A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt-Guests Renée LaTulippe and Twin Sons

Posted on by Penny Parker Klostermann

 

Ants may rule the hill, but they don’t rule here! Art by Landon (Click to Enlarge)
Ants may rule the hill, but they don’t rule here! Art by Landon (Click to Enlarge)

Hello, Great Readers of our series! Just in case you haven’t visited before, let me tell you a little about A Great Nephew and A Great Aunt. My great nephew, Landon (a fifth-grader) and I (his great aunt) collaborate. I write a poem which he illustrates. We started this collaboration last fall and have had so much fun with it that we decided to invite others along. Landon and I will continue to have a new episode on the second Friday of each month. The other Fridays are filling up quickly with guests. I have created a page on my website to view all the episodes of A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt. Click HERE to visit the page and enjoy past episodes.

Today I’m thrilled to have a double-the-fun episode with . . .

Renée LaTulippe and her 5-year old twin sons, Claudio and Lorenzo

This is what Renée had to say about the collaboration with her twins:

Last summer, my twins took a painting class. The two pieces here are those that were shown in their first public art exhibit.

boys painting
Painters Hard at Work

More from Renée about her collaboration with Claudio:

My sensitive boy, Claudio, mixed these haunting colors on his own, added his special trees, and titled it “The Islands.” I imagine it was inspired by the view of Elba Island that we enjoy from our town in Italy, but the mood is all his.

“The Islands” by Claudio

Claudio's painting
Painting by Claudio

Renée’s Claudio-inspired Poem 

Leaving poem

And more from Renée about her collaboration with Lorenzo:

The following is a poem inspired by one of my joyous-yet-concerned Lorenzo’s many drawings of oblivious dinosaurs.

 “The Dinosaur” by Lorenzo

The King
Painting by Lorenzo

Renée’s Lorenzo-inspired Poem

Lorenzo Explains his painting poem

I don’t know about you, but I would love to have an original Claudio or Lorenzo painting framed for my refrigerator. I’m sure Renée has a whole gallery. Lucky her 🙂

Momma and boys
Momma and Boys

Meet Renée: Renée has co-authored nine award-winning early readers (Moonbeam Children’s Books Silver Award, Mom’s Choice Gold Awards), a collection of poetry titledLizard Lou: a collection of rhymes old and new (Moonbeam Children’s Books Silver Award for poetry), and the workbook All About Homophones (Finalist, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards) for All About Learning Press, where she is also the editor. She also has poems published in The Poetry Friday Anthology Middle School, Science, and Celebrations editions (ed. Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong), and in the forthcoming anthologies The National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry (ed. J. Patrick Lewis) and One Minute Till Bedtime (ed. Kenn Nesbitt). Renée is thrilled that her twin boys Lorenzo and Claudio share her creative proclivities, and can usually be found drawing, singing, inventing, wearing capes, and going to music lessons. They recently made their theatrical debut in Pisa and brought the house down with their momentous performances as two of Snow White’s dwarfs (Renée may have invented the “brought the house down” part). When not making stuff, Renée and her boys love to splash in the Mediterranean and observe dung beetles on the beach. Because who doesn’t like that?

Find out more about Renée.
Blog: No Water River
Facebook Page
Twitter

Thanks to Jone at Check it Out for hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup this week. Head on over and delight in poetry!

poetry friday button

62 thoughts on “A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt-Guests Renée LaTulippe and Twin Sons”

  3. Aw, Renee–this makes my idealistic, romantic heart swoon. Your boys–painting. Mother’s lovely poems–interpreting. (And I chuckled at your comment about their poetry critiques!) We’ve got bella buona Italia as a backdrop. This is a slice of nostalgic, poetic family heaven. Great post, Penny and Renee!

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  9. I have had twins in my classes before, and definitely they are always unique persons, just like these creative and wonderfully different paintings from Claudio and Lorenzo. Love this, Penny. You’re right, would be wonderful to have prints from each. The poems are lovely words of thoughtful and boisterous boys!

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  10. Love the paintings. And the poems that Renee wrote match the tone of the art exactly. What a wonderful family time here at your blog Penny. The twins are adorable. Renee, brava.

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  20. Super adorable!! I would love to watch dung beetles on the beach while Elba appears and disappears in mists. Here, I have snow, ice and more snow. I love the art work and collaboration. The mulberry sky especially. So much more appealing than a mackerel sky. And the dino, in such danger, happily unaware. That’s deep. What charmers your boys are. Many joys and lots of magic to all of you. It inspires me to try this with my 6 year old daughter. Why not? 🙂 Regards, Brenda

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      1. My daughter made a shamrock at a glass workshop, and then she started filling the space with pink circles and blue lines. At first I thought they were jumbled and confusing-looking, and I wanted her to keep it simple, but then I asked her, what are those? She told me they are the sunset, and I got it. A lot is going on in their heads when they make art.

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  22. Spellbinding! What complex and beautiful talents, all three! Renée, you captured the mood of both of these artworks exquisitely. Man oh man, you must be proud of those boys! Forget the refrigerator, Penny, I want signed limited editions for my family room! (This series totally rocks!)

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  23. I love this series of teaming family members together. The twins’ artwork is so much mood and individuality in these paintings! And Renee’s poems match them to perfection!

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    1. Thanks, Joanna. Since I love both poetry and picture books it’s a nice celebration of both. Poems tell a story and the accompanying art brings the rest of the story. And in come cases (like today’s episode) the art inspires the story. Either way it’s pure giddiness for me!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by Amy! This series makes me so happy. I look forward to receiving the emails that include the poems, artwork, and photos. It’s always so exciting to see the collaboration and what they have to share.

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  30. So much talent in one family! I loved the two different moods of the paintings and poems, and your poems matched their work perfectly. I want to know two things though: how did you superimpose your poems onto their artwork and how in the world did you find time to write two more poems while in the midst of the March Poetry Madness tournament?! 🙂

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