Artsy Adventures

SATURDAY SONGS: On Saturday afternoon, we headed to the heart of the city, destination Town Hall. Our reason for going was to see a concert by Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter-illustrator Morgan Taylor, creator of Gustafer Yellowgold, an intriguing character who immigrated to Earth from the sun. 

We were a little early thanks to uncharacteristically light traffic and no trouble finding parking, so we checked out a park across from the venue for a few moments. It was our first visit there.

Surrounded by skyscrapers, it's a good-sized urban oasis. We bet it's full of office people on break during the work week.

Eventually, we wandered back across the street to the concert venue. 

Taylor was standing near the merch table and recognized the kids as soon as we walked in. CJ and Annabelle were fortunate enough to spend a week last summer in a songwriting workshop with him.

Taylor told Annabelle he still has the Gustafer Yellowgold art she made him (a melted Perler bead project) as a thank you for the workshop. In fact, the gift is on his fridge! How high an honor is that? Having your artwork on an artist's fridge - that's the big time! :)

We talked to Taylor for awhile, including about a book project CJ and Annabelle just finished. During the show, he shared that his third grade report card complained that Morgan is often in the back of the class, drawing and singing to himself. I'd say that turned out OK. ... 

The concert was fantastic, as always.
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ART DEPARTMENT: As always, our days have been filled with arts and crafts as of late.

CJ is a campaign manager/strategist for a local school girl running for class president, so he worked on some promotional materials.

 Annabelle worked on posters, too, but also created some original characters, just for fun. At one point she needed just the right brown, but had none in her supply bag. She asked me if perhaps I had something that would work.

Lucky for her, I like brown lipstick. ...

 It worked just great for Tuffy the Teddy Bear.

 She also created a character that embodied trepidation.

 I love this illustration.