Artwork from the Hands of Babes

There are so many wonderful things about living in small town, USA and art classes are one of them. The musuem associated with the local university offers weeklong art classes to the kids ages 6-12 each summer. Sophie has attended four different camps and in late July she and Lucy will attend another one. The first summer Sophie attended I was astonished at how immersed she was in her "work." The camps start at 9:30 and run until 3. When I picked her up at the end of the day she was clearly exhausted, but so very invigorated at the same time. She slept like a rock each night and woke up ready to go. It was so wonderful to see. The picture above was her first "commission." Last winter I asked her to draw some pictures for the basement bathroom wall and, together, we picked our favorite and she transferred it to canvas.

We've also had the opportunity to take part in weekly art lessons with a local artist who lives 1/2 block away. Kim has set up a child-size art studio in her basement and works with the kids on various aspects of art and artform. Sophie has attended weekly lessons for a year and a half and Lucy for one year. Kim has a wonderful website that features some of her work, but I can't seem to find it right now. :(

The next photo is from our kitchen wall - I gave each child a piece of paper and they drew what they thought would look good in the kitchen. Then they got their canvases and paint and got to work. Sophie's is a compendium of food, Lucy's is a table with a cat and dog lounging underneath, and John's is a pepperoni pizza.


This is the "art gallery" that lines the wall as you go to the second floor of the house - just a mish/mash of some of our favorite paintings, drawings, and works of art. The beauty of it is that we just add to it whenever we feel like it - Dave manages to scale the wall with nails in his mouth while I hand him pictures and directives. Not exactly the safest way of hanging artwork, but it works.