Art Show Today

We went to the art show today at Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia, the oldest non-tuition art school in the country, est. 1898.

Luke's sculpture class had a display of their gargoyles. In his class age 11-17, he was one of the only two 11 year olds and he made a wonderful gargoyle dragon.








On the way to the school this afternoon, as we waited for the light at Christian to change, I put my hands together at my lips and said to Stan, "I hope my work will be well-received at the show." He snapped his head around, looked at me with the eyes of someone who'd just heard something absurd and then laughed aloud. I joined him. I just liked pretending that I was a famous artist for one moment.

My painting was hanging in the small room off the children's art gallery. We walked in and I was overwhelmed at all of the artist's interpretation of the still lifes. It was great to see a bunch of other ones of the one I painted. I don't know how many first timers like me were displayed, but seeing mine on the wall amongst all the others I have to admit I was a tad humbled. I loved all the works and I had loved watching my neighbors stand there and create them week after week. Since I couldn't really photograph all of the works, I decided to take pictures of all the ones that were my same still life though not necessarily from my class period.

This one was from a lady who did stand next to me. We often looked at each other's to see how the other had done this or that. This was her second or third painting I think.

Here's another.

I love the radishes on this one and the artist really painted the bowl perfectly. Oh, and the towel - she got it!



Isn't it interesting to see the interpretations?



And below is mine, snuggled between two amazing paintings and below two others. Know why? Well, after we'd all looked at all the art in the very crowded gallery with relatives and children and teachers, they called us into a room for the award ceremony. I thought it was weird because this school isn't the kind that would set up that sort of atmosphere, but it turns out the three awards to be given were for adults! The one on the left of mine won an award for the best painting by a returning painter...the one on the right of mine won the award for the best painting all around...and mine won for the best firsttime painter! Yeah. I was so shocked my teacher actually had to tell me to stand up and come to her to receive my award - two paint brushes tied up with an orange bow. I returned to my seat stunned and missed who the best painter was because I was still thinking the judges needed a recount.

This is me receiving my award from Louise, my teacher. There was no light in this sanctuary, Stan tried his best. He was stunned too. Anyway, yes, I said sanctuary. If you want to know the long wild story about this odd room in the Fleisher Art Memorial, go here. It was on the verge of creepy. Some say it's haunted and I'd have to say, if there is a place that could be haunted, a place I would not want to sit in alone at night, it'd be this place.

Finally, Luke's teacher told us about his natural talent and how he would love to see him continue sculpting and how Luke had come to his class highly recommended. We weren't able to take home our work today because the display stays up over the holidays, but we did take home one of Luke's sculptures of two hands. I will show that this week. He did beautiful work on it, and on my painting as he counseled me on a few things before I turned it in for the show. Having kids is great.