Two weeks ago I went to see the new movie, Exit Through the Gift Shop , a documentary on street art. I loved the movie.

The next day I had my 8-year-old grandson, Anders Rohrer, over at my house in the morning.  I told him about the movie and about what I learned about street art and some of the artists such as Banksy and Thierry Guetta (who was first obsessed with video-taping everything he saw.)  Of course, true to form, Anders became interested and so we looked up the trailer on youtube.  We decided to make our own street art.

I asked him to make his own design (he chose skull with dagger in head) and we made a stencil.  We put on our "hoodies" (I lent him one of mine and rolled up the sleeves.) Then we went out to my potting shed where I laid out the stencil on a large piece of cardboard.  I sprayed it for him (we wore masks).  

It became a week of street art!   My two grandchildren from Studio City, Trevor (9) and Chloe (7) Matthews were due to visit last week.  I took all four kids on BART (the local public transit, which is still fascinating to T and C.) into Berkeley to go the main Berkeley Public Libarary. They were impressed with its size and the wonderful 4th floor Children's Library.  The librarian taught Anders and Trevor how to find books on the computer, and we colleced a couple of great street art books.

In the afternoon each kid made his or her own stencil, I sprayed them and we had some great posters!  

Anders' and Auggie's Mom, Eliza and I took all four kids into San Francisco the next day and we did a street art day.  First we went to the Academy of Sciences to look at the fish and mammals there.  We then headed over to the Mission District, and had some great Mexican food at El Toro on Valencia and 17th, and then visited Clarion Alley which is "graffiti alley" --fabulous paintings the whole length of the alley.  We also walked Balmy Street off of 24th Street for a look at the murals there.

Everywhere we go now, one of the kids will spot something and yell out "Street art!"

Before Trevor and Chloe left, all four kids spent an afternoon making a bird house out of wood scraps--all by themselves!  The carpentry camp that T and C took last summer really helped them handle the tools and create their vision.

I am so very blessed to have these interesting and loving children in my life.