Steph Langdon

  I recently had a birthday, so it feels timely to post on this topic. Gifting has changed in my family over the years already. My brother and I no longer exchange gifts (with our spouses either), but we do give gifts to our nephews. This year my mom suggested that we stop birthday gifts, and I was definitely on board with that; she did still send me a card though. With an increase in consumerism and disposable income, I find that we often don't know what to buy for a gift, because people already 'have everything'. Over the years this has led me to focus on asking for and giving experience/consumable gifts when I can. We do still buy things that our kids need or want, but we also try to not overdo it.  Gifts are meant to tell the person that you were thinking of them, so it's strange to think that they've become somewhat mandatory with certain holidays. We do feel that the conversations with friends have been easy and we often ask for no gifts at our children's ...

  In 2023 when we stayed home for the summer due to my cancer diagnosis and treatments, we started learning about artists together. We continue to learn, as there are so many artists. Learning this way inspires us to create our own pieces, get outside our comfort zone and learn new techniques.  We don't have a firm schedule, but recently had time, so we learned about Franz Marc. He was a German artist known for painting animals and using bright colors to express emotion. It was fun to think outside the box like Marc and create blue horses.  Typically we watch a few videos on the artist, such as this , and then decide on a project. Websites like Artsy Crafty Mom have been great for providing many options relating to a single artist.  We found a technique online (I can't find the video to share right now), where they picked a horse outline they liked, printed it off, and traced it. Then used colored crayons for wax resistance but also colored markers to outline the ho...

  I'm still catching up on past adventures. Over the winter break, we had passes to see special exhibits & the kids insisted that we use them. We saw the 'Mary Cassatt At Work' exhibit at the Legion of Honor . We enjoyed seeing her impressionist paintings with women as the focus, but the kids were intrigued to learn about her print-making, which is what inspired our art. Amelia had also recently finished a print-making class, so it was a special surprise to learn about Mary Cassatt's.      We continue to play with different mediums, go outside our comfort zones with our creativity, & learn about art history/artists along the way.

We visited the new location for the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco (345 Montgomery Street) back in January. I have been doing other things, but am now here to share what we created based on our visit. As part of their 'Poetics of Dimensions' exhibit by artist  Miguel Arzabe  we looked at different ways of weaving, like his 'Last Weaving' (shown above). Then of course we found our way to their Makers Studio to find old magazines to use to make our own woven art (*we love museums that have hands on spaces for adults & kids to be artists too!). His: Hers: Mine: We also had fun seeing the art of a claw game. The kids were able to get coins from the front desk and we talked about the psychology of wanting to win, feeling like you can win, and then losing. The kid were familiar with these types of games, but the exhibit challenged them to see it differently and as art. ICA SF is always free and was an easy train ride for us. If you haven't been, we'd ...

I've closed my Facebook account, closed my X account, and am shutting down my Instagram accounts. I do still feel a need to share with the world (& help people live their best lives) so I'm hoping that is what this space can become. It'll take me some time to set it up, but I hope you'll check back :) Steph