Every Child is an Artist

The Twenty-Eighth Musing

Infants are born with a natural drive to explore and make sense of the world around them. They are curious explorers. It doesn’t take long for this exploration to turn to creative endeavors as they learn how to respond to auditory stimulation; think of a baby’s cooing and smiling as a mother sings to them, or kicking their legs when hearing music. Exploring their own uniqueness through mark making happens as soon as the infant gains control of their hands and it is a key sensory developmental step for children. It begins with clinging to the finger of a family member, touching their cuddly teddy bear, or rubbing their fingers in their food. Soon, a child is holding a crayon or marker and beginning to create their own idea of the world around them.

Recently I had the awe-inspiring opportunity to sit individually with children from age two years to twelve years and experience first hand their interaction with their budding curiosity and creativity. Each experience was joyful and wonder-filled for me.

Claire Cook, the two-year-old daughter of Mariah and Jeremiah Cook was a bit shy at first but had brought along a mark making in purple washable markers as a gift for me.

When seeing this and understanding her love of color and expression I realized that I should never ever think of this as scribbling again. Her understanding of shapes and lines going in various directions and her understanding of up and down and squiggles made me smile. And I realized that these are the same expressive motions made by many artists creating in abstract form. When Claire returned home, she created another picture that she said is a carousel – and I sure can see the circular shape of that merry-go-round with the horses and other creatures encircling it.

 Mariah, Claire’s mother, told me that Claire has known the names of all her colors since she was 19 months old, and that her favorite medium at this time is washable color markers.

One of her favorite games is I Spy and we were able to play a short game finding colors and shapes. As a two-year-old, Claire is filled with many questions that are helping her grow and expand her understanding of everything around her.

Claire is also beginning to understand spatial concepts and has an interest in 3D art, which has become one of her favorite things to look at when she is visiting The Smith Gallery. She is interested in the names of the objects and animals represented and loves touching them to experience the shapes. My bet is that she will be creating her own 3D art within a year.

Claire loves music and dancing and has her own blue guitar which she plays and makes up little songs as she goes along.

 

Her creativity is moving forward at a rapid pace and I’m sure the day will come when a beautiful artwork she has created will adorn the walls of The Smith Gallery. In addition, she may be a performer at one of the gallery openings!

Oliver Campbell is the four-year-old son of Rebekah and Andy Campbell. He is very interested in creating 3D and mixed media art.

 After seeing a windmill while on a family drive he began making his own windmills out of jumbo wooden craft sticks. And with the beauty of the autumn leaves, he has begun a mixed media piece with a thin stick, some leaves, and various pieces of cut construction paper, and of course the very important glue stick. This piece of art is being created in a workspace that contains his Mario Brothers game as he told me he likes them close by when he is creating.

When asked how long he has been making art he says, “Weeks, and weeks, and weeks.” Rebekah, Oliver’s mother, said that when he was a baby, just old enough to sit in a high chair, she would put some various colors of acrylic paints inside a plastic baggie and allow Oliver to squeeze the bag and create different color combinations. This type of exercise for a young child is both tactile and informative about color and color combination.

Pipe cleaners and straws can easily be turned into a necklace, or anything else that Oliver is thinking about at any given moment.

Oliver and his family enjoy walking in nearby Wildwood Park and many of his newer creations have been inspired by his nature walks. This beautiful tissue paper flower was inspired by sculptures of flowers that he saw while enjoying Wildwood’s Art in the Wild exhibition, entitled Nature Heals.

Another of Oliver’s favorite sculptures at Wildwood that is created from hanging pinecones is done in the spirit of shinrin yoku (forest bathing}. This piece inspired Oliver to come home and create his own concept of what shinrin yoku meant to him and he was exceptionally proud to tell me that he created this 3D piece in one day.

A break in the discussion of visual arts allowed Oliver to give me a demonstration of his drum and piano skills and he told me that he enjoys creating art when he listens to music.

