Art :: some structure is good lest it go awry

I admit I haven't had the kids do many structured art lessons lately. So, when they asked to paint the other day, I said, "Sure! That's a great idea."

MK's butterfly
So, we first talked about what they'd like to paint. Some nice ideas.


Jimmer's creation. He's seems to like creating geometric forms.

Not much variation from Mike -- Hey-ho, a truck!

Jimmer's stab at Kandinsky Circles. I like.

MK ended up creating this clown. Well okay, at least it's not a mime.

This is about when I left the room allowing the kids to have some "creative space" to work (or so I could go fold laundry).

Kathleen's newspaper clownHmmm...they ran out of watercolor paper, so they started painting people in the newspaper that they were using to protect the table.

Fairly benign, even slightly amusing.

Now, something about this just doesn't seem right. For Heaven's sake, those poor Chilean folks have suffered enough lately.

And these. Where did these come from?

Oh, good Lord! They found the obits. These poor people left this earth hoping for maybe a nice tribute and some lasting dignity. I'm so sorry.

I can offer no excuse for this.

If any of you poor souls see this, please know that our children really do like to pray for people who have left this earth. Also, Jimmer has been praying for a couple of guys for 5+ years now who he only saw once in the newspaper. Every night we hear prayers for "the guy who lives under the bridge" and "the guy who has one leg." Just a couple of guys he saw in the paper that touched him deeply.

He didn't paint them into clowns though.
Sorry about that part!