The Artist at Work

Clio brought home a backpack full of artwork today. This was a near-daily occurrence at her day care in Brooklyn; here, they save it up and, I think, edit it to the best or most representative pieces and send it home once every month or two.

Clio has always had artistic inclinations (upon seeing the recent still life of the rubber ducks in the tub, her great grandmother declared: "She'll be an artist"), but it's fun to see how her style and ability evolve.

I like her sense of the graphic, of pattern, and of negative space evident in these collages:


Her use of color in the tight abstracts that she's been doing lately, like this one:


And I especially like her attention to faces and figures.


She has been making figurative work for a while now, but I was still really struck by this piece, which looks to me a bit like a lion or scarecrow cross-country skiing.


When I showed it to Dave, he said something like, oh that's great- she made the Francis Bacon version of that in watercolors.


Indeed.

A few weeks ago, after I edited some of the collection (read: threw out the lesser examples. Yes, I THREW OUT some of my artistic child's artwork), I compensated by creating a special place for Clio to display her work. Oh, wait: that's revisionist history. Here's what really happened: Clio got her hands on the tape, and started taping up pictures on every available surface- each cabinet, the walls lining the hallway, her closet doors. Her dad was complicit in this, taping piece to the upper cabinets as well (unless Clio has figured out how to set up and climb a ladder), and my sense of order felt a little...assaulted. So we consolidated the remaining work (because the part about throwing some of it out is altogether true) and allowed Clio to choose some favorites for this rotating "gallery," the back of the half-wall that separates the kitchen from the hallway across from Clio and Eleri's room.



It always seemed like a natural place for artwork- it's essentially useless for anything else- but for some reason, I kept thinking I needed to install cork tiles and pin things up. Over Christmas, I saw a tape gallery in Carrie's upstairs hallway; I think that may have been the inspiration. However it came about, it's lovely to have a spot to display Clio's work, and I look forward to rearranging it with her, to give some of these new selections pride of place.