We love preschool. We love it mainly because Alexa loves it. She has blossomed so much in the past month, playing with kids her age, learning new things, and, most of all, being encouraged to create on a daily basis. She has gone from drawing circles and lines to drawing “people” and “palm trees.”
And I, being the proud parent, am loving every little doodle she brings home. It tickles me to see how her minds works and to ask her questions about the art she has created.
I’m taping Alexa’s art all over the walls of our living room. I see it makes her proud when I hang up one of her creations. Eventually I’d like to curate my favorites and frame them, so that they have even more prominence (example of what I’d go for here).
I’m trying to remember when the cultivation of creativity dies.
Is it in junior high? Is it in high school? I know at some point along the way to adulthood art is discouraged and we steer ourselves in different, more profitable, directions. Maybe the uber talents continue, maybe they receive the lion’s share of the support. The rest of us eventually stop taking art classes and forget how to draw or create with a pen/brush/crayon/marker/glue and paper.
How sad.
Creating is powerful.
The candle that burned out of me in junior high is being reignited by Alexa. She urges me to collaborate with her. I draw boats. She embellishes the sails. I sketch out Jake and his Neverland Pirates with her markers. She admires them and says, “Wow, Mama, that’s Jake! That’s Cubby!”
She thinks my art is amazing. That I created something that should be admired. Honestly, from the extent of her praise, you would think I were Picasso.
Shouldn’t we all feel that way? That we can create something worthy of awe, even if just by a few people?
I go back to that very early feeling of drawing princesses with long veils and pink dresses. To the time in junior high when I drew a pretty accurate self-portrait. To the times when my friend Angie (a truly talented artist) and I used to sketch in our notes back and forth to each other.
At work, I feel painfully shy when it comes to sketching out art ideas, but I think it’s something I need to get over.
We’re all artists. Art inspiration is just beneath the surface. We should tap into our inner talents again.
