About a year ago I was having a conversation with a friend about the coolness of kid’s art. How awesome it is that they feel so free in the joy of creativity, while us adults are always getting caught up making things look nice. Their art always comes out so colorful. So honest. So raw.
We said “Why would anyone buy a poster or a print for their walls when they have access to little kids?”
And I read it.
And it was so much fun that I went on Amazon that night and ordered several more copies to give to friends as gifts (Dale and Nancy, pretend you did not hear that).
And since you are a friend, I am giving one to you too…
Want to try? Answer the following question in the comment box below:
Winner will be selected 5pm CST March 10, 2012.
Still on the fence? Check out Dan’s website WHAT MY KID’S ART SAYS to see what I am talking about. His latest entries are titled Horse Behind Rocks and Racist Butt Gun. Enough said.
I recently discovered your blog -somewhere in the ether- and let me say: you are a joy to wake up to in the mornings! (I have a nasty habit of checking my phone as I lay in bed, before getting up). It used to be a drag; reading news updates and emails before I’ve even peed. But now I know I look forward to a early-morning smile! 🙂
Anyway, the first art project I remember making as a kid was a sketch. I clearly recall sitting at my built-in desk in my childhood room with mint green walls, and drawing out the front of a building. It was a storefront. It had big windows and was on the street level of an old brick building. But here’s the best part, and what I remember most clearly: it had green and white striped awnings. They stuck out from the front of the building at an angle that I’m sure was impossible! And without supports, no less. But I thought that storefront was the coolest thing ever. It was possible based on Sesame Street? After all these years, I still don’t know… But coincidentally, I now own a small shop with big windows on the street level of an old brick building. …I have yet to get my awnings.
Growing up with a stay-at-home mom/former teacher there were art projects going on at all times. I suppose the most often attempted were our own Picassoesque drawings. According to my mom, every day when my father arrived home from work his first words were “we need to buy lots of stock in a paper company!” The three of us all became creative, art appreciative adults which we have shared with our children with the hope for continued family appreciation of art of all kinds. I am sort of jealous of Phoebe’s glitter experience. Glitter and my mom were not friends!
It looks fabulous! I must run over and check his blog.
My first memorable art project: a stick figure drawing of a centipede/dragon hybrid. I was 3 and I have a photo of me holding it up proudly.
What a cute book! I would love to win a copy… Let’s see… I think the first art project I remember was the one where you drew rainbow stripes with crayon, then colored over them with black and scratched a picture with a paperclip. I drew a unicorn.
Hi Aunt Peaches, I think my first art project in a formal setting was a folded paper hat–Kindergarten. Before that it was constant coloring and play-doh sculptures.
Well, as I’m a muse, I don’t get my hooves all icky and sticky, but my humom remembers gluing elbow macaroni onto colored construction paper. Me, I would have eaten it…paper and all!
a painted cigar box (yellow paint) with a currier and Ives snow print glued to the top. Christmas gift to Mom…1953…I was 5 years old.
I’ve been crafting ever since.
Donna donnasbusyhands.blogspot.com
I remember making a clay horse figurine. I think it was Kindergarten or first grade. I really, really, really wanted that horse to stand up, but being a little-un, of course I couldn’t make it stand on its spindly legs I had rolled out and tried attaching to it’s body. I remember my teacher lovingly telling me it might be better as a laying down horse, and helping me attach the legs to its body. I remember adding a “mane” by running fork tines down its back. I gave it to my Mom for Mother’s Day – she still has it, and I love coming across it from time to time! 🙂
I remember glueing macaroni on a piece of paper rather haphazardly. I think there was glitter too? Although my mother always talked about how i ate crayons as a baby, so I’m sure that wasn’t my first project 🙂
P.S. The blog was absolutely cracking me up! So funny!
My first memories period are of drawing with my beloved Crayola 64 count box. I nearly died when I got a 120 count box with a built-in sharpener. The first drawings all seem to be of my family and fanciful animals, which were immortalized on plates, tiles and ashtrays. The book looks fabulous – you all may be interested in the documentary called “My Kid Could Paint That.”
