May 11th, 2012
My eldest child and I took a jaunt back across the pond last year. I shot, with no exaggeration, more than 500 photographs, and while some of those images have made it to my website and onto the walls of collectors, the other hundreds of unseen images started calling to me a year after we returned from our trip.
(ok, not literally calling – no need to fit me for a straight jacket just yet)
The flags, the taxis, the phone booths, Big Ben…so many different scenes flickered past my eyes as I scanned my photographs for something new…and then, this piece popped into my head: the most charming, beautiful, quintessential pieces of modern British culture combined with classic children’s poems. Toss in a little oxidized copper I’d photographed year ago, and you have my homage to the country I consider my second home.
Enjoy!
Tags: british artwork, british child art, british nursery, england, english nursery, london, london 2012, london art, london artwork, london children art, london olympics, michelle ciarlo-hayes, mkcphotography, united kindom
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
April 20th, 2012
Any mother worries about her child finding the right friend, the right companion that will accept all the quirks and joys that make him “him.” Mothers of children with differences worry even more that your average mom. I have zero statistical evidence with which to support this statement, but I’m basing this on my own level of worry, which is typically akin to Terror Threat Level Red.
Then, one day, I watch as a friend creates this piece of chalk artwork in my driveway. My son is nearby, drawing a school bus with the yellow chalk (because school buses are the singular obsession of his life right now. Quirky? You bet.) This little girl does not care that my son is obsessed with school buses (and their windshield wipers and their turn signals and their license plate numbers and their registration stickers…). In fact, I’m pretty sure she plays right along with it. What I do know is that she’s in my driveway after a wonderful afternoon playing happily with my son, writing their names in brightly colored chalk, proclaiming their friendship in the most beautiful, innocent way that only a second-grader can do.
I’m reminded of this song by the White Stripes, and for the friendship of this little girl and my son, I am most sincerely grateful.
Tags: child, children, different, friend, friends, white stripes
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
April 13th, 2012
I realized something last Saturday.
What was it, you ask?
That my children will never make Easter eggs that look like the ones on Martha Stewart’s website. And I’m okay with that.
Well, not REALLY okay with that, but here’s the deal: sometimes a control-freak-creative-type like myself just has to let go because, frankly, dying Easter eggs is NOT all about me. It’s about my 5 year-old and 7 year-old who still believe that a small furry animal who lacks opposable thumbs manages to enter their house and hide a bunch of eggs. In places like, say, the bookshelves. Because we all know rabbits can totally climb up a bookshelf.
But I digress.
When did the nuclear arms race of Easter egg dying begin? Who started this? The perfect pastel colors, the bits of lace you cut out and apply to the surface, only to be removed after you hand-paint your perfect egg, revealing a perfect lace pattern…this is ridiculous. My children do not care about this. They just like making really ugly eggs.
Do you see that one hiding back there, on the left side of the photo? Yep, that’s a brown egg. My kids took all these beautiful bowls of bright, saturated colors and what’s the first egg they produce? An ugly brown one. My husband had a name for that egg, which is inappropriate to share here. They boys loved it (the egg, not my husband’s name for it…they won’t be permitted to use crass language like that for at least another 6 months).
So, do these eggs rival Martha’s? Not so much, but the kids had fun, and I achieved a minor personal victory when I managed not to visibly cringe as they scribbled in crayon and dyed them orange and brown. I’d like to say that next year, they couldn’t possibly come up with an uglier egg, but somehow I think they’ll try. Check back in twelve months for the evidence.
Tags: children, easter, eggs, family
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
April 6th, 2012
I’m honored to say I’ve recently been accepted as a member of MamaCita, a collective of women artists who share the same burdens and responsibilities of balancing motherhood and creating meaningful art.
Several of the artist members are working throughout 2012 to create an installation piece, “One Year,” inspired by the nonprofit, grassroots organization Mothers In Charge. Consisting of hundreds of sculpted wire vessels, the art will memorialize each life lost to violence – and the mothers who mourn these lives – in the city of Philadelphia in 2012. If you are local and would like to attend a workshop and create a vessel as part of this installation, please do join us here.
These vessels are just a few of the beautiful pieces created as part of this project, and I was honored to photograph both the vessels and the women behind this incredible project. During the shoot, we laughed, we tossed around hundreds of ideas, we wrangled children (whose idea was it to schedule a photo session during spring break?!), and we hope you’ll consider joining a workshop to contribute your hands and hearts to this wonderful project.
Tags: mamacita, mothers in charge, one year, vessels
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
March 30th, 2012
In the past two months, something’s happened to my studio. It’s become a factory. A block factory. With an employee of one.
You know you spend a LOT of time creating art blocks when your five-year-old barges into the studio after waking up, declaring, “I KNEW I’d find you in here making blocks, mommy!” This is a child who no longer notices the (foam) suit of armor he wears e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e (“Lucas, you can’t get in the shower right now.” “Why not?” “Because you’re still wearing your armor.”) For him to notice such things means I must be in here. Making blocks. A lot. Which… I am.
What does one do while carefully covering the backs and sides of hundreds of blocks with 19th century book pages? Watch documentaries on Netflix. Go ahead, ask me anything about canines. Or Banksy. Or the Tower of London.
For the girl who used to read encyclopedias for fun, documentaries have become my savior. They’ve also become the bane of my husband’s existence.
Him: “What did you do today, dear?”
Me: “Make blocks. Did you know they recently lowered a portcullis at the Tower of London that hadn’t been seen in over 100 years, and they found a fascinating adaptation made to the original medieval structure that was probably added in the late Tudor era to accommodate their (at the time) modern cannons?”
Him: *snore* “Oh, hmm, er, sorry, what did you say?”
It’s like being 9 years old again, watching my parents glaze over at the dinner table as I explained the path of evolution of the horse from Hyracotherium to modern-day Equus. Which reminds me, there’s a fascinating documentary on horses I’ve been meaning to watch… I can’t wait to bore people share it with everyone once I’ve watched it…
Tags: art blocks, children, mkc photography studio
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
March 23rd, 2012
Spring is finally, officially, and most wonderfully here. I think that calls for a little gift from me to you: wallpaper for your computer desktop. These are the beautiful blooms of the tulip poplar outside my studio windows, and I hope this view is as inspiring to you as it is to me!
Simply right-click or drag this image file to your desktop – it’s one of the rare times an artist will let you do that, so please feel free to share with your friends. By the way, I’ve intentionally kept the focus soft to let all those exciting desktop icons stand out so you won’t forget any of your important projects – I know, you’re welcome ; )
Happy spring!
Permission for personal use only. All copyrights held and maintained by Michelle Ciarlo-Hayes, 2012
Tags: spring, wallpaper
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
March 9th, 2012
{There is memory in our souls, a memory of what is still yet to be, as though it always stood with us and we only need remember}
This piece started out as something entirely different (as in orange-trees-and-creamy-white-sky kind of different) but then suddenly this strange thing began to happen. The trees grew smaller and the clouds rolled in, the sky turned blue-grey, and then I remembered a crescent moon I shot after a summer sunset at the ocean and soon the orange trees were no more (though perhaps I will use them again, someday).
I was all pleased with myself as I finally left my studio for the night, glad that even though I’d started down one path, a new one had come to easily to me.
Pleased with myself until I realized why this piece seemed so familiar…
Remember last week’s story? Oh, by all means, please do go back, have a look, and tell me if I owe my son credit for the inspiration…
I think I do indeed!
Tags: clouds, family, Love, mkc photography, moon, stars
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
