Sunday, November 23, 2014

The Geekiest Baby: Underwater Themed Art


I originally meant to have this post done in the beginning of August, but then we ended up moving into our new house. So I told myself I would finish it when we were done unpacking and decorating, because then I could show off the art in its proper place, but then the school year started. So then I decided to wait until I went on maternity leave, but wouldn't you know it, my last day of school was a Thursday and SHB arrived the following Monday...

Anyway, once we had decided on a nautical/marine theme for SHB, I decided I should acquire some appropriate wall decor. We went to Babies-R-Us and came across this gem:

$19.98?!?

Yeah, no. One look at this questionably overpriced mass-produced piece (that was nautical colors but not actually all nautical objects) and I realized it would be more economical (financially, but not time-investment-wise) and meaningful to make my own. I started with making little pen and color pencil drawings to fill up these IKEA frames that I'd had sitting around for six years:

I was honestly really afraid my baby wouldn't be cute, but thankfully this has proven to be true. 
This is a statement that I need to remind myself of (and attempt to live out) everyday around 6 pm when I still have one more hour to go before Mr. Cation gets home from work and SHB is being exceptionally fussy).

It felt so good to finally find a use for those frames, I got on a roll and pulled out three canvases that I'd been carting around from apartment to apartment for *gasp* thirteen years (and as many moves!). I had originally bought them at the UCSD bookstore my freshmen year of college, for the purpose of making dorm-room decor, and now that I've finally used them, I feel justified in hoarding craft supplies because they might get used one day no longer feel guilty about them hanging out in various closets, taking up space. Even better, I used acrylic paints that I've had for ten years to paint them.

I love a good whale pun. 

Let's count the marine animals!

A classic alphabet painting, from anemone to zooplankton.

Some close-ups of the alphabet and number pieces:

Everyone's who's come by has tried to guess what each of the letters stand for. While some, like J is for jellyfish, are pretty obvious, others, like B, C, and I have been stumpers. 

Q is also commonly missed. My favorite animal is the narwhal. 

I am especially proud of how my five nudibranchs turned out!

I must confess, I borrowed heavily from these art pieces in making mine, which is why I don't feel comfortable selling prints, although people have asked. But I feel totally comfortable using stolen ideas to decorate SHB's room! I had so much fun painting these, even though they took dozens of hours. Thankfully, I painted them in the summer, when I had plenty of time. It was admittedly a bit of a challenge, though, working around my belly at the time (it made it difficult to bend over the canvas, and I don't have an easel). But worth the trouble, because look how nice they look hanging over the diaper changing station!

The garland is made by stitching together paint chips. Also props to IKEA for making a non-pink cat changing pad cover!

Two days before SHB arrived, during the one weekend of baby-free maternity leave I had, I was seized with another fit of craft supply purging, and made some faux taxidermy pieces to go with a couple of wood plaques that I'd been saving for eleven years (goodness, these numbers are just embarrassing). I started with a narwhal:


It was so ridiculously cute that I had to go for the other end of the spectrum and make everyone's favorite hideous creature, the much-maligned blobfish:



Both were made from fleece scraps and stuffed with polyfil, then hot-glued onto painted wooden plaques. They made a nice addition to the drawings and a painting that my sister made for SHB:



The last craft-bust was this door hanger:



So there you have it -- the geekiest baby series, marine edition, is now (finally) complete! However, the nice thing about waiting this long to blog these pieces is that I can actually report on how SHB feels about it. At first, the paintings above his changing table were more entertainment for me as I waited for SHB to do his business (he's a fan of waiting until I change him before pooping into the fresh diaper, so I've taken to standing around the changing table fanning his butt with the old diaper in hopes of not "wasting" another diaper...oh, the ridiculous things parents are quickly reduced to doing!). Lately, though, his vision and attention span have been getting better and he is absolutely enamored with (I imagine) the bright colors and interesting shapes above him, and he stares at the paintings for long (for a baby) periods of time.


Look at that face of intense concentration! Also, note that somebody at the bib factory got bored and never finished embroidering the second N in dinner on his bib. 
Some of you have asked how Walnut has been doing with SHB. Generally he pretends that SHB doesn't exist, but occasionally he will surprise us by being interested, usually during the most inopportune moments, like in the middle of dealing with a diaper change or spit up of epic proportions. He also likes sitting on me when I feed SHB in the middle of the night, which is simultaneously sweet and slightly annoying.  

The paintings, then, are an unequivocal success. As for the taxidermy, they're currently located behind his swing, so he can't see them. Perhaps that's for the best, though, since Mr. Cation contends that the blobfish would give anybody nightmares.

IT'S WATCHING YOU.


41 comments:

  1. Barracuda and Cuttlefish? I don't know the other two, sorry! These are truly amazing, and so much cooler then overpriced crap ;)

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  2. I love the sea animals - so cute & well done! B & C = Bluefin & Cuttlefish I think, but the Q has got me too - some variety of oyster I'm guessing?

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    1. Cuttlefish is correct, but it is not a bluefin :( I'll confess I had to do some googling to come up with quahog for Q, as the standard menagerie's "Q is for quail" doesn't work.

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  3. i can only say that i read once about paint colors and was taken by the statement that orange encouraged creativity, so i painted my kids' room orange enamel and had a length of 'games people play' carpet bound for it. that was the extent of my creativity 40 years ago. they're both pretty creative, btw

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    1. Oooh, I always heard orange was the color of insecurity, hahaha. I'm assuming your kids didn't turn out insecure, though!