In the short space of two years, it becomes apparent how exponentially children’s creativity and understanding of the world around them grows, including moving from mark making to using mixed media and 3D work. And it led me to wonder, “What next?”

Bowie and Cassius Auchey, seven-year-old twin sons of Tara and Caleb Auchey, visited The Smith Gallery for an afternoon of art discussion.

The first discussion centered around Sten’s painting, Wednesday. Both of the boys knew immediately that this was a portrait of Wednesday Addams from the TV show The Addams Family. In fact, Cassius had made a putty sculpture of Morticia Addams the previous week as part of his study of creating shapes, and how Morticia’s hair is a defining signature for any sculpture or picture of her.  Both of these budding artists agreed that Sten had perfectly captured Wednesday’s deep and brooding personality.

The boys are at an age that they understand the many different forms of art such as dancing, playing instruments, sculpting, painting, writing: art has become more than just painting and drawing.

Although they are twins, each boy has a unique personality and artistic flair about him. Bowie is a dancer and has taken classes in hip-hop and was more than happy to bust a few moves for me. Looking at an abstract painting by Gail Walden Coleman, he showed me the dance moves that he felt vibrating from the painting. He moves quickly with an almost kinetic energy about him. His favorite painting in the gallery is a painting by Ray Byram, which he said made him feel totally relaxed and chilled and reminded him of a particular path at Boyd Big Tree Preserve where the family goes for hikes.

This is an interesting choice as it shows Bowie’s other side which at times needs that relaxation and chill to ground him.

Cassius enjoys creating art, especially sculptures, as he enjoys creating these things for other people and is very proud of his accomplishments. He also loves creating vibrant abstract pieces that have flowing lines and colors. His attitude is that he can begin to draw something and he knows that it will turn out exactly as he wanted. His movement is slower as he creates an entire story, layers upon layers, with his artwork. He tells me that his art comes from inside his head and his heart. His favorite painting at the gallery is a beautiful soft watercolor of persimmons by Yachiyo Beck, which appealed to him because of the use of circles and ovals, its beautiful orange coloring, and the fact that it was a painting of fruit that he could eat because he was a bit hungry.

Both boys are also consummate Lego builders and have Lego building stations in their art area at home.

Sometimes the boys work in tandem creating a picture that although similar in nature will have a bit of their own personality coming through. The boys created these particular drawings which they worked on using their computers. Cassius drew a star eyed person that he says is his personal emoji and Bowie created his version of Gru from Despicable Me.

Even at this early age the boys are learning to mix their art capabilities with the world of computers.

A visit through Linda Williard’s exhibit in the Atelier gave the boys the opportunity to learn about the use of palette knives rather than brushes in creating textured art. Cassius immediately got the connection between the palette knife for painting and a trowel for laying cement. Bowie especially liked one of Linda’s paintings depicting a field of flowers as he said that it gave him the feeling that he could lay down in it and smell all of the flowers. Linda’s work is all accomplished en plein air style, which led to a discussion about the meaning of plein air painting and the fact that Linda is quite a prolific artist. Bowie thought it may have taken Linda two years to create all the works hanging in the Atelier.

The visit ended with Bowie and Cassius each creating a drawing that was reminiscent of their visit to The Smith Gallery. The drawings were then framed by Debbie Smith so each boy could have a memory of their visit and art interview.

 

A meaningful discussion of art and how it makes one feel came across in a huge way in the interview with Bowie and Cassius. I learned that yes, it is possible to have a deep conversation about our connections with art and our feelings, even when the conversations span across the interactions between three generations. We had a great conversation using our visual understanding and feelings of the art we viewed to make these connections between our generational gap.

Corinne Roller is the twelve-year-old daughter of Mallory Shelley and Nick Roller and attends seventh grade.

