Artist profile - all the kids out there!

For all the little artists.....

Is there a mother out there who does not have something drawn by her kids framed and hung on the wall , or stuck on the frig, or tucked away preciously somewhere safe, piling up in a shoebox on the closet shelf???? No, I didn't think so, and yes, I am no exception. There are several reasons we hold on to these even after the kids have long left home.....they are - I believe "cute" is the term used most often, they remind of of the times when they were kids and c'mon admit it - every time we think we should clean out the boxes and cupboards, we feel guilty at the mere thought of tearing them up and throwing them away. So we put them back.....!

I like them for all the above reasons, but most of all for the unabashed honesty and simplicity with which they are drawn, by imaginations wide open and uncluttered with too much information. What their eye sees is what they draw, something we all forget and have to re-learn as adults in Drawing 101 class! A rose is a red flower with petals, the sun is a yellow orb in the sky with rays, a house has a door and 2 windows, clouds are puffy and white. I remember one picture my son painted of me.....the woman had a big mouth. "But I don't have such a big mouth" I protested.....well, his reason for showing it that big was obviously the fact that I kept nagging him or yelling at him, so all he probably saw of me was my mouth! Trust kids to tell the truth and put you in your place!

I for one have not thrown away even a single scrap, I have them all. Color pencilled and crayoned drawings small, big, tattered and torn, Mothers Day cards, little craft projects made at school and stories with atrocious spellings and simple themes. So here I am - almost 25 years later, with my son now a 29 yr old grown man, living and working in DC, and getting married in September - still every now and then taking out the box that holds all his random drawings and stories, and feeling oh so nostalgic for those days when he was little! So this is my blog post today, at the risk of imposing my kids' pics and drawings on all of you.....I picked my favorite ones and even though most of what he did was for me, his dad sneaked into the picture every once in a while!