Many things have brought me to this point, the point in which I decided to start a blog, it isn’t necessary or interesting for me to go into detail – let’s just agree the time is right. My goal with this project (the one I am blogging about) other than having fun with my son, is to celebrate his strengths and accomplishments while challenging myself as we work together within his abilities to make a beautiful body of artwork.
My work, ever changing, is currently a lot looser and freer than it has ever been, I’m enjoying that freedom to play and discover. Also I’m using more words, letters, numbers and symbols in my work; probably because, at least subconsciously, Cooper is learning to write. He seems to enjoy “making numbers” so we spend a lot of time after school doing just that. There are songs, rhymes etc, all designed to make learning to write more interesting or desirable for children, like many of the songs he likes to listen to, these number songs are forever stuck in my head.
In the past my painting projects with Cooper have been limited to making a present for a teacher or grandparent, or on occasion a complete free-for-all. He loves the tactile sensation of finger painting, which is wonderful, I love it too, the problem with allowing him to finger paint without restrictions is that the paint ends up on his face, in his hair, up his nose, in my hair, in my ear, in my eye, and this can all happen within a generous time frame of, say, 10 seconds. .. So we now use other things to satisfy that sensory need, lotion, shaving foam even olive oil in a pinch. And now we are painting with a brush, at least until he learns that paint really shouldn’t go up his nose.
So here we are, he’s painting with a brush, making numbers, I’m painting with a brush (mostly) and using numbers/letters, it seemed like just the right time to collaborate with him on a ‘body’ of work.
My work, ever changing, is currently a lot looser and freer than it has ever been, I’m enjoying that freedom to play and discover. Also I’m using more words, letters, numbers and symbols in my work; probably because, at least subconsciously, Cooper is learning to write. He seems to enjoy “making numbers” so we spend a lot of time after school doing just that. There are songs, rhymes etc, all designed to make learning to write more interesting or desirable for children, like many of the songs he likes to listen to, these number songs are forever stuck in my head.
In the past my painting projects with Cooper have been limited to making a present for a teacher or grandparent, or on occasion a complete free-for-all. He loves the tactile sensation of finger painting, which is wonderful, I love it too, the problem with allowing him to finger paint without restrictions is that the paint ends up on his face, in his hair, up his nose, in my hair, in my ear, in my eye, and this can all happen within a generous time frame of, say, 10 seconds. .. So we now use other things to satisfy that sensory need, lotion, shaving foam even olive oil in a pinch. And now we are painting with a brush, at least until he learns that paint really shouldn’t go up his nose.
So here we are, he’s painting with a brush, making numbers, I’m painting with a brush (mostly) and using numbers/letters, it seemed like just the right time to collaborate with him on a ‘body’ of work.
