Reflections

Ophelia decided to participate in the PTA's arts competition called "Reflections" this year. Many art forms are accepted and a student can submit as many pieces as they like in any category just so they go with the theme. The theme for this year is "I wonder why..." and at first Ophelia got a little overwhelmed with the whole project and decided that she didn't want to do anything with it but at the last minute she decided to go with two entries. It started with Lavinia asking one of her millions of questions: "why does a candle melt?" After we discussed wax and water and compared what it takes to make them hard (I'm pretty sure that the temperature to freeze water didn't stick but we got the concept) we started naming other items that melt and ended up with ice cream. We liked the experiment that followed that... Ophelia did a piece in watercolor pencil (we like this medium- the control and detail capabilities of colored pencils with the vibrance and softness of paint) that depicted the progression of melting ice cream cones asking the question: "I wonder why ice cream melts in the sun?"

The medium for the second entry was decided before we had any idea what it would actually be. I started teaching Ophelia how to use the digital camera a little bit ago and we wanted to try photography. It's not the greatest quality and certainly not framed or lighted correctly but we're proud of the level of artistry that this little girl put into this project. Again, the inspiration for this piece came from someone else, this time Helena. Helena has a strange fascination with belly buttons and enjoys finding them on all of us. As we were thinking of "I wonder why..." Ideas for Ophelia's photography project Helena began searching for our belly buttons and Ophelia announced that she knew what to do: "I wonder why we all have belly buttons!" Though she actually already knew the answer we decided this was a great idea. She took tons of pictures from several different angles and view points. Daddy quickly decided that he would be the photographers assistant (no way was he going to let her take a picture of HIS belly button!) and so Lavinia, Helena and I became her models. I ruled out a few photographs that exposed my stretch marks too much and we all worked together to create the final product. The picture she choose to use has Helena and Lavinia sitting on me and all you can see of us are our belly buttons and tummy areas and blue jeans. After taking our pictures (two days of modeling before we got just the right photograph to please the picky photographer) she selected the one she wanted to work with and then I showed her how to use Microsoft Photo Editor to crop, zoom and apply effects. She selected her four favorite (same image, four different effects) and we printed them off in 4x6 format and mounted them to black foam core. This piece got quite the reaction even just taking it into school to turn in. The pictures below are the ones she used and in order of how she displayed them with the exception of the very first one, the original- she didn't use that one. We look forward to trying more projects like this one, Ophelia has such a huge appreciation for art and loves the creative process. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Jessica