I forgot my camera.....

Yesterday I took the kids to the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha. It was "Family Day" and since admission was free, we thought it would be fun to check it out for the first time. I forgot my camera, so I am relying on photos I stole, I mean borrowed, from their website. It is quite a beautiful marble building!

One of our favorite pieces was the above glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly....very, very cool! A nice reporter from the Omaha World Herald zoomed in on the kids while they were creating some art. They had a room set up full of live goldfish in bowls with every art supply you could imagine. They were in heaven! What a treat to go out and grab this mornings paper and find the following article:

Joslyn displays wilder side on family fun day

BY ELIZABETH AHLINWORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
The animal kingdom took a step indoors Sunday at the Joslyn Art Museum's family fun day.Tristan Brandon, 9, above, experiences wildlife with help from Henry Doorly Zoo docent Frank Maruca Sunday during Family fun day at the Joslyn Art Museum. Activity stations at the museum included art demonstrations, animal exhibits and a puppet show.In honor of the current exhibit of works by Robert Bateman, who is primarily known as a wildlife painter, most of the activities alluded to a slightly wilder world.The Bateman exhibit runs through Sunday.CaSandra Johnson, an art instructor at the Joslyn, kept watch over a classroom as children tried to do what Bateman did — create art by closely observing living creatures."The families can get an idea of what it's actually like to draw from an actual living animal," Johnson said.

Olivia Maras, 9, carefully studied two goldfish swimming in a small bowl in front of her. They darted around the small space, swimming back and forth until one could hardly tell them apart.Olivia didn't mind. Using a waxy, black crayon, she sketched out a fish — a representation of both goldfish, she said — before she picked up her watercolor paintbrush."It's kind of hard, because they move around a lot," Olivia said.She meticulously mixed orange and yellow to get a true goldfish shade of gold. As she painted it, she said the whole experience had given her an idea. When she got home she was going to draw her beta fish. He's a more exciting mix of pink and purple, she said.It was the first trip to the Joslyn for Olivia, her brother Tony, 6, and their mother JoEllen Maras, all of Blair."They're a couple of artists," Maras said. "They're having a great time."

In other areas of the museum, children touched animal pelts from the Henry Doorly Zoo, made animals out of clay or dressed up as animals with costumes from the Rose Theater.The Urban Prairie Puppet Company gave two performances of Aesop's Fables, and some children made their own.Elise Beal, 11, laid green tissue paper over a frog cut out of paper. When she was finished, a couple of Popsicle sticks would turn it into a puppet. Her younger brothers Jack Russell, 9, Luke, 5, and Michael, 3, prepared their own puppets — an aardvark and two elephants, respectively.Not all of the children approached the animal world with such enthusiasm."Do you want to draw a picture?" Johnson asked Aven Cramer, 3."He's just getting warmed up," his mother, Katrina Adams said.With Johnson's urging, Aven ran his hands over the hides of stuffed buffalo and deer heads the museum brought in for the kids to draw.Aven's cousin, Tyson Trigg, 2, followed suit, running his small fingers through the buffalo's thick brown coat.Encouraged by their successful efforts, the two boys and their mothers decided that drawing a picture could wait until later.

The kids are still sleeping as I post this, but I think they'll be thrilled to read about themselves! Have a great week!