The Sock Monkey and the Weasel

I've got a sock monkey that lives in a box.
He only comes out when the weasel goes pop.
Now a box is not a box if it hasn't a top.
And a sock is not a sock till it's been to the hop.
But a weasel's a weasel from start up to stop.

Tres Ojos

Tres Ojos sits on the ocean floor.
His three eyes seeing one-third more.
But just which third he will not say.
It’s a secret for some other day.

(Another in the slowing growing series of Ruby's toys in front painted canvas.)

Curious Garden Indeed

A new favorite book.
A little boy named Liam (cool name) lives in a nasty ole town with not much going for it in the way of green spaces or gardens. He explores an elevated railway track and finds a struggling little garden there and takes it upon himself to become the gardener of the little patch. The little patch begins to grow and expand. A moderately reasonable story of succession involving mosses is communicated. (As a bryologist this gave the book a bonus point.)

Evenually the garden takes over the entire rail line, then rooftops, then every abandoned thing ends up as a little oasis. But more importantly, more gardeners begin appearing. The once dreary landscape is transformed.

This book provides some important lessons:

• Start where you are with what you have.
• Start small but dream big.
• Nature wins. Even in our abandoned industrial spaces.
• Succession is your friend.
• Gardening is contagious.
• Transformation is possible.

Buy this book for the kids in your lives. But more importantly, take them out to plant something. There is even a package of seeds in the book. Personally, I would never plant them because it doesn't say what seeds are in it. But it makes a good book mark.

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown
Little, Brown and Company, Books for Young Readers
New York, Boston
(c) 2009
$16.99

Zen Cow Story

Here's a new project. I guess I needed one. Gonna paint backgrounds as oil paintings, photograph toys in front of them (a plastic cow from Little Toots' nativity scene in this case) and then manipulate the photos to make little children's stories. Each story is one page. Micro children's literature. Not for micro children necessarily though. If you click on the photo it's better.

Burned Into Memory

Children's book illustrators literally colored the way I perceive the world even today. One of the really surprising things about having a child is that it has returned forgotten memory to me. On the first day of the year Carmen and I purchased some children's books for Little Toot. In looking through some used books I came across The Magic Story Tree - Fifteen Favorite Fables and Fairy Tales illustrated by Lucille and H.C. Holling. I was surprised by the memory that flooded back when I started looking at the illustrations. I had this book. Not the same one mind you, but one just like it. I still see the world in these colors and with the same little hash mark shading.

Want some cheese little fellow?

Dirt Diggin Gay Bunny Boys

When you have a child your friends give you books that were important to them in their childhood. This is one of the illustrations from The Country Bunny and the Little Golden Shoes which Ali gave us this past weekend. She knows this book by heart. Thank you Ali. This book would probably have been one of those banned by Sarah Palin because these bunnies are gay. It says so right there in the book (and this photo.) Marriage, after all, is for one man and one woman. Not a couple of dirt diggin gay bunny boys. Life must me harder when your tolerance is down.