Patriotic Art

We were supposed to be camping on Friday, but since we weren't, I felt like we should do some school work, but I just didn't have the heart to say, "Hey boys, guess what, since we're not camping right now, we get to do school instead! Yea!"

So we did PE: we biked the long, long route to the park (The regular route is straight down Main Street and across the train tracks at the pedestrian crossing. The long is route is down the highway to the railroad crossing on the west end of town. The long, long route is the other direction to the crossing on the east end of town).

And we did science: the boys love our Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day textbook so much that's it's not even like "doing school."

And we did art: Voila!


Our basement wall now sports this very patriotic mural.


It's fun, it's one-of-a-kind, it's huge, and it's someday going to be covered up when (if) we ever finish the basement.


As I stood back and admired the boys' work of art, it occurred to me that the red we used is really quite a bit deeper than normal flag red, but hey, it's what we had on hand (no pun intended). It's actually more crimson than red. It would make a perfect "blood" red, should we ever want to paint something bloody.

And the way it drips down the wall is very, um, dramatic. One without such a pure and untainted mind might think it looks like a thousand bloody handprints covering the wall. Not that I would ever think that about my kiddo's art work.

Okay, so maybe the thought would cross my mind. And maybe, just for a minute the whole thing might look really creepy. And maybe I'd feel the need to touch it up a little by painting over the places where red lines ran down the white handprints, even though modifying one's children's artwork is expressly prohibited in the Good Mother's Handbook.

But afterwards, when it no longer looks creepy, such a mother probably would feel a lot better about having it in her basement. And after all, she probably just wanted to have a hand in it herself! (pun very much intended)


No, the handprint in the last picture is not my own. It's E's. Ain't it cute?

PS - the stripes are supposed to be "blood red," so says Woodrow Wilson.

"When I think of the flag.... I see alternate strips of parchment upon which are written the rights of liberty and justice, and stripes of blood to vindicate those rights, and then, in the corner, a prediction of the blue serene into which every nation may swim which stands for these great things."