Saturday, October 15, 2011

a Not So Still Still-life

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. Pablo Picasso

I have heard this quote by Picasso so many times, but I've never been sure of what it means exactly. I think it means more than "kids make great  quirky little line drawings." It is more about kids having less restraints...


I have a still-life  at the beginning stages of design. I've gathered what I think are going to be the basic objects and they have been sitting on the floor of my studio. My 8 year old  daughter saw it and asked if she could arrange the objects. She played with the objects for a while and gathered more off my shelves. I was busy working on a drawing so I was not watching her activity,  but she was asking me questions. I remember her asking if it was supposed to be about Van Gogh because his sunflower painting was at the center of the objects. Her art teacher would be very happy to know that then she chatted about Van Gogh to me for quite a while while working away on the still-life.  

When I finally looked at what she did I was really surprised. The still-life was not very still. She set up several vignettes scattered around and they were all  in the midst of some sort of action. She has a little bird peaking out of a letter in a cafe sign, a bottle tipped over spilling out its invisible contents, another bird eating out of a tipped cup, and finally a ceramic maiden tucked in her covers for the night. 


I'm not sure what I should take from this but I think Picasso was on to something.





4 comments:

Crystal Cook said...

That is awesome. :)

Unknown said...

She is awesome. :-)

Marion said...

Will you be using the arrangement for a painting?

Unknown said...

No Marion. Although I think it is brilliant it does not fit into the biggest confinement of the 2-d artist: a pleasing arrangement in a rectangle!

She is seeing the still-life from all angles at once when she looks at it (hey, like Picasso) and doesn't really understand that it needs to be from one vantage point and fit into a nice little box (preferably a standard size).