Niko Freckle Cloud
Here are three of last week's Art Girls - each with her own special name, each shining in her own special way. These were large portraits, big enough to cover the windows of my house. On the last morning of camp, they were taped to the sunroom windows, facing out onto the sidewalk, looking out at the world. Anyone passing by could see what had been happening inside all week long while it was raining outside. At one point, while painting her portrait, Niko smudged her face with her rainbow fingers, "I don't think she wants to be art today," she said somewhat whimsically. Of course she did, she just didn't know it yet. And here she is with two of her friends - all of them quite happy to be art.
Jami Rainbow Songbird
Siena Clattering Cricket 
On the second day of camp last week a friend and her son, who are moving to Victoria, dropped a note in the mail slot of my door. All of the Art Girls were just getting started when we heard the letter slipping through the slot. I opened it and there was a lovely farewell note along with a fridge magnet: a painting of a polar bear with the words When I grow up - I want to be art. So wonderful! It reminded me of the little boy I once taught who told his mother that when he grew up he wanted to be a Humane Society - "You know the place that saves animals," he explained, "that's what I want to be." What wonderful aspirations - to be art, to be humane, to save animals. Three more portraits to post tomorrow . . .
