documenting a slice of time that i know i will remember as quinn’s artist phase of 2011… before finishing his oatmeal in the mornings, he is already at work, skinny markers and stacks of paper at the ready.
loving the facial expressions i’ve been catching… intense concentration.
riding a horse
another of him riding a horse, plus mama running. (i love how he is centaur-ish in this one!)
the four directions? a mariner’s compass? “a circle with an x marks the spot, and my name!” this one is so profound to me. may he always be so well oriented to his own compass!
dada will say things like “he has the clan memories” (see clan of the cave bear if you’re wondering…) he drew this owl with a broken leg (again, blew me away the way he drew the leg like a lightning bolt!) and he drew his dagger and knife, both in their sheaths, with which he could help the owl mend its leg and set it “three” again.
i didn’t even get the full story on this one- but does anyone else see cave drawings?
more petroglyphs?
this “aminal” has four legs, many eyes, and eight “milks”.
a bird with an insect in its beak and a fish in its talons. later, he clarified that the insect was “a squid”. well, alright then.
“a festibal!”
he has also been drawing a lot of airplanes lately, making up all sorts of configurations for propellers and wings… (he has been doing some careful cutting with scissors lately, he cut out a very small apple drawing for me one day, and also made me a new phone that he cut out very precisely, since my phone was broken for a few days…)
another plane, flying above a boat that appears to have (possibly) mama and dada on board, towing a small boat with a person that was likely going to be quinn… (my guesses- i think this one did not meet his expectations and he moved on to another one). the big boat contains three bunks.
another version of the 3-bunk sailboat
mama, dada, quinn, and a lot of dwarves!
our happy jack-o-lanterns! (you can see their candles inside. they are each perched on a mason jar, as we had them propped up on our table for a few days…)
He is really good!!! Zoe almost cried today when she realized she could not color like her sis. Can't wait to get our kiddos together sometime soon.
LOVE his drawings. Isaac hasn't taken to putting marker to paper so well; he's more apt to draw on himself…or suck on the marker. I'm so over that; he's FIVE. LOL.
He did pull out the paints and paper roll yesterday before I was even up because he wanted to paint me a "beautiful picture" and that he did. He called it, "6 Slithering Snakes". It's lovely.
Happy to see your boy in his element. I LOVE it when kids get that concentrated look on their face. PRICELESS. xo
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There is so much there to love. The "festibal" and "aminal" with "milks" are especial favourites.
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These are wonderful. So good to document. For Col too, it is either drawing or Legos these days.
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thanks for the comments, mamas! i was pretty sure this one was for grammy and aunties and maybe wouldn't be a popular one, but i think it's interesting to us all for some reason… i've heard lots of people talk about how kids progress through, say, certain types of figure drawing, the first being a head with legs, then more and more pieces are added on until you have bodies with belly buttons and the like. and onward from there!
lol debbie- quinn never ate marker, but i do have pictures of him with entire limbs of his body colored or painted. he has colored on the floor with green marker this past week, and also in a library book yesterday (steve solomon's growing vegetables west of the cascades!) thankfully in pencil that time. oy!
crystal- quinn wouldn't touch this stuff for long periods of time, because he'd be so frustrated about what he couldn't do… i think this past year has been a big deal for him in developing the concept of practice, and knowing that if he keeps working on something, he will get better at it. it's helping him not be frustrated at not being good at things yet. but he definitely took his time arriving at that place, and still revisits it occasionally!
These are wonderful. Felipe is also drawing a lot lately, and I love to capture his work. There is so much I love about Quinn's pictures that I can't even funnel it down into a comment! The eight milks, the three bunks and what that represents about togetherness and family (Felipe recently drew a picture of his family, which included me AND Brentley AND Papa, along with Felipe), the intent to help owls with injured legs… amazing. In the same way a spider web is amazing: it's exactly how it is, naturally. It's not exceptional – and yet that is part of what makes it so great.
yay! you're here! 🙂 yes you've articulated something that i have been having trouble putting into words- the natural/not exceptional-ness of it, and how that is what is compelling. i just saw felipe's drawing, too! i love that he included brentley, and of course, why wouldn't he?! yes, the three bunks really made me feel good, that quinn's inner idea of family, his family, is solid.
Art is the best! Keep those drawings and treasure them forever!
🙂 Teresa
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Wow! What a fantastic post!! Glad he is following his joy, that's what it's all about, yes?
xo
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[…] ~unschooling, the great big un- we know and love… i’ve never particularly liked the name unschooling, i’d prefer to identify by what we are doing instead of what we are not doing… because really when it comes down to it, unschooling is whatever you decide it is~ it can mean trying out things that mama might find completely repellent (plastic light-sabre!? oy vay. at least it’s second hand…) ~ it might mean checking in with your tribal roots (that second picture is hard to see: he’s stuck bird feathers into the head of his hand-knit wool penguin, and has made something resembling a sun-god out of tinker toys ~ unschooling definitely means sleeping when and where you want and need to, being open to the things your body needs and wearing clothes you find comfy ~ it might mean an entire month of doing nothing else but drawing and drawing and drawing and drawing…. […]