Larsen Family portraits

It's been awhile since we've had a family portrait taken. So this year it was my birthday present. Kelly and Nancee had had their babies and felt like they were back in shape--so it seemed a good time to capture all of us.
It was great! 3 hours at JC Penney with all the little kids! TOTAL CHAOS! We couldn't get everyone to smile, sit up, and look at the camera at the same time.


Back Row: Dave, Harry, Sandi, Mark (Kelly's husband)
Middle Row: Nancee (Dave's wife) with Andrew, Me with Baby Kelly (Dave & Nancee's newest), Rich with Roko (Kelly & Mark's baby), Kelly
Front Row: Nathaniel and Sabrina



And Andrew wanted NOTHING to do with any of it.

Recently I discovered that my son-in-law, Mark, who I love, spelled jansfriends wrong when he set up my blogspot account. So I had to start a new one. From now on all of my posts will be at http://www.jansfriends.blogspot.com/.

Halloween From The Moon

As she hung from the moon, she tried to remember how she managed to lose her broom. Was it a sudden gust of wind? Did she fall asleep? And where is it now? How was she ever going to make it to the house on the corner where they hand out the full size candy bars before they're all gone? And what is her mother going to say? Why oh why did she trust that old woman who told her the broom would add that little extra something to her costume?

Next Halloween she is going as a Princess!

(Want to see more Halloween drawings? Go to http://www.jansfriends.com/)

The women

When I was in high school, I did modern Dance. I loved Isadora Duncan and Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham. I remember going to see Martha Graham when she was old but still inspiring. I also went to see the Alvin Ailey Dance Co. and was amazed. I took one year in college and then found that I really didn't have all that much talent and I really didn't have the body for dancing or the pony tail.

Anyway, this past week I finished painting 15 foot flats with portraits of jazz singers for MJC's Jam and Jive. (If I ever get the pictures out of my camera, I'll post them. They turned out pretty great.) It's a modern dance recital and it got me remembering these doodles I had done years ago. The first woman is a drawing I did for a card that Kelly gave Lori Bryhni-the Dance teacher at MJC. It was sort of me if I could be a dancer-I would just stand there. The others are drawings of other dance poses I thought I could pull off (of course this was like 10 years ago-now I don't think I could do any of them and I'm a lot rounder now). I think they could go in any order and make a dance.

About the hair- It's my mom's. She wore her hair like this in the 70's-of course so did every other woman.

I think these women are great and funny.

Kelly Athea Larsen

Born August 19, 2008

9:02 pm

7lbs. 15oz.

19" long

I Love Being a Girl

Recently, I was asked to illustrate the Young Women's theme for our Ward (Church). I had a great time drawing girls. I love being a girl. I have always been grateful to be one. Pink is my favorite color (though lime green is a close second). I like dresses and cute shoes. I loved my Barbie doll (of couse I also love my toy dinosaurs). I love that girls are sensitive and nurturing and emotional and sentimental. And yet we're tough and resillient and way smarter than boys.

So let me tell you about the girls on this poster:

A young woman wh o knows her divine nature knows she is loved by her Heavenly Father and her earthly parents. She is happy and sometimes silly.

Have faith. It will make you both strong and sensitive.

As daughters of a Heavenly Father, we are nurturers and so we look for opportunities to help. As friends we support each other as we struggle to be in the world but not of the world.

Raise your hand! Study. Know the answers. Volunteer. A young woman who has knowledge knows her individual worth as a daughter of God.

Be thoughtful of your choices. Be careful of the consequences of the decisions you make. Your Heavenly Father loves you and knows you and will help you.


Be grateful that you are a beloved daughter of your Heavenly Father. Celebrate your life. Be happy (and sometimes silly)!

Romeo, You Idiot

I received an e-mail from Kyle Thompson of Headlands School asking if I drew on the flats that I painted for theater. Yes I do my own drawings-I would love to e-mail Kyle back but he didn't leave me an address when he contacted me from my website, jansfriends.com. So I thought I would just put it in my blog and hopefully he'll read it.

Harry (my 15 year old) is currently playing Romeo in his school production of "Romeo, You Idiot". A week before they opened he asked me if I could help paint the set. So in 3 days I painted the set. My daughter Kelly came to visit one day and she helped. My sister is visiting from Utah, so on opening day when I was really frazzeled, she and my husband came and helped me finish up. There were a lot of little details I would have liked to finish, but it looked good enough. You can't really see from the pictures very well how cool the texture for brick turned out on the Montague house.

The play was really funny. Harry was terrific. We were very proud of him. I enjoyed being his mom who painted the set- in the program we were listed as "Harry Larsen's Scenic Family" under special thanks. Next fall they're planning to do "Dracula". I would love to paint that.