Art Box: A Great Way to Get Creative with Children

You've had it! If you hear, "I'm bored. What can I do? There's nothing to do!" or one more whine you'll surely put your head in the dryer and slam the door shut! Keeping kids occupied challenges the most stalwart of adults. Let's face it; we're no match for the leprechaun like stealth of the half-pint human who exhibits no shame while in pursuit of getting what they want. In this case, the want is something to do! Take a deep breath and grab the art box. Aren't you glad you planned for just this kind of rainy, I'm bored day?

The art box is alive with fun projects for little fingers and minds. The key to creating this mother's little helper is to keep it fresh and growing. First you'll need a box. Find a fascinating box, either plastic, heavy cardboard, or a Rubbermaid container. Make sure it's colorful, big and fun. After all, this is a special box, not you're ordinary run of the mill type of box filled with just paper and crayons. The art box I pulled together is a plastic one in primary colors of red, blue and yellow with a snap on lid and a carrying handle. It cost about $5.00 at a big box store.

Once you've found the perfect box you can begin filling it. There's no need to fill it all at once. The idea is to start with the basics: construction paper in lots of colors, crayons, markers, scissors, glue, and a sketchpad. These items can be varied depending on the age of the child. Washable markers are a good idea for the younger set along with small, scissors with rounded ends. Add to the box periodically so when it's opened there's something new inside. Play dough makes a great addition. Forget the molds and the fancy tools. Let the children just use their hands and imagination to create whimsical masterpieces. Toss in stickers from time to time, especially for upcoming holidays. Paints of all kinds can be added. Start with watercolors. Move on to tempra for the older kids, but always have finger paints for the little ones. Sidewalk chalk is a big hit in the summer and in the winter it can be used on large newspaper print. You can usually get the end rolls free or for a nominal fee from newspaper publishers.

Think out of the "box" when coming up with new ideas. Collect little treasures when out walking. Botanicals like small pinecones, straw flowers, dried grasses or try your hand at pressing flowers with your wee ones. These can be glued on to paper to make wonderful nature pictures. Tiny shells and sea glass collected from a trip to the beach will surprise and delight when the box is opened. Glitter, pieces of fabric in bright colors, ribbons and rickrack all get the creative juices flowing. At some point you'll want to add colored pencils, stencils, and a handy dandy ruler. A compass or protractor for the older children will acquaint them with these items as well as aid in the artful creativity that makes children everywhere smile. (At least for a while.)

Keep a look out for unusual items that you can add to the art box. Purchase various colors of tissue paper for paper flowers and roses or to be used in whatever way your child comes up with. Petal paper is a very special paper that is made with bits and pieces of flower petals, grasses and other gifts from nature. It's a bit pricey, but what a treat for the older children.

The more fascinating the items the children find in the box, the more special it becomes. Look around your home. You'll find items that make for interesting art projects like: cotton balls, colorful pastas, sponges, buttons of every size and hue, dryer lint (?) I was just kidding on that one. Keep a good supply of stickers of all kinds on hand to add when nothing else is available

The true key to the "special" box is to have little surprises inside that were not there the last time it was brought down from it's safe spot. This is not the everyday color jar filled with broken bits of crayons; this box is brought out when things become really dire. It's a "special" art box. The special box is only used at the table or easel. No preschoolers are allowed to take one item from the box and walk around with it. Again, the idea is to make it so special that it brings excitement and smiles to the faces of the bored and fretting. It's worked for me and I'm sure it will work for you as well. So get crackin' you never know when the clouds might appear on the horizon or your child's face. As adults, we seriously need all the help we can get. The special art box will give you a moment or if you're lucky, two or three to take a deep cleansing breath. Just look at their cherubic faces. "NOOO don't paint the cat!!!"

<i>1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die</i> a Must-Read for Film Buffs

Cinema is an art form that's over 100 years old. Hundreds of thousands of films have been produced of all shapes and sizes and of all genres all over the world. As lovers of cinema, we are often confused and dumbfounded as to which films to watch. As an answer, Stephen Jay Schneider and a group of film critics and theorists around the world put together this compilation of 1,001 culturally, technologically, artistically and historically significant films.

