Sitting at my computer, thinking of words for my introduction... my son thinks I should write that I am nice, fun and I never lie. I hope I am much more faceted than that, although those are wonderful qualities!

My name is Niki Hogan-Lefler and I am extremely excited to be posting all about art for AnnArbor.com! I am a professional artist that is not fond of purple but is painting on a purple building right now.

I love, love, love glitter and think that all pieces of artwork benefit with a finishing touch of sparkle. All day long I am brainstorming new ideas for my murals, exciting art/crafts for children, and how to create all the businesses I want to start. Watching children create the same piece of art and then lining them up next to each other to see all the differences intrigues me.

I still remember the moment my son and I created our first piece of artwork together and I remember crying the first time I saw the best painting ever created ~ by my son. Speaking from an artists' standpoint ~ it was compositionally correct, proportionate in its markings, and distinct in its color~ you could see clear colors, it was not brown from over mixing.

Now my son is 6 years old and I have to work very hard as an artist to come up with intriguing projects to captivate him and tear him away from his made-up games that feed him his energy he so craves.

In this blog I hope to inspire you to create art with kids of all ages, teach art terms and how to talk about art, educate your children about artists and the history of art, and give simple tips on how to organize art materials. I would love to see artwork from all of you~ from the littlest ones around a year all the way to the grandparents that love to be around them. Let's get started ~

Photo 1 ~ Myself. Photo 2 ~ Painting in the friendly bucket truck on my largest mural to date. Photo 3 ~ Both of my children helping paint. Photo 4 ~ On top of building painting hard to reach area.