YMB #66 Art Appreciation for Your Ears: A Conversation with Alisha and Olivia Gratehouse

Pam: This is Your Morning Basket where we help you bring truth, goodness, and beauty to your homeschool day. Hey everyone, and welcome to episode 66 of the Your Morning Basket podcast. I’m Pam Barnhill, your host, and I am so happy that you are joining me here today. Well, today’s podcast is about a podcast. I am joined today by Alisha and Olivia Gratehouse from masterpiecesociety.com, and they have started their very own art appreciation podcast called Masterpiece Makers. Now what Alisha and Olivia are aiming to do with this new show is reach tweens and teens and give them a little bit of information about art history in a 15 to 20 minute episode, and they really wanted to pull out the different aspects of art history that they felt like would be interesting to this specific age group. They call their podcast a little bit cheeky, I call it really down to earth and very relatable, and I am so glad that they were joining me to tell you all about it, and we’ll get on with it right after this word from our sponsor. [spp-transcript]

Pam:
This is Your Morning Basket, where we help you bring truth, goodness and beauty to your homeschool day.

Hey everyone, and welcome to episode 66 of the Your Morning Basket podcast. I’m Pam Barnhill, your host, and I am so happy that you are joining me here today. Well, today’s podcast is about a podcast. I am joined today by Alisha and Olivia Gratehouse from masterpiecesociety.com, and they have started their very own art appreciation podcast called Masterpiece Makers. Now what Alisha and Olivia are aiming to do with this new show is reach tweens and teens and give them a little bit of information about art history in a 15 to 20 minute episode, and they really wanted to pull out the different aspects of art history that they felt like would be interesting to this specific age group. They call their podcast a little bit cheeky, I call it really down to earth and very relatable, and I am so glad that they were joining me to tell you all about it, and we’ll get on with it right after this word from our sponsor.

This episode of the Your Morning Basket podcast is brought to you by the Spring Into Shakespeare challenge. Come on over to the website at pambarnhill.com/shakespeare to download your Spring Into Shakespeare challenge packet. What we’re trying to do with this challenge is encourage you to read Shakespeare with your kids. We want to take some of the intimidation out of reading Shakespeare and all do it together. So the packet is going to explain everything about the Spring Into Shakespeare program for you. We’re using Mistie Winkler’s five step Shakespeare lesson plan process to walk you through, provide everything you need to help you get started doing Shakespeare. So the play we’re doing together is The Comedy of Errors, and we have a whole packet of information for you on resources you can use, how to get started with your kids, a reading schedule, everything that you need. We’re outlining Mistie’s entire five step process of how she does this, and giving you all kinds of wonderful resources, and then we’re having a live kickoff event for you and your kids on Tuesday, February the 11th at 3:00 PM central time. So we’re just trying to get you into doing some Shakespeare, and we want to provide you with the resources and the hand-holding that you need to make it less intimidating for you. So come on over to pambarnhill.com/shakespeare, get all the information about the fun live event, and also sign up for your very own Spring Into Shakespeare packet. And now, on with the podcast.

Alisha Gratehouse is a veteran homeschool mom and the mastermind behind masterpiecesociety.com, a website full of multimedia art lessons and open and go art appreciation curriculum. Through courses like Mixing with the Masters and Art School, Alisha hopes to create a meaningful art experience for both kids and teens. Olivia is a homeschool and college grad who now joins her mother as a contributor to the Masterpiece Society site, providing courses for early elementary students. This mother daughter duo is now sharing their love for art history through their new podcast, Masterpiece Makers, where listeners can discover some of the greatest artists of all time in a fun and engaging way.

Ladies, welcome to the podcast.

Olivia:
Thank you, Pam!

Alisha:
Thank you for having us!

Pam:
Oh, this is fun! It’s going to be in stereo!

Alisha:
We’re going to try to pause and let each other talk.

Olivia:
Yeah, sorry about that.

Pam:
That’s okay. Okay, well let’s get everybody’s voices. So Alisha, I’m going to let you talk first and tell us a little bit about your family, and then Olivia, I’m going to ask you a question to let you come on, so everybody will know which voice is which.

Alisha:
Okay. Well this is Alisha, and I am a veteran homeschool mom, as you mentioned in the beginning, and all of our kids are young adults now, so I’m not homeschooling anymore. It’s kind of sad, and when I hear about everyone’s homeschool days, I kind of get a little sentimental for those times, because I really loved homeschooling our kids. I’m also an artist, and I just love the famous artists and the art history period, so this just kind of fell in my lap, creating the art courses and the art appreciation curriculum.