Arranged in chronological order and covering over 100 years worth of history in film, from the early 1902 Georges Milies science-fiction film "A Voyage to the Moon" to last year's Oscar Best Picture winner "Million Dollar Baby", the book covers a very wide range of forms and genres of film: From huge Hollywood epic spectacles like "Gone with the Wind" and "Spartacus" to gritty independent pictures like John Cassavetes's "Faces" and Samuel Fuller's "Shock Corridor"; from famous mainstream blockbuster features like "Titanic" and "Jurassic Park" to obscure, daring short films like "Blonde Cobra" and Luis Bunuel's "Un Chien Andalou"; from kid-friendly "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to disturbing, daring films like "Salo" and "In the Realm of the Senses". Significant effort was made by the editors and the contributing writers to represent nearly every genre of film out there. In addition to featuring the well-known, highly regarded classics of horror, drama, comedy, science fiction, fantasy, etc. sub-genres as varied as Chinese kung fu movies ("Shaolin Master Killer"), blaxploitation ("Sweet Sweetbacks Baaadaassssssss Song") and mockumentaries ("This Is Spinal Tap") are also represented. Also impressive in this book is that it took the effort to feature significant films from all over the world even in countries which are not primarily known for their film industry like Senegal, Egypt and Jamaica. All in an apparent effort to cover as wide a range of the art of film as possible.

All the great directors, both of the past and of contemporary times, have several of their films on this book: John Ford, Steven Spielberg, Billy Wilder, Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Luis Bunuel, Jean-Luc Godard, Pedro Almodovar, Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman etc. among others. Alfred Hitchcock has the distinction of having the most films with 15 from his oeuvre profiled. Each film is given an essay written by the various contributors detailing the film's significance, it's history and various interesting tidbits of trivia as well as a critique of the film in an intelligent non-pretentious or overly scholarly manner. Though the book is by no means perfect, the questionable inclusion of "Meet the Parents" is one of the more glaring of its flaws and arguments can be made for the inclusion and exclusion of several other movies, this book probably comes the closest to being the most definitive list available that's accessible even to the average film goer. Quite a number of films featured in this book are not currently available on video or DVD. Perhaps their inclusion in this book would help them get released on DVD and thus finding a wider audience.

Whether you are a budding teenage film buff or a veteran film scholar, there is plenty to love about this book which gives a straight-forward, non-snobbish take on film history that would make the art of watching movies truly enjoyable. This is the book all lovers of film should have on their bookshelves.

Comparing Cinema and Film with Painting, Literature and Other Arts

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Film and cinema have always been compared to other types of art such as painting or works or literature. Film writer James Monaco makes a clear distinction between films and “other recording arts” while film critic Manny Farber contrasts this view by saying that film is no different than other representational art. 

In James Monaco’s book How to Read a Film, he compares film and cinema with other types of arts such as photography, painting, literature, theater, and music. Monaco makes the argument that film has combined the works of the older arts and is able to create certain images or impressions due to its technology in which the older arts struggle to measure up. While painting and photography are able to capture one moment in time that can captivate a viewer’s attention, film is a reproduction of many images throughout several scenes in the film. Painting had tried to keep up with motion picture of cinema through Cubism, but as cinema developed newer and better technology, photography and painting were never truly able to capture the concept of motion in the same way film has succeeded. As Monaco states, “In a sense, movies simply fulfill the destiny of painting (44)." Movies have been able to make scenes or images come alive and appeal to the viewer through motion and connecting with real situations and feelings in a way in which painting cannot. 

Monaco also goes on to compare film to the world of literature and the novel. He states that while novels are told through the perspective of authors and films through directors, a film’s image can generate views and opinions different than the original intent of the film director. Novels on the other hand are generally shaped by the words, details, and plot that the author has chosen for the novel or work of literature. In addition, Monaco states, “It would be an absurd task for a novelist to try to describe a scene is as much detail as it is conveyed in cinema” (45). Monaco posits the idea that film and cinema stand above and beyond the traditional representational art forms because of its ability to shape the different arts in various way. For example, painting was shaped by film in that it immersed itself more toward the design of the painting and novels focused more on its unique language. 