Her school art program is concentrated into one of the trimesters in the school year and her favorite art medium to work in at school is watercolor. But at home, in her spare time, she enjoys working in color pencils and creating drawings of people. Corrine feels that her mother, who is an artist, is one of her biggest supporters in her art. Her plans for her future include having her own business and potentially becoming an architect.

Although Corrine has her favorite mediums and elements in the art world, she is willing to try everything from painting and glazing ceramic pieces, creating her own coil technique pottery with various artistic designs incorporated, to making up a new game involving electric current and art!

Her creation of a new game was part of a science project and Corinne chose to create Strawberry Game Board. If you remember the game called Operation, this is a new spinoff and the strawberry was used as that is Corinne’s favorite fruit. Corrine cut the gameboard, her own design, from heavy duty foam core and began painting it and creating the various cutout areas to hold items that have to be removed using a tweezer that is attached to a wire which has an electric current from a back mounted battery. Each cutout area is lined with thin copper leaf and if your tweezer touches the copper leaf while trying to remove the object, a red light goes off.  Corinne has reached a new level in a young person’s development of creative process by combining her art background and knowledge and mixing it with scientific discovery in order to produce a piece of art that becomes functional as a gameboard using elements of electricity and art.

 Corinne’s favorite color is orange and she enjoys creating pieces using this color in its various shades and feelings. Her understanding of color values has taught her that a brilliant orange is energizing while a darker rust color orange has a feeling of depth and grounding.

Corinne has her favorite paintings at the gallery. One is a small painting of vibrant orange flowers which she says makes her feel energized and another flower painting which because of its paleness and implied serenity brings out a calming influence that adds to a feeling of relaxation. Her conversation already has shown that she connects emotions and feelings with color and understands how that principle works in creating art using different colors and color values.

Corinne and I discussed how oftentimes the artist may have a different feeling while creating a piece of art than we, the viewer, experience while viewing and she understands that this disparity is not important because everyone is getting a feeling from the piece of art that is important for them.

Another of Corinne’s favorite pieces at the gallery is an all-yellow painting by Craig Bomberger which she interpreted in various ways, from clouds, to storms, to water – all things that may not necessarily be examples of the color yellow – but again, she has the depth of understanding that color and form can be mixed in unexpected ways to create a piece that speaks to many people in many ways. She has grown to understand that unexpected colors can be used in order for an artist to convey various emotions by representing things in colors that are different than we see in the world of nature.

The discussion led to techniques that are used and how texture in a painting can add emotional depth and perhaps even a deeper connection.

My conversations with all of these artistic, deep thinking, and beautiful young people impacted me greatly. There is only a ten-year span between little Claire and pre-teen Corinne but the growth is amazing, not only in understanding creativity, but also in emotional maturity and depth. I know that a large part of this is because all of these young people are being raised in homes where art holds an importance and a child is actually the conduit of where the artistic and intellectual voice of the family heads. Each child is loved and accepted and spurred on to explore any and all areas of interest to achieve the well-rounded young adult that each of these children will become. Our children are the future of the world and these five young individuals will lead us forward to a brighter world. My sincere thanks to these amazing families!

The Smith Gallery offers services to customers for in-home consultations on art and furniture placement to assist you in exhibiting your collection in a pleasing and cohesive style. The Smith Gallery can also work with customers to procure an artist for a piece you would like to commission for your collection. Stop by the gallery, email Debbie@FineArt2U, or call 717-774-4301 to set up an appointment.

Visit The Smith Gallery to view more art by the artists shown in this musing, and many other talented artists whose works are also featured.  View the YouTube channel ArtTalks2u for The Smith Gallery Artists Talks with many of the artists exhibiting in The Gallery.  Make sure to follow The Smith Gallery on their Facebook page The Smith Gallery & Fine Custom Framing and online at FineArt2U.com to make sure you don’t miss any upcoming events.

The Smith Gallery & Fine Custom Framing has added a new feature to their website. In honor of their 37^th anniversary in business, you can now shop for art in their online gallery.