everyday MOMuments

everyday MOMuments #1: These momentary sculptures are assemblages of the items I use everyday as a caregiver for my children. #everydaymomuments #glue #juiceboxes #hydrogenperoxide #bagel #legowindow #multiplicationsign #hairbrush #glassfoodbin 

everyday MOMument #2: I am building with the items in my immediate vicinity today that play a role in the caregiving of my children.

 #yellowleaf #redgrapes #pinkstraw #yellowpipecleaner #blackpipecleaner #purpleslipper #monaslappydrawing #writtennumbers #stapler #swimmerseardrops #rainbowyarn #glassfoodbin

In case you were wondering about the ventriloquist doll portrait, yes, that drawing is of “Slappy Lisa” inspired by the Mona Lisa.

everyday MOMuments #3: This MOMument was very precarious; it toppled over many, many times. Definitely NOT a stable structure! #everydaymomuments #redonion #flushablebutnonflushablewipes #semidirtysemicleansock #plasticforkfromschoolbecausemomforgottoputforkinlunch #threeclaymicetwowithtapedtails #partyfavorharrypotterglasses #glassfoodbin 

Detail image of my haphazard tape reconstruction.

One tail was broken in the travel from school to home. The other tail was broken due to me and my trying to make this sculpture several times and each time it collapsed:) Amelia seemed ok with the tape job I did. Phew. These are some very delicate mice.

everyday MOMument #4: This MOMument fell down when someone (daddy) walked into the kitchen. It is very sensitive! The scissors in this sculpture are one of about 100 pairs I have purchased for my kids in the last 6 months. I cannot figure out where they go. I have asked so many times “Are you eating the scissors???!!!”

#lastpairofuneatenscissors #headlessclayamelia #veunsflytrapthatmightdie #ticonderogapencil #shinymarblethatisntreallycoolanymore #3mtapeforscrapesinsteadofbandaidsthatfalloff

 Detail image of the Headless Clay Amelia. I’m not sure what happened to the head. The pumpkin is from the garden of the friends across the street, that was grown from the carcass of a pumpkin from last halloween. 

Detail image of the Venus fly trap that was a long awaited “pet” because I was afraid (and still am) that we will not keep it alive. So far, it has made it a few weeks.

This is one of those Ticonderoga pencils we bought for school. I’m not sure why they had to be Ticonderoga but I sure do love the smell of fresh pencils.

everyday MOMument #5: This feels more like an arrangement than a sculpture to me… maybe it is because I was working very hard on the left side of the arrangement and then someone said “Pinky wants to be famous! She wants to be in all of the MOMuments!” (Everyone wants to be famous these days, I guess!). So, enter Stinky Pinky. She’s the brownish-purple (used to be pink) 5.5 year-old bunny with only one visible eye (the other is squished down under her very well-loved fur). She is very old and wise; she has been through a lot. She is adorned in a wig made from a ziplock back that contains some of the girls’ cut hair, which I saved the first time I cut it during the pandemic. While this is Stinky Pink’s debut, I do envision reappearances:)

I discovered the drawing (shown here) upside down in the dirt in the backyard yesterday. I am not sure who drew it because I can’t get a straight answer from anyone. I don’t understand what is going on in a certain region of the body on one of the figures. But, I do seem to notice that after the girls watch any old Disney movies, this type of imagery pops up in their pretend play and drawings. ummmm….

The girls discovered that the apple tree in our backyard has these cute, little, yummy apples yesterday, so I had to include two of those.

The neckless was one made at school with pasta.

And that brings me to the LOL doll. These things are so fascinating to me. They were all rage in Southern California (or maybe they were just hyped up with their unique marketing scheme?). Anyway, their eyes are so big and they have no nose and a very small mouth. (The girls have looked hard for a nose). I could probably write a paper on that, hahahaha not now, though:) This particular one is supposed to be an artist, at least I think?

When I assembled all of the parts of this sculpture/arrangement, I was really shocked at the references it makes! Oh My! HAHAHAHAH! One of those artworks that reveals a hidden meaning only at the end of the process because you are so engrossed in just building it! A meaning I didn’t intend at all! Whoops!

#stinkypinkyoneeyedbunny #twocrabapplesfrombackyard #pastanecklace #lolartistwithnonose #wigfromcuthairinaziplockbag #drawingoffigureswithpursedlips #glassfoodbin

everyday MOMument #6: Cavities, Hand Sanitizer, Head of Clay Amelia, Granola Bars

This one is all about the dentist, or is it about teeth? Or is it about “what our kids say about us to other people when we are not present”. I think it is about all of those things:)

Last week, I learned that one of my daughters told a parent in school that “My mom will not be volunteering because she can’t handle all of the hand-sanitizing that the volunteers at lunch must do.” (something like this in her own words). Apparently, I am not capable of doing the large amounts of hand sanitizer administration that the school volunteers must do. It is just too hard of a task for me, apparently. In this sculpture, the hand sanitizer has some verbiage about “non-sticky” ness and so I found it rather enjoyable that I put the semi-sticky tooth right by that. Just for fun. Oh! I just realized the connection between the cavities that we learned the girls had and “stickiness”! so much irony here:)

The sticky tooth has been broken, disconnected from its sticky string due to one sister grabbing it from the other sister following the dentist appointment. The owner of the sticky tooth was very sad, indeed. Isn’t it so interesting that they give out sticky teeth at the dentist?! I feel like I’m a crazy person always trying so hard to get all of the sticky stuff unstuck from my kids’ sticky teeth!

