your actual finished product.

It’s modern, yet sophisticated.

Even if it’s by accident, I like the little smiley face you did in the upper right hand corner.

And the look on your face… you seem like a confused artist who was just interrupted in the middle of his work- which I guess that’s probably exactly what happened.

While I do totally appreciate your artistic skills, what I might love even more are the titles you give your work.

I know that throughout history, art has captured what people and their cultures find value in. So I assume the same is for you.

That would explain why this picture you entitledBulldozer recently showed up.

Because you’re forced to be exposed to hundreds of cars on the way to school every morning during our hour drive, you’ve become very familiar with all the types of vehicles you see.

Your newest learned vehicle: the FJ Cruiser.

Another one of my favorites of your recent artwork pieces is one you named Monster Trucks and Baby Trucks.

Granted, it very much resembled Bulldozer.

But to you, it was clear that those scribbles and dots represented different sized pick-up trucks.

One that’s currently being featured on our fridge is one you called Diamonds.

It has a bunch of black dots all over it. I’m pretty sure you think stars are called diamonds, because of the song, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

“Like that diamond in the sky,” as you sing it.

I love this stuff. You’re not too young to be an artist. This is where it begins.

You already are an artist.

 

Love,

Daddy

 

Leave a comment Posted on Nostalgia, parenting

My Son, The Starving Chalk Artist

June 19, 2012 at 11:33 pm , by 

19 months.

Crayons are the gateway drug to chalk.

It began so innocently when we took home some crayons from Mellow Mushroom Pizzeria, followed by my wife soon after buying him a cheap coloring book.

But on one fateful, antsy Saturday afternoon, we naturally had the clever idea to buy Jack some chalk to decorate our sidewalk. And since then, you’d think the kid has 6 fingers on one hand; one of them typically being blue, green, yellow or red.

Jack values chalk more than Elmo. Yeah, you heard that right.

I mean, he still loves Elmo; calling out his name in vain as he sleeps, sometimes.

But right now, Jack is totally beginning his  ”starving artist” stage.

(I think he’s inspiring to become the next Julian Beever; that famous chalk artist whose genius work you’ve seen in email forwards.)

On the car ride to and from daycare, Jack often requests a piece of chalk; to hold, not to draw with. He just likes the satisfaction, and the pride, of grasping it for 30 minutes at a time.

That’s how much he appreciates the arts.

This past weekend we took Jack to Menchie’s, a pay-per-ounce frozen yogurt place right down the road from us.

Two things in particular make Menchie’s stand out to me:

Evidently the owner is Jewish and he has a rabbi bless each new flavor as soon as possible. That’s why certain flavors have a mysterious Hebrew sticker next to them and others don’t; because the rabbi hasn’t blessed them yet.

(I guess? I’m not Jewish so I don’t know. I’m all in favor of hearing a better explanation on that one.)

The other thing is that there’s a giant community chalkboard inside the shop for the customers to express themselves. Needless to say, Jack cared a lot more about the chalkboard than he did his frozen yogurt.

Lucky for me, because I got to eat all of his bananas and cream dessert.

Just look at that intensity. He wouldn’t have been a starving artist if he would have just eaten his frozen yogurt, though.

For more pictures of the event, go toThe Dadabase’s Facebook pageand see the picture folder called Menchie’s Yogurt Bar in Nashville.

 

“A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.”

-Michelangelo

Leave a comment Posted on parenting, Spirituality, Storytelling

The Trinity of Father, Son, and Saintly Mother

June 21, 2011 at 8:56 pm , by 

Seven months.

What does your “art” tell about what you value?

baby dedication

While earning my English degree at Liberty University, I was taught in my “World History of Art” class that artists honor what they value through the subject matter of their work: If a caveman etched an outline of himself clubbing a stegosaurus to death, it meant that he prided himself in his abilities to provide dinner for his village.

This “art equals value” concept can apply to many different areas in our lives; even without it officially being art.  One of the most obvious examples is my desk at work.  I keep things pretty tidy; not a whole lot of decoration. But the little bit of flare I do have points to the same central theme: my wife and son.

