Most children draw and it isn't until about 10-11 years of age that they show any concern in regards to whether or not they are creating 'good or bad' art. These are the golden years of creativity, when everything that they show an interest in –or soak in from their environment- is played out on the canvas, paper, driveway, window and wall.My six-year old son Adam is currently obsessed with penguins and he has been drawing, modeling and painting them daily. My favorite iteration to date is a scene that he created from tissue paper, which he then glued to his bedroom window. I am ashamed to say that my first reaction was to scold him, but before the words left my mouth I was suddenly struck by the detail and time that he put into it and so the scene remains there today (the image above doesn't show the snow clouds sending down colored snowflakes!). He is so proud of it, and for good reason. Sometimes I am embarrassed of my 'adult' mind-set.
I wonder what visions we, as nature photographers, might offer the world if we were willing to be a little more daring and less concerned about what our friends, editors and colleagues might think?
1 comment:
Bravo for your son and his love for penguins. How wonderful that he is totally into something like that. You raise a good point, too, about how younger kids aren't worried about what others think of their art. If only we could retain some of that innocence of childhood. Interestingly, I just read a post with a similar theme over at Rob Sheppard's Photodigitary. Reading the same thing twice in one night... there must be something here for me to really pay attention to and learn from!
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