The other sister selected the sticky chicken from the dentist and was delighted to discover that it has a “bottom”. And, also, that it is just really funny when situated in just about any position you place it in.

For me, the dentist trip was a bit disconcerting learning of beginnings of some small cavities because “there is not enough room in their mouths for their teeth”. This is very true (genetically linked to me, no doubt), but I am also going to place some blame on granola bars (which in turn places the blame back on me for allowing the girls to eat them). So, this is the vicious loop— blame the granola bars, blame me for giving them to the girls, blame the granola bars, blame me, blame the bars, etc. The loop goes around. The dentist recommended eating carrots because they are sort of like a natural toothbrush. And so, I have been discussing the eating of carrots, carrots and more carrots all day. We will EAT CARROTS! ONLY CARROTS! ummmm…. Carrots will make an appearance in the next MOMument…

I found the head of the previously Headless Clay Amelia.

The tape is not mine. I am so sorry. I think I might have, by accident, packed it up from our install a few weeks ago. I owe The MAH (Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History) a role of gaffer’s tape.

#headofclayamelia #carrotsthenaturaltoothbrush #stickyteeth #stickychicken #handsanitizeradministration #gafferstape #granolabarscausecavities

everyday MOMument #7: MOMundrums, Pink-Pants-Scarfed Hero, Egret with no body (only head and feet), Ventriloquist Character (Benson) with Hearts, Toys With Batteries are Wonderful and Devastating

MOMundrums

I have been discussing, PLEADING really, for the girls to eat MORE CARROTS! They are “nature’s toothbrush”! We will eat ONLY VEGETABLES for weeks. Not really, but sometimes parents get all worked up and think that there is a BIG solution. Like carrots for cavities. So, this sculpture has LOTS OF CARROTS. A few days after the dentist trip, the girls came home and said “mom, it turns out carrots have sugar. Our teacher at Campus Kids Connection told us!” Mom-stumped again. This is one of those mom conundrums I find myself in all the time. I should call them MOMundrums. I am constantly being stumped by my kids. I say one thing, and they see right through it, or there is a context in which what I said is completely untrue.

Pink-Pants-Scarfed Hero

This assemblage also has a pink scarf, that is made from pants. These are the pants worn in what I am calling the “Pink Pants Scarf Debacle.” The four of us were trudging up the BIG HILL on the way to school. One straggler seemed to be walking a bit strangely.

The pants she was wearing were falling. Literally falling down.

We were trudging, masks on.

The pants were falling down. Falling lower.

We could barely breathe through the masks.

Then!! Upon further inspection of the pants’ tag, I discovered that this sister was wearing her older sisters pants! In desperation, I had to make the call. At the top of the hill, I called and asked Ben to bring the right size pants, please, and meet us on our walk. To everyone’s relief, in a few minutes, while other walking parents looked on, he came up the hill in his car with the window down, enjoying the morning breeze. Pink pants wrapped around his neck like a scarf (hair blowing in the wind— not really but that’s how it felt). As he delivered the pants I could hear some congratulations in the background and some very proud girls. Isn’t it interesting how sometimes there is a certain parent who always gets to be the hero? Or even a celebrity-in-their-own-home (this term discussed in future MOMuments)? I wonder what that makes me? Hahahaha. (just a note, in this sculpture, the pink pants could be seen as both a scarf or a thread that weaves from one part of the sculpture to another, adjoining all of the objects together and keeping the assemblage from falling apart).

Egret with no body (only head and feet)

The drawing in this MOMument includes what I thought was a chicken but learned instead “No Mom, it is an egret.” One sister drew the egret and, to that sister’s dismay, the other sister cut out the body, leaving only the feet and head and upper torso.  I’m not sure why the other animal was cut out of the picture and it is unclear what it was or who did the cutting. So, basically, no wings for this bird!

Ventriloquist Character (Benson) with Hearts

The box includes another drawing of a very well-loved ventriloquist character. I think those are hearts coming out of his head.

Toys With Batteries are Wonderful and Devastating

The remote control car HAD to be included, I was informed, by its owner. Tears were shed when it was looking likely that we didn’t have batteries and I might need to make a swap for another item. Toys with batteries are so wonderfully great and so devastatingly disappointing. They animate the world for an unspecified length of time and then all of the joy in life abruptly truncates and everyone is left in the depths of despair. In this case, luckily, batteries were found and sooooooo, luckily this MOMument moves! I was giddy with delight when I was able to get the bird to wiggle, ever so slightly, from the movement of the car, because sadly it doesn’t have wings to fly!

#momundrumsandcarrots #pinkpantsscarfedhero #egretwithnobodyonlyheadandfeet #ventriloquistcharacterbensonwithhearts #toyswithbatteriesarewonderfulanddevastating