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Kitty Calash

~ Confessions of a Known Bonnet-Wearer

Kitty Calash

Tag Archives: children

That Glint in Your Eye…

14 Thursday May 2015

Posted by kittycalash in personal

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

children, friends, living history, personal, play

Winslow Homer, Snap the Whip. oil on canvas, 1872. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Christian A. Zabriskie, 1950, 50.41

Have you ever wondered what your friends would have been like to play with as kids? Mr S likes to, but he does have long hours on the commuter trains to fill, and I think by now he’s counted all the Bigfoot shelters along the route twice.

Sometimes we imagine one of our friends as the dirty, shirtless boy who plays hard until dark, until he realized he’s actually cut you with the stick sword, and you have to go home to get the blood cleaned up.

Another one might really be into building, but likes the process more than the result. Expect frank critiques, and lots of small parts, which ends in satisfaction and cookies. Sadly, when you come back, the creation is disassembled into neatly sorted constituent parts.

There’s the one who you partner with on a science fair project: you do the three-fold display with little samples of something, captioned. Too bad that when you win second prize and ask to take the display you designed and created home, you get hit under the eye with a lunch box for your trouble.

The Children of Nathan Starr. Oil on canvas by Ambrose Andrews, 1835. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987.404

Some friends are a little wilier: I don’t know how you get talked into licking something weird, but it can happen when you’re under ten. It’s not poisonous, but it is nasty. Sorry about that. Have some milk.

The bookish types aren’t all that safe either! Suddenly, on a windy day, you’re falling downstairs because Mary Poppins was far too convincing, and now Dad’s umbrella is ruined. Two strikes, and now your friend hears her mom calling her home? Pro tip: don’t play Wuthering Heights, Mill on the Floss, or Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Bonus note, and just trust me here: just leave the Brontes to Orson Welles.

Girl Skipping Rope. Tempera on board by Ben Shahn, 1943. MFA Boston,  1971.702

Girl Skipping Rope. Tempera on board by Ben Shahn, 1943. MFA Boston, 1971.702

Don’t get me wrong: I enjoyed all the games and stories we made up and played when I was kid with all kinds of friends, and I enjoy everything my friends and I do today. But sometimes I see the glint in a friend’s eye, and I know we are in for something I might wish my mom wouldn’t let me do.

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Frivolous Friday: The Romps

19 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by kittycalash in Frivolous Friday, Living History, Museums

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

1790s, BBC Your Paintings, children, fashion, Frivolous Friday, historic interiors, paintings, play, style, What Cheer Day

The Romps, by William Redmore Biggs. (c) Leeds Museums and Galleries (book); Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

The Romps, by William Redmore Biggs.
(c) Leeds Museums and Galleries

What Cheer Day is around the corner, and while we won’t have the delight of the babies this time, when browsing the BBC’s Your Paintings site, I found this painting by William Redmore Biggs. It pretty well captures the level of activity I’d like to bring to the museum–or at least a level just short of spilled ink.

As always, I’m looking for what working women wore, and in this image, I think we see the mistress of a dame school with her charges, who have clearly been romping in earnest.

The details abound, from the portfolio on the mantle to the baize on the floor and the ink spots on the little girls apron. The room is simply furnished, but we get a sense of domestic and dress details. The shortest girl in the front trio is disheveled, her sash undone and her gown slipping from her shoulders. (What a romp they’ve had!)

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Family Arts Night

24 Friday May 2013

Posted by kittycalash in Events

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Tags

arts, children, family arts night, gaming, illustration, middle school

Inspired by Shepard Fairey

Inspired by Shepard Fairey

Well, it wasn’t the Met or the MFA, but it was pretty interesting. That’s the Young Mr’s self portrait, captured by my lousy arrogant phone. You will have to take my word for it that it’s as good a representation of a 14-year-old Providence kid as a Brooklyn-based hipster writer as you are likely to find in a public middle school. It was described to me by the creator as “discombobulated.”

TimeLine

TimeLine

I was quite taken with the posters created in one class of 8th graders (some of whom I know). This one, “Time Line,” struck me for the maker’s familiarity with the passage of time. From the EBT card to the prescription bottle, it seems this kid has grasped life’s progression.

$20,000 a Year

$20,000 a Year

I liked this one, too: Education and Success starts with Money. Everyone Should be Entitled to at least $20,000 a year. You can just hear the anti-public-school activists’ engines starting, and if this were to end up on the ProJo’s website, the anti-union comment trolls would feast upon hatred. (Those comment threads are dangerous waters.)

Black Friday Mayhem

Black Friday Mayhem

Austin, who played Toto in the fourth-grade play, took aim at consumerism and Black Friday. He likes Manga and used to play Yu-Gi-Oh with the Young Mr on the school bus. The text was hard to read even in person, but I believe there is commentary on people should be home with their families, and people don’t even know what there is to buy, but they want it. The mayhem is clear: I think this must be a drawing of the awful trampling incident. As far as I know, his parents are still a teacher’s aide and a cook, so is likely a pure expression of a basic instinct for fairness, which is probably what’s behind “$20,000 a year.”

Sad Elephant

Sad Elephant

This had no caption and no artist’s signature. I like the haunting, sort of Miyazaki-esque quality of the artwork (I saw a lot of manga and anime-inspired work), and I like the contrast between the light and dark areas, though it is probably not quite finished.

There were musical performances, one a violin piece played by a girl with twig-thin arms, and another set by a jazz trio who seemed unsure of their lyrics. Still, they soldiered on, though they may have sounded better when they slipped into a classroom and played just for themselves.

The Young Mr was wound up and bossy as an Art Guide, and had to be removed from school half an hour after the event ended so that he could be made to eat his dinner. It is fortunate that we are only two blocks from school. Next year, at least there is a coffee shop across from the high school. I suspect they’ll get to know me well.

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