Bootsie's Spring Art Show

You may not know that I am a connoisseur of art, but I am. This is because I have a five-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter who is an artist.

One of the hidden pleasures of tidying up after all the grandkids have been here for a big Easter weekend is exploring the more obscure nooks and crannies of the house. Inevitably, in so doing, I will find remnants of their visit that I was too busy to notice while they were here.

One such treasure is the many drawings left behind by Bootsie, who expresses her talent through the media of colored pencils and paper snitched from the laser printer. Here are just a few of her masterpieces of the weekend past, along with a little Googie-analysis of her technique and her motifs. I am calling this installment of her work "Images of Spring," and I share them with you here.

First is a pastel I have named Spring Promises. Here, we find the promise of fair weather, indicated by the blue sky and the sunshine in the upper right corner. The cross on the top of the building, along with the stained-glass windows tell us this is a church filled with the promise of resurrection and life that comes with Easter. A second religious theme is executed in the rainbow that reaches earthward from the sky and completely envelops the church. Even casual observers have to admit that, for a five-year-old child with one piece of paper, there is a lot of promise in this one.

This one I like to call Pink Ocean. Here, the artist gives the color blue, routinely reserved for bodies of water, to a dolphin, which constitutes the focal point of the piece. Instead of blue, this water is pink, and it is obvious that this makes the dolphin very happy. ( I am not exaggerating when I say that I have never seen a dolphin with a smile this big.) Looking on, two winged creatures--an owl and a goose (maybe)--hang suspended in the orange spring atmosphere wishing they, too, could immerse themselves in a vast pool of pinkness.

Finally, we have Leaning into Springtime. Here, the artist adds an international flair as she juxtaposes Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa with the majestic tulips of Holland. Of the three pieces, this one displays the most vibrant and varied colors, and I would not hesitate to award it the coveted title "Best of Show." Unless you have tried this yourself, you can't imagine how hard it is to draw a tower that leans to this precarious degree without falling into the tulips.

Left behind along with Bootsie's artwork was a story by Sooby, "The Serpent of the Island of Rapheliaton." But I will share that with you another time. It is close to bedtime, and it might bring on the nightmares. So for now, I will leave you with the soothing and optimistic images of Bootsie's spring art show and wish you sweet dreams.

The Mona Bootsie

You have probably seen, in print or online, those pictures that can be interpreted two ways depending on how you look at them. Particularly well known is the one that asks whether you see a duck or a rabbit. Look at it one way and you see the profile of a rabbit looking to the right with his long ears trailing behind his head on the left. Blink your eyes hard, and those ears become the bill of a duck looking the other way.

Another of these drawings, often identified as "ambiguous pictures" or "optical illusions," is usually referred to as Rubin's Vase. In that one, you will first see either a centered urn or the profiles of two people, one on each side, looking in toward the middle. Google it if you want to see it and other examples of these artistic phenomena.

I have always been rather fascinated by things like this, as well as by explanations that use terms like "bi-stable" and "field" to try to explain how our perceptions work. So you can imagine my surprise and delight yesterday when Bootsie, who is all of four years old, took crayons in hand and produced one of these herself. Call me prejudiced, but it is as good as any ambiguous duck-bunny or any vase-people you could ever find:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in your initial glance at this picture, you saw either a little girl with blue eyes and a huge smile--or what is perhaps an older person with no mouth and a very large nose. Seriously--try it. You can make a good case for both, can you not?

Is it not clear that Bootsie is a talented artist? Some day, when you see this hanging in a museum somewhere, you can tell the docent that you saw it online many years ago as a blog post written by an amazingly perceptive, forward-thinking Googie.

With this, I leave you to your musings. Perhaps you will want to stand up, walk across the room from your computer, and study the subtle changes in light that fall across this enigmatic face. Perhaps you are even now drawing comparisons to the Mona Lisa, and who could blame you?

With that in mind, I will dub this piece of artwork The Mona Bootsie. Watch the Arts and Entertainment sections of your local newspapers for its appearance in a museum near you.

About the Artist

Bootsie is a talented four-year-old who is growing up way too fast. Her tools of choice are crayons and stickers, and she probably could have invented the term "mixed media." The third of Googie's six kids, she graces any family gathering with sparkle and pizzazz, and often asserts her nonconformity by wearing her shoes on what everybody else thinks are the wrong feet. 

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The Valentine Monkey

Little Zoomie, who will be two years old at the end of June, is clearly in the "Monkey-See-Monkey-Do" phase.  And with three older siblings, it seems like there is always something going on for Monkey to watch and imitate.

When I walked into the house a couple days ago for an early Valentine's Day visit, I was literally swarmed with valentines.  Sooby was first, with a nice coloring page she had mounted on blue construction paper in her first-grade classroom earlier this week.

I marveled at the color scheme, commented on the novelty of the blue, and thanked her profusely.  I was happy to think that she had singled me out to receive this particular work of art by printing "to googie" on the outside in blue crayon.

Next came Bootsie, who is three, with a heart cut from red card stock and decorated with crayon in what we will call a more abstract design.  "What a pretty little heart," I gushed, duly noting the artfully scalloped edges.  "This is just the right size to put on my refrigerator," I said, and Bootsie beamed.

Meanwhile, with eyes at their normal height of about a foot and a half from the floor, Zoomba watches this flurry of exchange with interest.  He notices the pattern, and he wants to be a part of it.  People are handing things to Googie, and everyone concerned is obviously happy about that.

Quickly he looks down at the toy he is holding in his hand.  It is the lid of a shape sorter containing holes for circle-, pentagon-, and flower-shaped pieces.  Without losing a beat, he clutches the toy and thrusts it upward to Googie.  Clearly, he has no intention of being outdone by his sisters.

He does this with such a look of earnesty that I can't help making a fuss similar to the one I made over the girls' valentines.  "Is this for me too?" I ask him, and with that cute little "uh-huh" of his he assures me that it is.  But he is only getting warmed up.

Having perceived success with the shape sorter lid, he scans the room for the next thing to bring me.  It is a Spiderman house slipper.  As you can imagine, I am completely overcome with joy.  It perfectly complements my set of valentines, although it disappeared from the scene before I was able to get this photo:

  
In the hours following the fanfare of this most noteworthy arrival, Zoomie's official "Monkey-See-Monkey-Do" status confirmed itself time and time again.  Having done a lot of watching in past months, he stands poised just outside the circle of his siblings ready to jump into the fray.

His legs are longer too, making his ambulatory style less duck-like.  He's had his second "little boy" haircut now, and without those baby curls, he is looking more like his brother.

By next Valentine's day, I suspect he, too, will have graduated to the crayon style of valentine.  I will look forward to that.  Meanwhile, I will keep my "oohs" and "aahs" at the ready.  No matter what his next valentine for me looks like, I'm sure it, too, will be perfect.