Theater is the one traditional art form that Monaco compares most closely with film. Film and theatre share many common attributes like the ability to express emotion and make the viewer react to what they are seeing. However, where theatre is only able to use a couple or only a few different sets for different scenes, film is able to rapidly go from one scene or location to another. In addition, film can capture a scene or action in real life and bring it to the projector for an audience to view. Theater can only recreate a scene that has already occurred. The final traditional art form that Monaco discusses is music. Monaco states that music’s advantage over the other arts is that it has the ability to control time. However, as the technology of cinema has progressed, music has become an essential part of film. Music started out in the silent film by being played with a screen of dialogue on it such as in “Birth of a Nation.” This was used to indicate a rise in the action, suspense, or to portray a certain character as good or bad. As cinema got more advanced, music was integrated into film as the director saw fit. The concepts of melody, harmony, and rhythm are able to be successfully expressed in today’s films. Music throughout a cinematic production is now very common as it is used for sound effects, background music, speech, etc. 

Film critic Manny Farber, on the other hand, treats film like any other art. He categorizes film into termite art and white elephant art. Farber desired and preferred termite art over white elephant art because of termite art’s ability to create a moment in time without glamorizing it (Farber 02). Farber enjoyed looking at film for its simplicity and without dramatizing it. Farber preferred termite art for its ability to allow the viewer to interpret the scene or picture for itself without leaving a certain message; leaving it up to the viewer what he or she wants to take away from the film. He has particular distaste for films he categorizes as “white elephant art.” Farber describes these types of films as ones in which they are impersonal and try to be masterpieces that break away from common films. 

As a critic he treats film as just another art form because it can be categorized into termite art and white elephant art. Film can be like any other art such as a novel, newspaper column, or painting in that it too has the ability to be simple enough to capture the reader or viewer’s attention to be wrapped up in the moment. In addition, elephant art in films and other arts is common because they can both loose sight of the original intent of the art work. They become fixated on too much detail and as Farber calls it, “clogging weight-density-structure polish amalgam associated with self-aggrandizing masterwork” (Farber 02). 

Both film writers and critics James Monaco and Manny Farber write about film and cinema in its relation to the other representational arts. However they each look at film differently. Monaco treats film as a unique art head and shoulders above the traditional representational art forms of the past. By comparing film to the other arts he demonstrates the wide range of possibilities and abilities that film has and how great an impact it can have on a viewer. On the other side of the spectrum, Farber treats film as just another piece of artwork which can be separated into the distinction of white elephant art or termite art. Through this class distinction he is able to separate a truly great film as one of simplistic style and personal from one that tries to be a masterpiece but fails in the process.

Baby Shower Gifts for a Second Baby

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While the practice of giving a baby shower for a second baby may not be as common as a baby shower for the firstborn, they do seem to be growing in popularity. Co-workers may want to throw a baby shower for a fellow employee even though this may not be her first baby. I have recently been invited to a baby shower that the guest of honor already has one baby. There are circumstances where a baby shower for the second baby makes perfect sense. Since she lives in another state this is really her first baby shower to be thrown by her friends in her hometown. Because of this scenario, it seems fittingly to have a baby shower for her second baby.

As I went shopping for a gift, it occurred to me that this friend already has many baby items thus making it difficult to buy something she truly needs. As a new Mom, I have learned that there are some items that you can never have too much of. I relied on my personal experience to find the new baby a gift.

With my friend, I did have sort of an advantage. Her second baby is a boy while her firstborn is a girl. This opens a door for buying something to wear since probably most of the items she has are for a girl. I did wind up buying a couple of crawlers that are for a boy.

This is the best-case scenario when you are invited to a baby shower for a second baby.  If the baby is not the same sex as the firstborn, then buying a gift just became a lot easier. If the baby is the same sex, buying a gift takes a little more time and effort. If the second baby is close in age to the firstborn, then chances are good Mom has many items for a baby. There will be items that she will need for her newborn. She may need a new infant seat or a tandem stroller. Since these are big tickets items, you may want to go in with a few friends to purchase one. If all else fails, gift certificates are never a bad choice. This way Mom gets exactly what she needs.

If the second baby is a few years apart from the firstborn then chances are less likely Mom has a bunch of baby items. Depending on the age difference, buying for the second baby might be like buying for a first baby in that a lot more items will be needed. Ask Mom if she has registered for baby items she needs.

There are always the standard baby gifts that work well for a first or second baby. Diapers and baby wipes are always gifts that are needed as well as receiving blankets, bibs, and crawlers.
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products such as hooded towels and disposable wash clothes are a big hit. A new diaper baby, a bouncer, or an exersaucer are also good choices for a second baby.

Buying a baby shower gift for the second baby does not have to be difficult but can be as much fun as buying a gift for the firstborn. It just takes a little planning and research. Whichever gift Mom receives will surely be put to good use.