My computer’s screen saver is a picture of my wife holding Jack, as is the background on my cell phone.  My coffee mug is one that my wife customized for me on Shutterfly, featuring Jack.  Sitting on my desk is a small framed family portrait.  Hanging on my “food shelf” is a paper-clipped wallet size of Jack when he was just a week old.  On my other shelf is a framed “Happy 30th Birthday, Daddy!” certificate made with Jack’s inked hands.

So in essence, everyday is “Take Your Kid to Work Day.”  No matter which direction I am looking while at my desk, I see my son.  And of course my wife as well.  Because obviously, they are what I value the most; always on my mind and in my heart.

The three of us are sort of like our own trinity; all separate entities yet paradoxically one in the same.  I will always be a part of my son and he will always be a part of me; you can’t get the son without getting the father and you can’t get the father without getting the son.

The Dadabase

The Dadabase

The same goes with my wife; neither Jack nor I are complete without her.  We are one intertwined family unit.

Even when I am physically away from Jack and Jill during the day, it doesn’t change the closeness we share.  And I guard that closeness with all my time, all my heart, all my soul, all my strength, and all my mind.

So that neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, not even Facebook nor cell phones ringing during dinner time, may separate us from the love we share.  Our family bond goes beyond a marriage covenant and shared bloodline.  It’s literally out of this world.

sleeping baby

 

2 Comments Posted on Nostalgia, People, Storytelling, Uncategorized

The Art and Irony of Trendsetting: Featuring Crocs, Hawaiian Shirts, Voss Water, and WWJD Bracelets

Trends are only truly cool when they’re not quite cool yet.  And by the time they are in style, they’re pretty much going out of style.

Recognizing the hilariousness of how in many offices in America, it is standard that everyone dresses professionally Monday through Thursday, but on Friday, everyone goes casual with jeans and often t-shirts, at the beginning of the summer I decided to start making Thursday a “buffer” day for how I dress in the office, encouraging everyone else to participate.  How do you transition from khakis and dress shirts to jeans and t-shirts?  Hawaiian shirts.

They are button-down shirts with collars.  Perfect, tacky transition.  At first, only one other coworker would join me in Hawaiian Shirt Thursday.  But then, if for no other reason they felt like they were missing out on something cool, one by one, others began joining us.  By the end of the summer, I had half of the office on my side.  Some people dug through their closets to find the shirt; some actually went out and bought one.  And now, even in autumn, many of us are keeping the tradition going.

Of course, this isn’t the first trend I’ve started at work.  In an effort to make sure I was drinking enough water everyday, I went to Whole Foods and bought a glass Voss water bottle that I refill several times throughout the day.  At first, coworkers joked with me, “Isn’t it a little early in the day for vodka?”  By now though, several of them have privately approached me to ask where they could get a water bottle like that.  And sure enough, the glass Voss water bottle is no longer weird in my office, but instead it’s the norm.

But the irony with trendsetting is that by successfully coming up with an original and unpopular idea, it eventually becomes unoriginal and popular.  Prime example: Crocs.  For the last couple of years, I’ve looked on from a distance at the weird plastic rainbow colored Birkenstock rip-offs.  They were so trendy.  You’d see moms and their kids out at the mall, all wearing Crocs.  Even though I wanted some, I refused to buy them.  Because they were too cool at the time.

However, this week I came to a realization.  The Birkenstocks I have been wearing were given to me by my parents Christmas 1999.  I had already paid $35 five years ago to have them resoled.  It was time for me to either have them repaired again, or pay $110 for new ones.  Or… pay $30 for some brown Crocs.

To entertain the idea of buying Crocs, I checked around Cool Springs during my lunch breaks while riding my mountain bike instead of driving (another office trend I’ve been trying to start since April), but sure enough, I had trouble finding any Crocs for sale.  Eventually, some girls behind the counter at a Hallmark told me to check out the Croc stand across from Fossil in the mall.

