The Art in my Heart

When I was a young, working single, I was surprised by how often executives had children’s art displayed prominently in their offices. The rest of their office décor was generally tasteful prints or paintings, interesting sculptures, various trophies or framed awards, a family portrait here or there. But amidst the “true” art, there would be a crayon drawing, a small handprint in paint, an unidentifiable lump of fired clay. I understood, at a certain level, that these were pieces of their children, mementoes of the smallest members of their families. But until I had children myself, I didn’t understand fully what these bits of immature artwork represent.

I don’t have an office, but my refrigerator is covered in such artwork. Twice a week, my son brings home a project from school. In the recent past, it has been a cutout paper window with two red felt tulips glued in the center, a letter C covered in cotton ball clouds, a smiling bunny made of miniature marshmallows glued onto pink paper, and – my personal favorite – a flower made from a green paint handprint with a photo of my son’s smiling face pasted in the middle. (His shame-faced admission that he had tasted the paste was the icing on the artistic cake.)

I understand now that the beauty of this art is not only in seeing the developing motor skills of a child, but in the sweetness of that child’s excitement in presenting the results of his artistic hard work to a beloved parent. Its beauty is in capturing a moment in time which will pass all too quickly – the small hand reaching for mine now will become a larger one seeking its own way. The messy, random brush strokes will mature into controlled, well thought-out technique. The teacher’s handwriting will soon become his own, at first labored and later neat and even. This artwork is a moment in time, a moment of innocence, and sweetness, and confidence, and potential. It captures, even more than a photograph can, the split-second of my son as he is now.

It’s not just the art on my fridge. It’s the art in my heart.

Photo A Day, Day 30: Something Silly

Rainy days can go either way in my house: whiny, cabin-fevered children getting into fights and complaining they’re bored, or happy children enjoying the chance to do inside projects. Today, thank goodness, turned out to be the latter. We started the day with a play date at home with some friends, the kids all chasing each other around and wrestling (yes, even Katie) to burn off energy, but once our friends left, the kids were impressively mellow and asking for an art project.

My son has discovered a fun concept called “Artzooka,” which is basically making things out of found and recycled objects from around the house. We’ve made jet packs for stuffed animals out of empty water bottles, rubber bands, and tissue paper; we’ve made pinwheels out of construction paper and straws; we’ve made interesting but indescribable sculptures from broken toys and scotch tape. And today, we made a minecraft helmet out of an empty baby wipes box, construction paper, and magic markers.

You can’t see it in this photo, but there is a big smile hiding behind that swath of cardboard. And there were lots of silly noises coming from inside it. And I have no doubt there will be lots more silliness coming from both inside and around that helmet for the rest of the afternoon.

What better way to spend a rainy afternoon than by doing something silly?