Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat or Humble Beginnings

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” – Pablo Picasso

What are your earliest memories of making art? Mine are from kindergarten. In kindergarten, art time was my favorite time! I liked it even more than milk and cookies and way more than nap time. And crayon, of course, was the medium of the day.

When the slow clock on the wall ticked down to art time, each of our communal tables received a old, beat up, lidless but ornate cardboard cigar box, itself a thing of exotic, golden-edged beauty. Each box was generously stuffed with a jumbled mix of fat and skinny crayons in assorted colors and broken sizes. Thankfully, we were never given anything with a printed outline to color in. We each just got a blank piece of manila paper. During art time we were allowed draw whatever we wanted. Me, and the other boys around me, generally favored spaceships or aerial battle scenes of fighter jets shooting dotted-line streams of destruction at each other. The act of drawing was often accompanied by appropriate sound effects. I’m sad to say that have no memory of what the girls drew. Ladies?

A big part of the fun for me was selecting the next crayon out of the box. So many choices to be pondered over. I always favored the big fat black crayons for coloring in the night sky. And I loved the way the cheap, rough paper took the wax…

I currently live 50 miles from a decent art supply store. And, yes, I could shop online, however, I’m a special-case kind of luddite and I just won’t. But when I run out of my favorite expensive oil pastels, you know what I will do? I’ll happily plunk down $1.95 for a box of 24 crayons at the local grocery store. Joy untold!!! What is more creatively freeing than a medium that’s dirt cheap and that you don’t have to take too seriously?  Want to get your creative juices flowing but are intimidated by expensive art supplies? Get yourself a box of crayons. Daunted by that pristine white sketch pad? Grab yourself a paper bag.

Actually, there are some real Rembrandts working in crayon these days. You can easily view their beautiful art online. But don’t look just yet. First, take some time to try to remember what and how you drew when you were five. Draw that.  Make some sound effects too. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Kev