Friday, November 14, 2008

In Repeat


Stamp art from 4 year-old Nora. The way they create in those early years, my, my. I took a class years ago from a painter named Gene Davis, whose stripe paintings you may have seen in various museums. He was a very cynical, frustrated man who had become a prisoner of his success, those perfectly painted candy-colored stripes which he got very bored with after a while. He often said things like "Art is Dead." What he wanted was freedom to draw childlike drawings of animals, but it's hard to finesse the act of reinvention. Of course he didn't actually paint his stripe paintings, he left that job to clever young female assistants handy with masking tape. What a boring, odious job. I'd be much happier breaking plates for Julian Schnabel like a friend of mine did in the 80's.

4 comments:

Lisanne said...

Some awesome work by Nora!

Yes the art at the age is the best! As a current Art Education student I've learned that this stage is the "explorer" stage, they are "in the materials" and usually if they even do, name what they do after they are done...when they turn 6 they start to be a bit more self conscious, or so they tell me, they call age 6,7 "the deliberators"...i am a bit obsessed with childrens artistic development these days and enjoy when you put the kids art up!

amarilla said...

That's interesting. I'm really glad you enjoy the kids' work. I find it refreshing and spontaneous myself.

Matthew said...

I don't believe that usual "my kid could do that" line about art, because those kids never do "do that", but I have to say I like this work by Nora much more than 90% of the stuff I see in galleries and studios.

amarilla said...

True what you say, Thew. I'll pass on the complement to Nora, who's reading in a laundry basket right now, very kitten-like.