Adventuring the Artsy Way

The forecast this morning threatened volatile weather, so we transformed our adventure day plans from a rugged outdoor hike to a hoity toity trip to the art museum. The girls were up at six, and doors at the Minneapolis Institute of Art open at 10, leaving us with a substantial time gap in which to play Artiste.

The girls donned their aprons, pulled out their supplies, and expressed themselves. We experimented with water color...

~By Maya - Water Color

~By Elliot - Water Color

Multimedia collage....

~By Maya - Multimedia Collage


~By Elliot - Multimedia Collage

And clay sculpture....

~Maya - Clay Sculpture of Dog

~Maya Again- No Sculpture For Elliot, we lost her at the sink for some splashy water play

Then we let the glue and paint dry while we trotted off to the museum in our best dresses. Unfortunately, I only got one picture of the girls en route, as I left my camera in the coat check... and neither of them look all that impressed on their walk into the building.

Maya picked out both their dresses and did both of their hair. I should have taken a picture before we left the house, since most of the clips and head bands ended up in my purse. I love wearable art!

But I assure you that Maya flip-flop-skipped through nearly every exhibit and followed all of our "Museum Rules" with only the slightest reminder not to climb on the Frank Lloyd Wright chairs or steal the chess pieces from the Charleston Drawing Room.

After our own artistic expressions, Elliot was worn out and content to sit in the stroller. In contrast, Maya led us around the museum. She was enthusiastic but a little confused about the point of our wandering. She seemed surprised to find chairs, necklaces, pots, masks, and rugs on display along with the pictures. At 4, she's already coming to terms with the concept that anything and everything can be art. She really enjoyed the Buddha statues, the recreated rooms, and the kids' gallery, where the art on the walls strongly resembled the art drying on our kitchen table.

As expected, we haven't signed her up for personal art instruction just yet... When asked about her favorite part of the museum , she eagerly shouts, "The Elevator!" But I'll give her a little credit - it was a super cool old fashioned elevator with a sliding gate for a door.

What an adventure!