THE WILD GARDEN OF OUR CHILDHOOD

This is a drawing of a person done by a child. Many might find this drawing charming or cute, but I’m more curious of our opinion of the process. Consider how we tend to judge artwork and apply that consideration to this drawing for example? We may believe that this drawing is not a good representation of what a person looks like, and we might conclude that it’s lack of sophistication is due to the fact that it was drawn by a child. But if you consider that the child in questions intent was not to impress your notions of what their art should look like, you may begin to see this drawing differently.


Take a moment to consider what a child sees when they interact with people. They look into their eyes that are in the face. They speak from their mouth that is in the face. They hear from ears that are on either side of the face. Everything they know and see of people is in the face. Arms are there to bring food to the face and legs are there to get the face from place to place. Satisfying the needs of others does not motivate them. They are depicting their perception of what is important in the illustration of a person. The torso does not define a person; it’s the moments of engagement and tools used in those engagements. This is what is missing from our perception, as we grow older. We begin to have a need to impress others with the result of our search to communicate ideas in an excepted format. But that limits us. We edit ourselves out of reaching our creative need to find the wonderful. The richness of things we feel we can’t express in an exceptional way. How many of us have had something wonderful to share and not had the words to express them. Is it a lack of words or a preserved notion that others may not understand our idea?

We need to strive to see the world through younger eyes. We need to live with the fearless sense of expression of a child. Stripping away the binding fear of judgment will clear the path to innovating ways of seeing our creative potential.