Pam:
So you were really following something that you absolutely love to do.

Alisha:
Yeah, I do love it.

Pam:
Oh, awesome. So looking back on your homeschool years, what would you say was kind of the flavor of your homeschool? Were you guys eclectic? Unit study? Charlotte Mason?

Alisha:
I would say that we were mostly Charlotte Mason, but definitely eclectic, because we did our own thing in certain areas. We loved the picture studies. No, sorry. We did not. Okay. Sorry about that.

Pam:
There’s a story here. Tell me.

Olivia:
I will in just a minute.

Alisha:
We loved the read-alouds and poetry and Shakespeare and listening to classical music and learning about the great composers. Our kids loved nature walks and going to the creek in the woods behind our house, all those kinds of Charlotte Mason-y things, but we did not love the picture studies that Charlotte Mason promoted. So yeah, that was kind of the boring spot of our homeschool days, don’t you think?

Olivia:
Yeah, definitely.

Pam:
Okay, interesting. Okay, so I’m going to let Olivia talk for just a minute, because I really want to dig into this little. It was a Freudian slip there, and I want to dig into what this is all about. So Olivia, tell me, what did you not like about Charlotte Mason style picture study? And, I just want to say for the listeners, we’re not saying this is bad, we’re just saying that Alisha’s kids didn’t like it.

Alisha:
The way Alisha taught it, maybe was boring.

Olivia:
Well it was really just the programs that we ended up using. They would end up just droning on and on, and they were a little more boring and they didn’t really hold our attention as much, and it wasn’t like we were really getting in depth with the artists, which was something I would have been more interested in, knowing more about the histories of what was going on at the time, and learning maybe what was their thought process behind making their art. So most of the picture study that we were doing at the time was basically just kind of fluff. There wasn’t much meat to it when we would have preferred a little bit more going on.

Pam:
Okay. So you wanted to really dig deeper into the art and what was behind the art, and that was more appealing to you than just kind of what you felt like was a glossing over of just looking at some pictures?

Olivia:
Yeah. Sometimes it was just an overview of different eras, and it was just really quickly glancing through when I would have preferred to spend a little bit more time on what was going on.

Pam:
Okay. Fun. Okay, so I’m trying to do the introductory stuff for this podcast here, and you’re already digging into why it was that you started doing it. So let’s just go there. So what was the inspiration? Why did you ladies wake up one day…because you’re busy, you have this wonderful Masterpiece Society art resource out there with all of these different art lessons, and I love the mixed media lessons, and now you have Art School with the drawing and things like that. You do have an art appreciation curriculum, which is kind of the PDF download version, and you have all the drawing videos for little kids. What made you wake up one day and say, “You know, we’re not doing enough. Let’s start a podcast.”

Alisha:
Well, I am a little bit crazy in the head, I guess, but really, like I said, I love art history, and I just feel I like there has been a void in the homeschool art arena, and I just am following the things that I love and trying to bless and encourage other homeschool moms out there. I don’t know, I just feel like as I delved into the art courses, especially when I started the Mixing with the Masters courses, and I would get to know them a little more, and the quirks in their personalities or how some of them couldn’t finish projects, which is a lot like me, it made me appreciate them more, and it made them a lot more human. Then I thought it would be kind of fun if we just made these little short podcasts to introduce kids and teens to the great artists. Obviously, we’re going to be cheeky, we’re going to be goofy, and to be honest with you, Pam, we will sit here and record, and we just have to do take after take of certain things, because neither of us are great speakers.

Pam:
Tell me, you mentioned kids and teens. What age group do you think is really good for what you’re creating here?

Alisha:
Well, I am aiming this towards upper elementary, but mostly middle and high schoolers, because the younger set, there is a lot out there for preschoolers and kindergartners and the lower elementary grades, such as Deep Space Sparkle and Art History Kids, but I just feel like there is not a lot for the upper levels, and so this one is geared, I would say probably 10 and up, but of course, any of the kids are welcome to join in. It’s just, we may not hold their attention, and like I said in our first podcast episode, we may not hold anybody’s attention. We just sit around and entertain ourselves a lot.

Pam:
I think that you’re going to reach a good audience with this, because you’re right, you’re absolutely right. There are so few resources, and we have moms tell us all the time that they need something and they’re looking for something that’s really going to grab their older kids and get them interested in some of these things. I was listening to you guys the other day, and speaking of not being able to say something, is it Albert Door? Is that his name?

