My gift to you: Into the Woods and the Art It Inspired

Fairy tales are more then true; not because they tell us the dragon exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.

~F.K. Chesterton

Our most beloved book is a giant book of fairy tales that Mamah gave the girls when they turned one. It wasn't till they were older that they began to love books but it was this particular book that started our reading adventures. I happen to love fairy tales from Grimm's to Disney it doesn't matter, with each re-tailing there is lessons to be learned. As a child we learn that true beauty comes from within and how dragons can be beaten. As we grow into adults the lessons take new shape as they teach us about family, society and loss. The most important part to take from these stories, what I teach my children everyday, is to keep their princess heart because from their heart true beauty flows.

So it is with this love and appreciation for these stories that I kick off our new theme.
"Into the Woods"

Have you ever heard of a fractured fairy-tale?

Its a fairy tale designed to be humorous by changing the story in an unexpected way; altered characters, settings, plots or even points of view. Into the Woods is the ultimate fractured fairy-tale! In this extremely hilarious musical, it has characters from our favorite stories and tells us what happens when they cross paths in the woods and what happens after happily ever after. The girls were given this movie as an intro to this weeks theme but it happened to be a special family movie night that I was looking forward to for awhile.

Today was Art Monday so I supplied my girls and their African cousins with a bucket of paints, brushes and a blank canvas. One thing I've been working on during our Summer of Art is to let the natural creative process flow. I want them to take ownership in their art and so I leave it to them to come up with their own response to a task. The task was to paint a scene from a fairy tale.

Around this house you will often hear me tell my children this:

"Think about it,
Invision it,
Execute it."

This statement is just one way I hope to build creativity within my children and the girls know exactly what is expected of them when it is said, they take the first thing that comes to their head and use it. I'm not telling them what fairy tale or what colors or brushes to use this has to come from them. (although I'm available for question like what colors to mix or how to use a technique)

So when left with nothing but their imagination and a blank canvas they became the artist to their own masterpiece.