The K's Aren't Finished...But I’m Hoping They’ll Be A-OK

Today, I've been at work on the K's.

Way back in 1993, when my youngest son was less than a year old, I painted a kangaroo on a wall at our boys' Catholic grade school, in the hallway outside the Pre-K classrooms.  It was an ABC project that the principal had asked me to do, with one image per letter, as a big wall mural for the little ones to enjoy as they walked down the hall.  (Kind of an ABC Book, but on the walls!)  I had a key to the school, and my husband would take our five boys for a couple of hours at a time so I could go over there during weekends or after-school hours and get it done, in bits and pieces, over the course of a few months.

I wish I had better photos, taken with something other than a cheap Instamatic camera, of those murals.  (Sadly, many years later, when the Pre-K moved to another building and those rooms over the gymnasium were made into offices and conference rooms, the murals got painted over.  So these blurry photos are the only proof that they ever existed!)  That same year, I painted Winnie-the-Pooh and friends on the walls of one of the Pre-K classrooms.

The previous summer, before the beginning of the 1992 school year, I had also painted animals and nursery rhyme characters on the walls of the other Pre-K classroom, when I was pregnant with son number five.  Occasionally when I was working on those, I had my four boys with me, hanging out in the empty school, with piles of paper, pencils, and coloring books to keep  them occupied (for they, too, loved to draw)...and plenty of snacks!!

I don't know why I'm posting these pictures that I glued onto cardstock pages and stored in a binder--pictures that I haven't looked at in ages and ages.  Taking a trip down memory lane, I guess.  And maybe part of it is that I'm trying to preserve some memories for my family.  It's been years since I've thought of that artwork I got to do at our boys' grade school, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if they've completely forgotten all about it.  (Using the blog for family archiving purposes here, as I often do!)

Anyway, for this ABC Book project I'm working on now (which was also originally started in 1993, for my baby, but shelved for decades!), it seems only fitting that the kangaroo I painted on the wall at St. Mary's that same year should make an appearance here.  And if I had a photo of that old kangaroo that was better quality...I would probably just photocopy it and then cut and paste the picture onto a page for this book, as I've done with some of my other old artwork for this project.  How much time that would save!  But alas, I find myself working a new version today, trying to make it resemble the old version as much as possible. 

I've got to figure out a way to fit a koala bear in here, too--maybe a tiny one in the distance, hanging out in a tree.  We shall see.

'Kay then, I guess that's it for the K's.  For today anyway.  I'll post the finished pages as soon as I can, sometime after my husband and I get back from our week-long trip to our old hometown in Upstate NY (we fly out tomorrow morning).