art projects

I don’t know why I give into the boys’ demands to paint. Maybe it’s all the fond memories I have of eating paste in kindergarten, the childhood joys of tempera painting on large easels, or maybe it’s just a love for both my boys and creativity in general. So I haul out whatever art supplies we need, prepare the project (in this case cutting out tree silhouettes), strip them down to their skivvies (because of course we’ll end up in the tub), and attempt to keep the boys patient as I explain what the general project objective is. Magnus gets it, and usually relishes these little projects. Gunnar, well… his approach, shall we say, is more holistic, more avant garde. Art should be smeared, smelled, tasted, and experienced.

Gunnar IS art. My child looks like an Indian warrior.

Objective: to use fingerprints to make leaves on the trees. I helped Gunnar a lot with this one.

What Gunnar thinks art should look like. Anyone want to put in a bid on the high chair tray? It’s fine art—as fine as some of the modern stuff they slap on walls at the museums.

My enthusiastically well-behaved painter. Well, he did end up with his hands totally red after seeing how much fun his younger sibling was having.

Update: I forgot to thank my mama for the fingerprint art idea. The boys loved it, and now I've got two cute little fall trees on the fridge. I always swore I would never have a fridge all cluttered with junk, but something about mothering demands that a child's artwork be prominently displayed on the refrigerator.