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  4. Q is for quahog! These are so cute! I would love them in my own bedroom!!!

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    1. The scrabblers in my family salute you, Quahogians! And the narwhal! And the kraken! Hey, you cannot underestimate the value of entertaining YOURSELF during what feel like endless nights of tending.

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    2. Congratulations, Sonja, you got it! SJ, the self-entertainment has been key to surviving!

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  5. First of all congratulations on the arrival of SHB! Very cute indeed. My own little bundle of joy is 3 and a half months old and I completely get that whole trying not to waste nappies thing. Aali waits for about 10-20 minutes after I've changed her and then poos so much that it leaks and I end up having to change her clothes as well. I swear she does it on purpose! Secondly I love the art, it's amazing, you're very talented!

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    1. Haha sounds like your Aali is as much of a troll as my SHB!

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  6. Those paintings are really amazing! Wish I could paint...

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  7. Your artistic ability is fantastic! The only thing I can paint is a paint by number, so I used coloring book pages to decorate my boys' room. I had them laminated and used push pins to hang them up (the theory being that I'd color new ones every so often--my eldest is 8 now and I've yet to color more pages.) I love all of these, and while I understand why you wouldn't want to sell them, I think they'll be awesome pieces for you to pass on to your grandchildren. :-)

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    1. There's no shame in paint by number! I used to love those things.

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  8. i just love the artwork you made! way better than the dubiously overpriced generic stuff out there. nice job!

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  9. TEAM BLOBFISH! These are freaking amaze balls, C! That you made them whilst being pregnant and bending over a canvas is nuts awesome. Gorgeous and special makes!

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    1. I'm glad somebody else can appreciate the blobfish! It doesn't get enough love.

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  10. Fantastic! And to the random who will post about your "unattended" baby on the changing table: Walnut has got things under control.

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    1. Haha thanks for preempting the over-concerned randos!

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  11. You should definitely paint more, those are so cute and wholesome and awesome (even the blobfish)

    And the picture of baby Cation staring at the pictures nearly killed me with cuteness factor....

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    1. I would love to paint more, as time/SHB permits...who know when that will happen though!

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  12. AAAAHHHH! Congratulations!! Doubly for the SHB and also the new house! (Although I am amazed that you survived the double blow of childbearing and escrow - which was worse? I bet escrow.)
    Your paintings are absolutely amazing, obviously SHB wants to stare at them forever, so do I.
    And I is for Ichthyosaur, of course. I noticed that even before you mentioned no one had gotten it - I grew up near Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada and spend many a field trip looking at that giant fossil. Q had me stumped, though - I guess it's all about what body of water (or ancient lake, as the case may be) you're most familiar with...
    Congrats again!!

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    1. It's hard to separate the two in my mind, as we started house-hunting right as I got pregnant, and finished unpacking only a couple weeks before SHB's arrival, so the two have been like one big long journey.

      Congratulations on getting I, as nobody else has! I think you're right that it must depend on where you grow up.

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  13. I love your art! It is vibrant and smart..,and beautiful! I like the way you've decorated the room.

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    1. Thank you! I had fun coming up with a decoration scheme.

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  14. These are so beautiful! And SHB is beautiful too!

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  15. Quahog & Cephalopod! (am I right? Did anyone else get them? I was really good and didn't peek).

    As always, you are AMAZING! These are so cute and I can't believe you got them done while moving house, being pregnant, and working!

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    1. Quahog is correct, and technically cephalopod is too, except that I was thinking of a specific cephalopod, the cuttlefish.

      Thankfully, I was able to finish these during the summer, when I was only working part-time!

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  16. Ahh! Blobfish! Awesome. I had plans to do an abc drawing with dogs for my baby's nursery but never got around to it. Your nursery art is so fantastic. And there is nothing quite like watching a baby begin to take in his surroundings :) They (babies) are pretty magical!

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    1. Yay for more blobfish love! And yes, it's crazy how even a day or two makes such a huge difference in what babies can do!

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  17. Bullhead and Cuttlefish, and Ichthyosaur, too! These are some of the most brilliant pieces of baby art I've ever seen. And as the parent of a budding marine biologist who adores squids, your squids are just too cute. SHB is one lucky little guy to have such a talented mom. And he's really, really cute, too.

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    1. Aww just the first one is incorrect: barracuda! Haha just don't let your biologist examine the drawings too closely, as they're not anatomically correct!

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  18. I can see why you've gotten requests for prints! You've got one lucky baby :)

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  19. I love your paintings and decor SO MUCH! Coolest baby room EVER. I'm already thinking of ways to do something similar... but my husband is much better at the drawing thing than I am... perhaps we'll collaborate.

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  20. I cannot describe how much I love all these. I also have various frames and canvases squirreled away for just such purposes.

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  21. First and foremost, congratulations! SHB is so adorable, just like the lucky duck's marine prints! You have so many talents!
    I absolutely love your blog, and you inspired me to learn how to sew properly, for which I cannot thank you enough.
    I nominated you for a Very Inspiring Blogger Award to say thank you for all your inspiration.
    You can read more about the award on my blog, here: https://beckenfrance.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/a-very-inspiring-blogger-award/

    Thank you once again for your inspiration,
    Have a great weekend,
    Becky

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  22. Love the custom marine art, especially the mounted stuffies - so cute!!!!! Welcome SHB & hope Walnut doesn't feel too left out ^_^

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