you are, you know

"friends get along", coleen, age 4

When I was in high school, my summer job was assistant teaching 3-5 year olds at the local art museum. It was the perfect job for the consummate art loving babysitter. If I took anything away from that job it was one thing {actually two, when mothers drop off a screaming child, they really do stop crying once you're gone - within about 3 minutes if that helps} it was that EVERYone is an artist. That means you.

tanya, age 3

This is how I know: At the start of every 2 week session, each young student was so adamant for us to know, when we'd ask,

who amongst them was an artist,

that they were 'an artist'. In fact you could see it in their physical energy as they half stood, half sat, legs still crossed at the ankles, jabbing their rigid little arms into the air with ferocity and deep conviction. 'me!, me!, me!, me!' They'd yell.

desh, age 6

And later, when projects were well underway, and little hands were elbow deep into a 5 year old's rendition of Joseph Cornell’s, "A Pantry Ballet" {a shadow box with dancing lobsters in tutus} arguments would break out over who was copying whose work. For each artist understood, viscerally, that never would their be another piece as unique and perfect in its self expression as their very own.

I'm not sure what happens to most of us a few years later, but something tells us, at around age 8, that we're not artists.

madeline, age 5

Several years later I saw one of these students at a party. I told him that he was once in my art class. He blushed, and said something like, "No way, I'm terrible at art. My mom must have forced me into it." And the funny thing is, he was the kid that often needed time outs for being so proprietorial over his creations.

ingrid, age 4

And so while my other friends were doing much more enviable jobs, such as swingin' their whistle, atop life guard stands. I challenge them to tell me, what life lesson that summer job taught them {ok, besides it's preferable to wear a higher spf than baby oil}

At the risk of sounding as if I'm trying to be a wise elder; on this Monday, I encourage each of us, to go out, create without self criticism or doubt. You really are an artist and always have been. Art, Design etc, it's all self expression and never right nor wrong. Choose your medium of choice, and go for it. Express yourself in the most uniquely 'you' way.

all art in this post {except the photo above} is from theblog weemade- a user generated showcase of the art of children.

scan and post your child's artwork or your own from when you were a kid.