Alisha:
Albrecht Durer.

Pam:
Okay, so you were talking about his hair, and I’m like, “Okay, I know there’s some teens who are really going to have a good laugh over this, and it’s gonna be something that they can relate to.” What sparked your love for art and all of these great artists? Alisha, going back, now Olivia, obviously we know that this was in your house all the time because of your mom, but Alisha, going back, can you pinpoint what it was that made you kind of geek out over these artists?

Alisha:
I don’t really know. I’ve always loved art and drawing since I was a little kid, and I just took an art class in high school of course, but I did have an art appreciation course in college. I went to school for an English degree, but I took an art appreciation course, and it was actually during that course I realized how much I loved the great masters, and I didn’t do anything with it for years, but just teaching our kids and just getting to know them sparked even more, and then, of course, we’ve been able to travel to some of the great museums around the world, and it makes it grow even more exciting when you get to see these things in person.

Pam:
Yeah, yeah, because you guys recently spent some time in Europe, correct? Or you’re going soon?

Alisha:
Yeah, both.

Pam:
So Olivia, I find some times that just because I love something doesn’t necessarily mean that my kids are going to love something. In fact, sometimes I think that my kids don’t like things because I like them so much. So where did your appreciation for art come from? Did it come straight from your mom, or how did you kind of find your own way in this?

Olivia:
Well, a lot of it did actually come from mom, just simply because she had all this art and more details about the artists just on hand, and she was always encouraging us to be artistic ourselves. And I’ve always enjoyed even seeing art produced by other artists, contemporary artists, today, and so when she was delving more into the art courses and with Masterpiece Society itself, it was more in front of me as something that I was seeing on a regular basis.

Alisha:
And she was having to help create courses and curriculum.

Olivia:
Yeah, I was having to help, and it just became, I don’t know. It was just a gradual process where I realized, “Hey, I actually really enjoy learning about this as much as doing it, and doing courses as well.”

Pam:
Okay. So you kind of grew into it. It wasn’t something you just woke up one day and you were like, “I love artists!”

Olivia:
Yeah, it was definitely more of a process.

Pam:
So it was kind of a building of those loves based on what you were exposed to, which is something that we talk about a lot on the podcast. So when you approach a particular artist and you’re going to record a podcast about them, what are some of the things that you look for to share with kids?

Alisha:
Well, obviously we want to give a short little biography, because I think that if we go too much into their lives. Some of them didn’t live appropriate lives, and moms probably don’t want their kids to know too much, and it gets boring. Art history in my high school, my public high school, was boring, but I love finding out fun or weird facts and letting kids know about certain things, and of course, we’re kind of irreverent, pointing out Albrecht Durer’s hair and how he was like the Renaissance rock star.

Olivia:
There was Michelangelo, the fact that he never bathed, or he didn’t really keep up with appearances very well, and so it’s just fun little details that we would find when we were researching them that kind of helped us.

Alisha:
Basically we like making fun of the artists.

Pam:
So it’s kind of an irreverent kind of humor, but you’re right, it’s the kind of stuff that gets kids’ attention, and it’s almost like a stuff you missed in history class for art. And, all of the episodes are right at about that 15 or 20 minute mark, aren’t they?

Alisha:
Yeah, definitely. I wanted to keep it short and sweet. Sometimes they’re a little bit over 20 minutes because we just can’t quit talking about a certain artist, but we want it to be something that moms will actually use, and when you get bogged down trying to do too much of everything or too much of one subject, it just gets overwhelming.

Pam:
Yeah. Well, let’s talk about that. How do you envision families using your podcast in their homeschools?

Alisha:
Well, I envision it… For one thing, we have a lot of our members of the Masterpiece Society that do Fine Arts Fridays, and so I thought it would be great to incorporate it, and in fact, we released the podcasts on Friday, and so they could just play the episode and pull up the art piece that we’re talking about and just follow along as we go into detail about the techniques or about the painting itself. It would be perfect for your crowd who love the Morning Time and have the morning baskets. You could print out a picture, you could print out a copy of the painting or open it up in a coffee table book of the artists, and listen to the podcast and follow along. Also, in not every episode, but in a lot of episodes, we’re going to include a freebie, like a line drawing or a template, where moms could download it and their kids could color along or use it as the template to transfer on a canvas or watercolor paper, and they could paint it and just do that even during it or afterwards. It’s adaptable. You can even use it in car-schooling.

