Drawing Out the Sadness

Me age 5 and my best friend ... in the middle of a mega fight. Not feeling too happy right there. 

Let's face it. Life can't just be peachy all the time. This last week has been one of those less than peachy ones for me and so I thought it might be a great opportunity to talk about something that making art is amazing for. Making art it great at getting you to work through your problems. You can literally make a drawing and draw some of your sadness and anger out of you, just by making it. You don't even really need to try especially hard. It will just end up happening if you allow yourself the time to sit down, put a pen, pencil or marker in your hand and just let go of thinking actively about your problems and instead letting things just come out.

Kids are great at doing this instinctually. Here is a drawing from a little buddy of mine that her mom sent to me in the mail. The girl was feeling a bit sad and so she made a drawing of her being sad. How clever is that? Take note adults, because just like it helped this girl feel better I bet it can do the same thing for you.

Here is a drawing I had made a while back of myself when I was having a bit of an 'un-great'day. Sort of the same concept, right? How does art do that you ask? Well, I think it's a bit of magic and a bit of common sense. The common sense part being that if you allow yourself to express something that is bugging you in one way or another you will find that this acknowledging of the problem will actually help you solve and the problem, and magic, because there is also that part of you that will be able to work through a problem in so many different types of creative ways. You don't even realize you are working through it. You could just be colouring-in a beautiful image and letting your mind relax. Art therapy anyone?

Surround Yourself with beautiful Art

Children's imaginations are rapidly forming and growing. Allowing them to view various types of images on an ongoing basis is crucial in their creative behaviors in my opinion. I was exposed to lots of different kinds of styles and art when I was little. My mother and grandmother had paintings that depicted people and still life's, hung on their walls, while an artist friend of my mothers had amongst other things a variety of abstract and surreal works displayed.

One of the pictures I remember the most now when I think back to that time is one of a rider on a donkey. It was a depiction of the legend of St. Martin, the bishop of France who sacrificed his horse and half of his coat to help others. I think what I loved the most about this image was that it told a story. Because I didn't know the story at the time though, I constantly found myself looking at it and making up my own story to go along with it. It was an image that was interesting and beautiful enough to make me come back to it over and over again. It wasn't too abstract or too literal. I could change the story it was part of over and over again.

Star Flower, Sun Flower and Moon Flower Prints

Today this is exactly the kind of quality I have instilled in all of the prints for Draw Me A Lion. I create all the images so that you are able to create your own fun story out of what you see. So the next time you buy a print for your kids room pick one that will stimulate their imagination rather than just go with the curtains. You'll be happy you did!

My Easter Egg

Hurray for Easter! Yesterday was such a nice day. Finally just got to hang out with some of my awesome friends and take it easy. My friend Brandy is Ukranian and so it's now a little bit of an Easter tradition already that she gets us all to make "pysanky" which are Easter Eggs decorated using a special and fairly elaborate wax resist and dye process. You get a "kiska" (don't know if my spelling is accurate here) which is like a little pen where you scrape wax into an opening and then let it melt on a flame. Then you use the pen, which is now full of melted fluid wax to draw onto your egg. Everything you cover in wax will stay white. Then you dunk the egg into some dye. Then you apply more wax and dunk it into a different dye... and so on and so forth.

It was so fun and relaxing to do make these eggs, ...and eat a really great Ukrainian Easter dinner, that I pretty much spend my whole day there, even though I had elaborate plans of coming back home and getting sooo much work done. I'm glad I didn't!

What could be better than making something fun and beautiful, eating good food and hanging out with friends?

Last Minute Easter Treats at Dilly Dally!

Easter Weekend is upon us! Wanna give those cute kids or young-at-heart friends of yours something other than a bunch of cavities?

How about our new "Fun with Flowers" Colouring Cards or our popular "Colouring Postcard Booklets"? If you're in Vancouver and need them asap to play Easter Bunny, these fun activities are both available at Dilly Dally Toys on Commercial Drive!

Dilly Dally also carries lots of other Draw Me A Lion items and of course tons of other cool little Easter treats as well! Here is a pic of their cute Easter display. Stop on by!

Free Colouring Easter Cards for YOU!

It's getting real close to EASTER, and because we love bunnies, and chocolate and we know you do too... here are some free fun Easter Cards for you to download, print out and colour in! Have a great time and print one out for a friend!

A few pics of Draw Me A LIon at BLIM Market

Here is the Draw Me A Lion table at BLIM Market in March. I love the Heritage Hall as a venue. It's so pretty in there! Met lots of nice new vendors and tons of new fun people who came to shop. Good times all around.