‘To Unlock the Door to Make-believe, Imagination is the Key’ You be the Artist
Let’s talk about kids and drawing. Art is fun, non-critical and accessible to all children regardless of culture or socio-economic status. Art doesn’t require 4-color glossy printing, complicated instructions, expensive supplies or company. Turn off the T.V. and give a child a blank sheet of paper and a pencil and they will fire up their own imagination and draw something. Add a box of crayons and a vivid vision emerges as unique and individual as the child. It may not be anything we, as adults recognize, but the image, and the sometimes elaborate story it depicts, are always clear to the young artist. Ask any child old enough to speak “What are you making a picture of?” And they will tell you! It’s not just lines and blobs of color to its maker. It’s personal, sometimes impossible and always sparkles with imagination. In the immortal words of Julian Lennon who told his dad John, when asked what he was drawing, “It’s Lucy in the sky with diamonds!” Well, duh! We, as adults, forget how to see beyond basic molecular structure. All the wonders of childhood are still out there if you can just remember how to see them.
Tessa drew this when she was four. I was amazed and said “What a fabulous cat!” She rolled her eyes and looked at me and said “It’s a jaguar.” Yeah it is! Why do we speak down to kids and their artwork? They are really way more sophisticated then we give them credit for.