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| from the pages of my art journal |
I am not a soccer mom or a dance mom... but I can proudly call myself a music mom. Those who are not music moms, let me fill you in on what music moms have to do. This weekend is a typical weekend for a music mom. Friday night, I took my daughter (this is my music kid) to a concert to hear one of her teachers perform. Although this was a casual performance in a local church, these musician take themselves very seriously. I knew I was in trouble when I saw there was an intermission printed on the program and the list included multi-movement Bach and Mozart chamber pieces. Having sat through these before, I was prepared with a sharpie and uni-ball roller pen in my purse and immediately began decorating and sketching on my program. ( you can see another post of my
program doodling)
Doodling in the Programs
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| violinist Andrea Schultz |
I admit I was a little paranoid the musicians would mind-- but every time I looked up the musicians were focused on their music stands. I did have one embarrassing moment when I dropped a pen cap and it rolled down a few pews. By the end I was quite pleased with myself and even posted the drawings to
instagram. The concert was two hours long, by the way, so that gave me plenty of drawing time.. I practiced my musician portraiture as well as random fonts.
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| cellist Michael Finckel |
Birth of the "Music Mom"
On Saturday, I drove my daughter into NYC for a makeup lesson at her teacher's nyc apartment. Now, first you must realize that a trip from the suburbs to Manhattan means I have to wait around while my daughter gets her lesson. This is what music moms do. However, to make this adventure more challenging, I had to find parking in the snow covered parking spaces. The streets may be plowed but the already scarce spaces are covered with snow, I did manage to squeeze into a spot and I spent the hour long lesson digging my car out of the ice banks so that we would be able to leave without the car spinning on the rock hard ice. Don't get me wrong. I love all the beautiful snowfall the Northeast has enjoyed the last few weeks... as long as I get to enjoy its beauty without the city dogs pissing all over it. ah New York.
It was during this shoveling that I realized (proudly) I am a "music mom"
Techniques for the Art Journal Pages
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| detail of new Art Journal technique |
When I got home, I scanned in the Friday night's program and printed it on transparency paper. I wanted to add the drawings to my art journal and I wanted to be able to see through the layers. Since white does not print, only the black printed and then after I used acrylic medium to paste it into my journal. You can see the layers of paint through the transparency. I went to show my son, and he was not impressed. He told me "Art journal is like Minecraft for artists. You just like to make stuff for the fun of it but it is completely useless" (said from the mouth of a 13 year old who spent his day playing Minecraft, a computer game where users create a virtual world)
Tiger Mother or Bad Mother?
In case you are wondering if I enjoyed Sunday reading the paper, I did not. My daughter and I climbed into the car to go back to Manhattan. This time I put two shovels in the car, but I got lucky with a pre-shoveled out spot. Less lucky is having to sit through another hour long concert, this time a student concert with amateur students playing with various levels of ineptitude. I wish my daughter had taken her tone deaf father. I have a tough time lying to her at the end of the concert. I feel like Abby from dance moms admitting I noticed her mistakes...which makes me either a Tiger Mother, or a bad mother. Although in the end, we both agreed she doesn't get enough time to practice with her academic work load and that should change next year.
Working on the Art Journal in my studio
When we got home, I was inspired to work more on the art journal. After all, I love being a music mom because it means I have a music daughter. She may not play perfectly every time but us music moms love our kids even when they play wrong notes as long as she plays with 100% passion. I am proud of my daughter and her choices and I am proud to call myself a "music mom"
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I admit it. I am a classical music nerd.
