Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Mama Miti turned beautiful Wall Art

We bought a piano on Craigslist. Then we decided to finally officially admit that our dining room has absolutely nothing to do with dining, so we've made it the piano/play room. So, we needed to artwork. Actually, we've needed new artwork in there for over a year now, but now that we spend time in there, it felt more important.

What to do, what to do?

A while back, I'd picked up the picture book, Mama Miti at the library. I fell in love with it - it's a beautiful story with the most beautiful illustrations reflecting the beauty of East Africa. The story encapsulated a lot of things I think are beautiful - mothers and children, the wisdom of the elderly, women helping women, resourcing people who need it, and creative problem solving.


Since I can't describe the book without saying beautiful multiple times in one paragraph, I obviously wanted to cut it to pieces and hang it on my wall. But, it was a library book. So I bought my own and cut it up.

I also bought 6 hideous pieces of art from the thrift store and spent a couple of days, cleaning, disassembling, painting frames, recovering the old artwork with burlap, taping a haphazard chevron pattern on the burlap, painting the burlap, ripping tape off, and reassembling.

And hanging.

I love it. Simon told me he doesn't, but we don't have the same taste in art.

By the way, Mama Miti is written by Donna Jo Napoli, and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. You can buy the entire book of "artwork" for $11.


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5 comments:

Adrianne Thompson said...

why are you so effing cool? (I know I'm cool because I'm a Christian who says effing. cept I don't have it in me to say it. whatev). need to see you again to be reminded of how we have things in common in addition to me being envious of some crazy cool things about you, like this art. xoxo

Rachael said...

Kadir Nelson is such a talented illustrator, and the pictures look great.

Christina Marie said...

looks even better in person!

Anonymous said...

Susie, I love this...what a great idea! And I definitely want to check out the book.

Anonymous said...

I don't know this book, but I definitely want to check it out! I am a librarian, and a lot of great kids books get discarded when they are in too rough shape to salvage. They often have plenty of pages that are still intact, though, and I love to frame pictures of my favorite illustrators for friends!