Pam:
Oh yeah, yeah. I could totally see us using it that way, and I love that idea. We were talking earlier about … You were worried about the younger kids not following along or getting bored if they were younger than older elementary age, and I think having those line drawings and some watercolors, and I like to use the watercolor brushes with the water in the barrel.

Alisha:
Oh yeah.

Pam:
So they could sit and paint their own version of the masterpiece while they’re listening, then that just takes this lesson down even further to any little kid who likes to sit and watercolor at the table.

Alisha:
Exactly.

Pam:
Yeah, very much so. Well, I see that you’ve covered quite a few different artists already. You have a number that are now available, your intro episode of course, and then some of the big ones like da Vinci and Michelangelo and Raphael, and then one of the things that I love is that you have told us who’s coming. So if we go to masterpiecesociety.com/podcast, we can actually see who you’re planning to release coming up all the way through the end of February. So that allows moms to plan.

Alisha:
Actually, we’re planning on going through the entire year of 2020 and getting to the modern art at the end of the year. And then next year, we’re going to go even further back in time and start with the pre-history and Egyptian art and Greek art. Even in 2022, go back and pick up some of the artists that we didn’t get to study, and just have this available as a resource for years to come.

Pam:
Yeah, yeah. This is looking like something that moms are going to be able to jump in and use for artists that they’re wanting to study or just take it in chronological order, as well, from where you’re going now and then going back and picking up those earlier ages. So it looks like a really great resource.

Well, let’s talk about art itself, because you said something earlier that I wrote down in my little notebook here because I thought it was so important. You said that what you found when you were studying the artists was that they didn’t finish projects, and you could really relate to them because of that. Can we speak a little bit about the feelings that people have about perfection in art and everything needs to be absolutely finished perfectly? Tell me a little bit about your kind of more messy philosophy of doing art.

Alisha:
Well, I don’t know that I have a messy philosophy as much as that I’m just a messy person. It’s kind of chaotic, but I don’t know. Like I said, I felt like knowing certain things about these artists made them come alive to me, and I could relate to them, and the one in particular artists that I was talking about was Leonardo da Vinci, because he was … I’m not comparing myself to him, because I squirrel a lot, but he squirreled so much because he was so intelligent and he was working on so many different things at a time, and so he himself said, “Art is never finished, it’s only abandoned,” and so sometimes, just the process is what is enjoyable, and not trying to come up with a perfect product or a perfect end result. So definitely, I always encourage our people, the kids who go through our class not to get so serious about it, just enjoy the process. You know, I was a perfectionist for way too long, and I am still, and you just have to give yourself some grace, and if you have a kid who is a perfectionist and doesn’t like what they’ve drawn or colored, just give them a copy paper and let them have the liberty to just tear it up or throw it away and begin again. I don’t know, you’re going to have perfectionist kids, but I definitely embrace the imperfections and just making messy art and just enjoying the process.

Pam:
I love that quote. “Art is never finished, it is merely abandoned.” It’s so funny, because I have so many unfinished projects around my house. Not necessarily art projects, but this makes me feel better. I think it’s good for kids to hear from somebody like Leonardo da Vinci that it’s okay, the process is what’s important. It’s okay not to completely perfect and finish everything, and I think the more we can hear this, the more our perfectionist kids can hear this, the more that they come to appreciate that this is true. This is absolutely true.

So Olivia, for families wanting to include more art appreciation in their homes, other than listening to your podcast, do you remember some favorite things that you guys did when you were growing up, or some resources that you remember using that you really loved?

Olivia:
Well, definitely one thing was that on Fridays, we did actually have the Fine Arts Fridays where we would maybe pick out handicrafts or study art in particular, and just having that kind of resource available where we would have different coffee table books. I do remember there was a specific book, I don’t remember the name of it, but it had pictures of different famous art pieces throughout history, and we read through that book several, several times.

Alisha:
We loved that book.

Olivia:
Even to this day there are pictures, even when I’m researching for different artists, I’ll see that particular art piece that I read in that book, and I’m like, “Hey, I remember this book!” … “I remember this art piece,” sorry. It was just something where having that resource available to us, it was something we came to appreciate more. So when you have that resource available more, I do believe it’s something good to.

Alisha:
Like she was mentioning, keeping the coffee table books of certain artists laying around, and if you can’t get the art books, you can get art calendars and just let the kids see the pieces up close, bigger than maybe in a book where the pictures will be tiny, but just let them form relationships with the art pieces themselves, because beauty and art just brings so much to your life.

