I suspect my parents are among the seven people who regularly read this blog, so I’ll just say up front that I don’t mean to hurt your feelings Mom & Dad, or make you feel guilty in any way for the mysterious circumstances in which the only surviving original artwork from my childhood, a small green clay frog that I “sculpted” in first grade, has vanished from Dad’s top dresser drawer (its last known residence). Inquiries into its whereabouts only seem to heighten suspicions of foul play. Was he in the wrong place at the wrong time, an innocent victim of your recent purging in preparation for downsizing? Or was his disappearance the result of pre-meditated malfeasance? I covertly collected hair & fiber evidence during my last visit, and we’re anxious to see what the forensic lab results reveal.
Don’t get me wrong – I appreciate that you continue to prominently showcase in your hallway one of the most embarassingly hideous watercolors that I painted in high school, but it’s the earlier masterpieces I’m more interested in. I feel a strange need to reconnect with my childhood self (though friends would claim that I do that on a daily basis). My baby book says my favorite pastime was to “draw and color”. So where are they? hhhmmmm?
If there are any parents out there reading this and feeling a twinge of guilt about what you just hauled out to the recycle bin, let me share with you this simple idea! Just turn your digital images of your children’s original art into archival quality, customized photo books. We got one for the studio as a momento of some of our favorite projects, and as someone who periodically orders photo books online, I can tell you that the ten minutes it took to select pictures to upload was easy compared to figuring out how to store all this artwork! It’s such a great way to memorialize your children’s artwork ~ a beautiful keepsake album as a gift to grandparents and even your children, to be passed on to future generations. I personally would love to have seen some of my grandparent’s childhood doodles.
Let’s face it, despite my tongue-in-cheek comments above, it’s just not realistic to keep every single green ceramic frog your kids bring home from school! And professional framing is not always an affordable option, particularly if they attend class at small hands big art ~ where we always feel a little apologetic about the oversized odd-shaped paper & canvas we are so fond of using. { Sort of. } And only taking photographs of their artwork may not be sufficient ~ where will those digital images end up after iPhoto crashes and irreversibly corrupts 5,475 images from 2001 – present when you innocently attempt to upgrade to the latest release? Just asking.
Now run back out to the recycle bin! And then go make a digital photo book!
A few favorites:
