If you give a girl a stencil...

...she's going to want to make bookmarks with it:

From left to right, top to bottom:

1. A monkey making a silly pose.
2. A horse running along, and it's running into the monkey picture.
3. Two heart-dogs snuggling!
4. A bunch of mixed-up weather, where it's day and night and raining and snowing and storming all at the same time.
5. A bunny giving a valentine.
6. Some footprints that a cat left in the house.
7. The same cat that left the footprints in the house is jumping.
8. A cat that's looking at a mouse, and the mouse is running away.
9. A bear, cheerleading.
10. A bear, rolling down a hill.
11. A bear going swimming, that just tossed the ball up.
12. A bear at an art show.
13. Letters, jumping on a bed!
14. Some circle bugs.
15. The bed broke that the letters were jumping on, and some letters spelled BOOM!
16. A monster from all the pictures. [It contains pieces for all the other pictures.]

(Click on the image to see a larger version, just to see some of the cute, deft details she's put in.)

A note from the curator

I've been falling down on the job. It's not that Fiona hasn't produced any art over the past two years — quite the opposite — but more that I haven't kept up.

I've realized, too, that part of my job has changed: not just to comment and encourage, but to curate, and rescue fleeting works from the clutches of younger sisters and household chaos.

So, for Father's Day, Fiona, here's me, trying again.

—A.E.K., June 19, 2011

Moth

This one, I'm certain, is partly inspired by Bedtime for Francis, which, in addition to being a good story, describes Fiona to a "t." This is a moth, banging on the window. There's also a "fingernail moon" as Fiona called it, although it's hard to see here. As an artist, I admire the simplicity, and the effectiveness of it.

You can see a little bit of it here, but this is actually a three-dimensional image; the moth is made of cut paper, folded and taped to the drawing.

For Grandpa Renaud

If there's one thing you should know about Grandpa Renaud, it's peanut butter. Whenever he visits, he requests it at nearly every meal, and we generally stock up with two or three jars of Smucker's Natural when we know he's coming.

So it's only natural that a DZIN (design) for grampo rano (Grandpa Renaud) be all about peanut butter. In this case, we've got peanut butter on...

• celery (green)
• radishes (red)
• bananas (yellow); and
• oranges (orange)

I'm personally not so sure about the orange, but I haven't tried that yet. Could be good, who knows? It would certainly go with Grandpa Renaud's often-proclaimed theory that Peanut Butter Goes with Anything.

For Daddy on His Birthday

Fiona drew this for me yesterday morning at Deborah's prompting. When delivered, it was not only a birthday card (see the "habe brthda" down there on the large white fish?) but also a gift certificate, as the card contained cash for replenishing the stock in my fishtank.

I asked Fiona about the letter Ts that appear in a few places, but she just said she thought they would look good there, along with the lines swooping about the fish. The large fish isn't eating anything; those are just more bubbles.

I love the color here, and the bubbles, and the amazing variety of fish types. My personal favorite is the big one with blue spots, and the nearly- inverted smiling yellow fish.

Thank you, Fiona!

Grass

A seal (or, in some tellings, Fiona) lying in the grass, next to a flower, wearing a purple hat and striped scarf. Before she colored the brown in, you could see the seal much better, with his individual paws draw in, and pieces of grass growing in front of him.

Girl and Boy

This is a design, with funny spots. I was thinking it would look pretty. Can you see the pen marks?

Up in the corner, is the thing I drew, [a thumbnail version of the larger piece] and Uncle Paul [in red] and Mommy [in purple]. It's just like a picture on the wall. I put that on there to let them know it was for them.