An Accidental Gift Of Now (Brought To You By Diva Espresso)

Among the many things held in common by all preschool teachers is that a massive amount of great art passes through our hands. We all share the experience of sorting through a stack of paintings, shoving them into kids' cubbies or lockers for them to take home, only to come across a piece of such incredible beauty or creativity that you're forced to pause, to take a breath, even when you're in a hurry, even when your mind is churning a mile a minute over your daily concerns. It's a pool of contemplation, an accidental gift  of "now." Often it gives piercing insight into a child you teach, but more often it's a moment to look into ourselves.

For me, its almost a daily occurrence. I know that many of these artworks wind up on refrigerator doors and bedroom walls, but it seems a pity sometimes that they don't get a chance to work their magic on a wider audience. I try to share some of them on this blog, but photos, especially the ones I take with my phone camera, really can't do them justice.

That's why I'm so excited that our local Diva Espresso coffee shop has made its walls available for an exhibit of some of our work.

Located at corner of Greenwood and 80th NW (7916 Greenwood Ave. N, (206) 881-1213) in Seattle, this is a favorite hangout for our Woodland Park families. It's a friendly neighborhood place serving amazing coffee from the small Highland's Coffee Company, an independent roaster also located in North Seattle.

Charlie L.'s mom Shelly organized the "show," and yesterday after school, Ella, her mom Jaimee, and I installed the artwork. And believe it or not, we've already sold one! How's that for the kids taking responsibility for their own school?

We hung our giant marble paintings . . .

. . . one of our pendulum paintings . . .

. . . a couple of paintings we recently made using cedar branches we purloined from the forest house . . .

. . . a fly swatter painting . . .

. . . a few pieces from our melted crayon and watercolor series . . .

. . . a couple of the pieces made by our robots . . .

. . . and two of our collaborative bottle cap and Altoid tin "Little Boxes" pieces, of which I didn't get a picture because I didn't want to disturb the customer who had taken up his place just beneath them . . .

. . . but, here's what they look like if you're interested . . .

If you're a local, please swing by and have a look, and while you're there it would not be impolite (nor in any way disappointing) to order a cappuccino and one of Diva's incredible peanut butter cookies!

As Ella, Jaimee and I left yesterday, I saw a young woman contemplating our robot paintings, reposing for a few seconds in that accidental gift of "now."

(Spider update: after doing more research, I've come to the conclusion that the spider that ran down my leg yesterday and became an impromptu object for scientific contemplation is probably not a deadly hobo spider, but rather a giant house spider, which is often confused for a hobo by Northwest homeowners. It tends to be larger, harmless to humans, and a predator of the hobo. This is a good kind of spider to have around!)