Olivia:
Also, another idea is just having different kinds of art prompts, I think also helps make a difference, because sometimes when your kids may not know what to paint and they’re just staring on a blank page, it’s always nice to have the kind of different art prompts to look at and to kind of maybe go off of if they’re wanting to keep on going.

Pam:
So explain to me what an art prompt is.

Olivia:
Okay. Maybe if you’re just … I don’t know, different ideas, like maybe paint a rainbow over an ocean or something, or make a mixed media project, tear out some pieces of paper in a book and use that. How would you use that? Just different ideas where you’re not limited to a specific lesson, but you just have different ideas where the kids could kind of imagine what they want to do and express themselves.

Alisha:
Express themselves creatively.

Pam:
Okay. So it’s kind of like, you’re not outlining the project for them and telling them specifically what to paint or what to do, but you’re not making them start with a blank page and absolutely no inspiration or no direction. So it’s kind of an in between spot.

Alisha:
Yeah.

Pam:
Okay. Yeah, I like that idea. So coffee table books, I hear, are big, art calendars, and we used to have one. I think it was from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was like art a day, and every single day, there was a different, there was a different piece for the 365 days of the year.

Alisha:
Oh, I like that.

Pam:
Yeah, that was a great calendar, and then Alisha saying larger art calendars so you can see bigger versions of the pictures, I know there are some art card games as well on the market. Yeah. Yeah. So all of those things are great, and then picture books, picture books about the artists. Do you have any of those that are favorites?

Olivia:
Well, I do know there’s a series, Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists. There’s actually several famous artists picked out throughout the series, and I always recommend them because they’re just full of all the information for the younger audience.

Alisha:
Yeah, and we get a reputation at our local library for giving all the artists books for kids in our age.

Pam:
If you have a mom who’s kind of a little intimidated by all of this art stuff, what would you tell that mom?

Alisha:
Well, first of all, don’t be intimidated, because art is such an open ended subject. There is no right or wrong in art, and it really hurts my heart when mothers have said they can’t draw, they’re not artistic, they don’t have a creative bone in their body, but I believe that everybody is creative. So I just think that you need to tap into what you can do, and then if there’s areas that you’re not great at, then find … It doesn’t have to be our website. There’s YouTube videos that you could put your kids in front of that are child friendly. There are projects on Pinterest that you could … Just gather things and follow along with their step-by-step thing. So there’s plenty of areas in which you can let your kids experience art without having an art degree. I don’t have an art degree, but I still love art, and I believe it just enhances our lives so much.

Pam:
So it’s just a matter of getting out there and trying things and connecting your kids with the right resources that are available, and that’s the wonderful thing about the internet, is there’s so much now, so many ways that we can connect our kids with things like this that wasn’t even available 10 or 15 years ago.

Ladies, the podcast is Masterpiece Makers, and it’s so many great artists, little 15, 20, 25 minute snippets there about their lives and their artwork, and Alisha and Olivia, where can people find the podcast?

Alisha:
You can find it at masterpiecesociety.com/podcast, or we’re also on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and Google Play.

Pam:
Okay, so the podcast is in all of those places. It’s absolutely free, and then don’t forget that the ladies also have the Masterpiece Society membership. Now, Alisha, that’s not open all the time, right?

Alisha:
No, we only open twice a year, in January and August, but if anyone is interested, they can get on the waitlist and be the first to know when we open our doors.

Pam:
Okay, and so that’s perfect because that’s the start of each semester, and then the art appreciation curriculum that you guys have as well. Those are also available in the store. They are at masterpiecesociety.com. Well, thanks so much for joining me, ladies. I am looking forward to listening to some Masterpiece Makers with my kids and learning all about hair and non-bathing artists and everything else.

Alisha:
Thank you so much for having us, Pam.

Olivia:
Yes, thank you.

Pam:
And there you have it. Now if you would like a link to Alisha and Olivia’s new podcast along with any of the other resources that we chatted about on today’s show, you can find them on the show notes for this episode of the podcast at pambarnhill.com/ymb66, and we’ll have all the important links for you over there. Now I will be back again in a couple of weeks. Our next show is all about Lent. We’re going to be talking about the Lenten season, a little bit about the history of Lent, where it comes from, and how any family of faith can add some Lenten practices for more meaning in their Morning Time as we lead up to the Easter season.

Now my very special guest for next week is Father Doug Martin. He’s a personal friend of mine. He is a Catholic priest, and he’s also a homeschooling dad, so I’m going to leave you scratching your head over that one, and you’ll have to see how that works out by checking this out on the show in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep seeking truth, goodness, and beauty in your homeschool day.