I painted a watercolor painting of our swing set in the back yard
Gah! I love this book! I was a big time color-er. My older sister used to draw pictures of barns, complete with silos and horses. I was obsessed with coloring these in endless variations and would beg her to draw still more and more farm scenes. I’m sure she loved it.
So, so funny!!! Thank you for sharing this. I was laughing so hard reading the blog. I’d love a copy of the book. My first art memory? A pencil drawing made in the backyard that I spent a very long time on (it was probably an hour but it seemed like forever at the time.)
Very funny stuff! My art projects were many. Perhaps the first that I recall / have evidence of still is the story that I told (transcribed by my mom but illustrated by me) about how I married my brother Noah and we had 32 kids. And we were king and queen of course. I think my brother was the only guy I knew! 🙂
Noodle art! What a fabulous book!
I’ve been trying to figure out a way to display/keep my kids’ art projects for years now. This may have inspired me to turn them into a book. Shutterfly here I come!
Best review I could possibly imagine. So happy that you enjoyed the book. Thank you so much!
Sand Saucers to enter in the local flower show.:)
I have wanted to make a book like this out of my son’s artwork for years! I love the idea of including a description of each picture too.
I just remember making cotton ball snowmen as a kid
I have always thought that kids are true artists and its the adults that un-teach them to express themselves. I would love to see the whole book!
What a cute idea. I remember coloring in color books with my Mama. She loved to color with me. I won a coloring contest in the third grade.
I had a set of plastic tiles that were different shapes. You fit the tiles into this pegboard to make mosaic designs. I would do that for hours. The only person who loved that toy more than me was my mom because it kept me quiet and out of her hair. I’m certain it inspired me to because a quilter in later years. I hope I win!
What a delightful thing! I remember having a sketch book that I drug around with me camping mostly. There is a particular sketch of a chipmunk on a stump that I remember very fondly. I will have to submit some of my children’s art to Dan lol. What fun! I will have to go add his book to my wish list. Thanks so much for the introduction to his blog.
~Jenn in the Grove
HILARIOUS! The first art I remember making was painting on big pieces of poster board in the kitchen while my Mom made dinner. Good times. I wish this guy had been around to evaluate my work back in the day. Hah!
My Mum was the epitome of the thin line between genius and madness. When I was a little girl and we would go up to my grandparent’s cottage, she would get lost in her paintings and would get things for me to do instead of bugging her. No kidding, I swear Aunt Peaches that she had a big brown bag of powdered asbestos that we used as a clay. Who cared about lung diseases back in the 60’s….as long as your kid wasn’t bugging you….that is what mattered. Or we would make rock gardens using aluminium pie plates…..which took about 5 seconds….get a rock, find some moss, some sand and it is done….. and I still miss her.
Tonight my 24 year old daughter and I are contemplating putting glow in the dark marker around our eyes…..
I drew a house, with attached gumball machine, atop a rainbow. Then it got made into a plastic plate.
I still have it, but my seven year old refuses to eat off of it because “you can’t put a house on a rainbow”.
philistine.
I can’t remember exact details. BUT…I know it was a picture of my family (including our cats), covered in glitter…lots of glitter…it was pretty much a glitter palooza. Seriously. I got like 3 baths afterwords and I STILL had glitter in my hair. But it was worth it. 🙂
What a cool book! Thank you for the chance to win.
My mom is a potter so I remember making pinch pots as some of my first art projects.
I remember lots of art projects. That is pretty well all I did on off time. Besides being sent outside to play. But, the thing that I first thought of when you asked what was my first that I remember……. well, my dad drove a white flower/bouquet delivery van at the time, I was about five or six. It was parked in the back. Anyway, I found a can of wheel grease beside it (with the lid off) and seeing as the van was white and huge and blank and “asking for it”, I painted a whole lot of stuff on the side of that van with a stick and that pot of wheel grease. Dad was not amused. What do you expect when you leave a huge canvas in the backyard with a can of thick goopy “paint”…