Art Wall

I took on a project today that I have been putting off for some time, cleaning off the art wall. I have devoted one of the walls in my kitchen as the place to hang the kids art work that comes home from school. The wall has actually been there since before school entered our lives. I returned home from the hospital after giving birth to Alexa to find that cute little three year old Chloe had hung pictures all over the house.

I do mean ALL over the house. Removing them was done over a series of weeks and also removed a fair amount of paint and wallpaper pieces from said walls. I decided then and there that Chloe's love of all things art should be fostered, but possibly we could direct it to just one area of the house. I typed up a very official looking sign and hung it on the kitchen wall. I figure that way the wall damage is directed to one place in the house. For the most part this has worked quite well, except of course for their bedroom walls. A few years back I divided the wall in half and add a sign for Alexa's art as well. I have been mentioning to the girls for a few weeks now that I would need to take down the art from this past school year to make room for the new things that would start coming home. I made today that day. This is what it looked like before I began...

I had become a type of art collage. As I unstuck the layers I was reminded of some of this years highlights.

Chloe's map of the world.

Alexa trying her hand at Chinese characters in honor of Chinese New Year.

Alexa's Hanukkah and Kwanza creations.

Her preschool even had a unit on famous artists and art styles. This is Alexa's attempt at pointalism.

And you have to have a hand turkey in there somewhere.

Chloe made this really cool chain of three dimensional shapes in her math class.

It looks a little bare right now. The wallpaper has sustained a bit of damage. I am completely OK with that as I feel our house has that lived in look that will never qualify us for a photo shoot in a decorating magazine. Besides I hate that wallpaper anyhow. I am just far to busy to change it. Some day I will take it all down and put up something else, or just sell the house and let someone new deal with it. Either way we are all cleared off and ready for as whole new school year of art to start coming home.