 

Needless to say, with yesterday being Thursday, I wore my Hawaiian shirt, with Crocs, while drinking water from a Voss water bottle.  And boy was I cool.  Yet I wouldn’t have been caught wearing Crocs if they were still trendy.  The trend of wearing Crocs is over; which is why it was more difficult than I had imagined to find them.  I’m not saying that Crocs aren’t cool anymore; they’re just no longer a fad.

 

And so an important rule for a trendsetter is to not get involved in a trend that is overly popular.  But once a trend is over, then it’s “game on” to participate.  Some fads, after their prime, become an outdated, yet timeless classic.  Like Hawaiian shirts.  And Chuck Taylor’s.  And the wondrous Rubik’s Cube.  WWWD bracelets?  Not so much.

 

1 Comment Posted on Nostalgia, People, Recaps, Storytelling, Uncategorized

The Return of the Small Town: Boom Days 2010 in Fort Payne, AL

A glimpse at the culture of Fort Payne, Alabama.

It can be common for people who grow up in a small town to want to move away as soon they graduate high school, as was the case for myself.  Since I graduated from Fort Payne High School in 1999, I have lived in Florida, Virginia, and for the last five years, Nashville.  That means for over 11 years, I have pretty much lived away from the hometown that molded me.  Now, I realize that a lot of this could be that I am married now and have a baby on the way, but I must admit, my old hometown suddenly seems really cool again.  Maybe it’s because the pace of my life is slowing down, compared to my single days and even my married-with-no-children days, and is now starting to match the speed of a small town and no longer a big city.  But I still think something special is happening in this small town, apart from my interference or commentary.

This past weekend my wife and I spent the weekend there with my parents, sister, and her husband.  My sister Dana had mentioned to me that there was this thing going on called “Boom Days” on Saturday in the city park.  She heard something about free pancakes and people dressed up like “old times”.  That’s all she knew.  I was way too curious about this possible Lord of the Rings picnic not to go.  So I went.

Turns out the pancakes weren’t free, but instead they were part of an all-you-can-eat-pancake-buffet for just five bucks, and the people dressed up were Civil War reenacters, not from Medieval times.  There was also a llama, a clown, a car show, a guy on a unicycle, horses, cool crafts exhibits, three concert stages, (four if you count two guys playing bluegrass on the sidewalk), a BBQ competition, and even a dog show.  I had originally only planned to check it out for a little while to say that I went, then leave.  But instead, I was there for over two and half hours and left with a slight sunburn.

In other words, I had a whole lot of fun.  It was a reunion of sorts: I caught up with some childhood classmates like Alex Igou and Tiffanie Baker Vincent, as well as our legendary elementary school librarian, Mrs. Jane Mauldin.  Boom Days 2010 was truly the kind of city wide event that had something for everybody.  I predict that like the days of June Jam (1982-1997), Boom Days will similarly help the culture of the town to resurface.

It wasn’t really until I was in college and started bringing friends home for the weekend that I realized that Fort Payne supersedes commercialized stereotypes of what a small Southern town is supposed to be like.  Fort Payne is not simply Country music, cows, and tractors- which are all good and necessary.  Being that when I was growing up I was constantly in plays and musicals, most of them written and directed by native Eddie McPherson, I was always aware of Fort Payne’s love of the arts.  It has to mean something when there are two theatres in downtown, on the same street, a block away from each other.

Fort Payne is also set apart from many towns in that half of the city is on a mountain and the other half is in a valley.  I grew up on the mountain side, sandwiched in between Little River Canyon, Little River Falls, De Soto State Park, and the artistic town of Mentone.  So while the valley half is where I learned to be social and outgoing, at school and at church, it was the outdoorsy mountain half that catered to my introspective and artistic side.  Simply put, Fort Payne is the perfect environment to yield well-rounded and level-headed people.

It takes a village.  Mine was Fort Payne.

All of the scenic route snapshots  used in this post were taken during Boom Days 2010, courtesy of Nick Shell.