Just a few shots from this past weekend.
Check out the cat’s foot 🙂
Just a few shots from this past weekend.
Check out the cat’s foot 🙂
Joining SouleMama and others in {this moment}.
I recently discovered the artist Kate Hansen, and her Madonna & Child Project, and I really wanted to share it with you. Although I no longer consider myself a “Christian” in the traditional sense, I have always felt a strong affinity for the image of the Madonna and infant Christ, most famously portrayed by Raphael and da Vinci (below, left and right, respectively). This is especially true since I have given birth to my two children.
Kate Hansen has re-created this iconic image using contemporary mothers and their children, and accompanied the portraits with compelling birth stories. Her materials are conte crayon accented with gold leaf. For the patterned halos, she used paper snowflakes as templates. All images copyright Kate Hansen.
In Kate’s own words:
After the birth of my son in 2007 I felt an incredible energy and drive to make art. Contrary to the popular belief that art making is one of the things that fall to the wayside after the birth of children, in my case I felt inspired and compelled by my experience of childbirth and motherhood. It was almost as though the creative act of making another human being awoke a creative drive in me…After my daughter was born in 2008 I had determined to form a series of mother and child portraits and accompany them with birth stories written by each subject. I wished to express simultaneously the imperfection and fallibility of the mothers but capture an element of the divine in the mother/child bond. Each mother also shares a birth story, be it life changing, beautiful, or a harrowing experience, and these common stories serve to unify a very diverse group with a common theme- of love, of self sacrifice, and transcendence. I owe this inspiration to my children- for their beauty, for their challenges and for the unique bond of motherhood that I hope to capture here.
I highly recommend you check out Kate’s web site to see more of her Madonna & Child portraits, as well as her other works.
Finally some gorgeous weather in New Hampshire!
Well, I’ve finally gotten all of the photos of the assembly and installation gathered together, and I’m ready to tell you all about our closet adventure! Our house is a small ranch, and each of the bedrooms has a built-in closet, which is great. But, there was just not enough space for two adult’s clothing in one small closet (oh, the troubles of a middle-class life of plenty!). I started doing some research, and I thought that standalone wardrobes might be a good solution. I knew right away that I would probably find what I wanted at IKEA. And, I was right! After considering several options, we decided to purchase two BOTNE wardrobes from IKEA.
We made the 2+ hour drive down to the New Haven IKEA on a Sunday after my daughter had left for Florida with my parents for vacation week (I figured it would give me something to do so I wasn’t obsessively texting them to make sure she was okay!). Of course, it was raining. And, I mean RAINING. My poor husband got absolutely drenched while we were trying to load to boxes into my dad’s truck. Thankfully, we had brought some plastic with us to cover up the boxes, so there was really no damage to the wardrobe parts during the drive back in the rain.
And now, without further ado, an illustrated view of the assembly process.
Step 1: Unpack boxes (it’s always handy to have a helper, or two).
Step 2: Begin assembly (again, help is always appreciated).
Step 3: Break something (or how our BOTNE wardrobe earned the nickname “Botch-Me”). Thankfully, this cross-bar did absolutely nothing for the structural integrity (ha!) of the frame.
Step 4: One Botch-Me completed!
Step 5: Two done, and in place! Now we’re getting somewhere!
Step 6: Kelli installs the shelves and rods and fills her side with clothing and shoes because she is too impatient to wait for Damian to come home from work. Pretty colors!
Step 7: Damian completes the assembly of his side, under strict baby supervision.
Step 8: Completed wardrobes (minus handles).
Step 9: The most wonderful thing that has ever happened to our clothing, ever. I am in love.
Assembly took about four days, with many breaks in between for working (Damian) and other things. I am beyond pleased with how this all turned out. The wardrobes actually blend together seamlessly and look like they are built-ins. We have so much well-lit, clean space for our clothing, and now we can use our old closet to store other things, like the vacuum (which has been living by the front door since we moved in). As always, I am impressed by the quality, design, and price of IKEA’s products. They have a lot of other wardrobe storage options, so you should check out their website if you’re in need of more space for your stuff.