Legacy MattersWhen children are young, they are natural artists. Their fresh and open artistic expressions delight their parents and grandparents. Millions of refridgerators bear witness to their artistic creations. Sadly, as children grow older, their artistic drives dwindle and their creations fade and are thrown away. Some parents are determined to preserve their children's art. Some of the many ways they've found to do so are detailed in today's Wall Street Journal's Family Matters column by Hilary Stout, entitled Garden Gnomes Video Art.
There's the three-ring binder method, keeping all drawings organized by month in divider pockets and, at the end of the year, letting the child choose the ones they want to keep. Or, professionally matting and framing the very best. My favorite though is video art:
Jon Kies of San Jose, Calif., is a father of three and a self-described antipack rat. But still, he was torn about what to save and what to part with. To figure out what was most meaningful, he put his kids (then in preschool through third grade) in front of a video camera along with paper bags filled with their work. With the camera rolling, he interviewed the kids about each creation. "Often, when they started talking about it, they remembered much more than just the artwork -- kids who they worked with, issues about making it, and insightful remembrances about when they made it," he wrote. That made the decision of what to keep much easier.
For instance, Trevor, now 10 years old, explained that a drawing that was labeled chicken was actually chicken adobo, which is his Filipino grandfather's specialty and is one of the kids' favorite foods. A paper candle, a remnant of a classroom birthday celebration, prompted Trevor and sister Alyssa to break into a song.
And it turns out getting the kids on video in a spontaneous performance of "Mixing up the batter on the birthday cake" -- complete with the accompanying motions -- created a priceless piece of art unto itself.