But it's Art!

[radegund]

[cross-posted to radegund and plan_survive]

What do you do with a child's art?

Specifically, do you cull it, and if so, how?

Oisín's got intensely interested in art recently - since I bought him a better set of crayons, actually. Every evening we gather up the used pages and pile them on his bookshelf. The pile's getting bigger, and I'm torn. On the one hand, I have this blazing, whooping urge to retain every scrap of paper that my magnificent child adorns. On the other hand, he's pretty prolific, so if we keep everything we'll eventually drown in it - and that's without even considering what happens {if|when} we have more kids.

A lot of the time, of course, he asks us to draw things for him. I'm not hugely attached to pages full of niallm's and my hastily scrawled buses, lorries (he's big on lorries), houses, bikes, triangles and Linnea-and-Ailbhe-and-Robs, even if they are expertly coloured in by our young Leonardo. I do quite often set aside pages that are just by him - there's another little pile of these on my desk now, waiting to be mounted and hung. But the rest ... are still there. I haven't gone through the big pile on the bookshelf. In fact, if I'm honest, I've only ever once recycled any of his work - about six months ago. And it hurt.

What prompted this post, in particular, was that O had his very first unassisted painting session this week ("no, love, Mama's not painting today"), which resulted in 13 glorious pieces of untrammelled toddler art. They really are absolutely beautiful. Objectively. (It's not just me: I had them verified by an international panel of childfree misanthropes who live in leaky accommodation, suffer from piles, and can't get laid.) So I've consulted with Niall and bargained myself down to 6 absolute favourites to go on the wall, but what do I do with the rest? The thought of throwing them out actually makes me choke up.

Maybe a "cooling-off" file might work - wait until it fills up, then cull the earlier stuff. But that's kind of what the big pile is supposed to be, and I've a feeling I'd just silently avoid doing anything that would lead to actual, you know, discarding.

Any thoughts?

Comments

OMG KISMET

[jane-the-23rd.livejournal.com]

Because right this VERY SECOND, I am writing about the material context of the archive, and the archive as self-historicisation, and the historiography of all....that...shit...

Anyway, since I have all that shit on the brain, I would suggest you save the pretty stuff, and selections of stuff that you think actually says something, even if it's not 'pretty'. Like his first attempt to draw a tree, or the first drawing he described to you in full, or his first narrative illustration, and then periodic further attempts.

I would also suggest you ask him which ones are his favourites, and keep all of those, too. It might also be fun for both of you.

Then -- here's an idea -- you put the rest into a 'cooling-off' file, and periodically remove them and go through them with him, deciding together which ones to keep. He might also want to keep some of the ones you guys drew because remember, when he gets older, they might mean more to him than his own drawings, however adorable.

Another option is to put them into a steamer trunk, and eventually rent a storage locker, and haul them out to scare away his future girlfriends until you feel he is ready to date.


Am I talking mental here? This would be because I have written a total of about 700 stupid words today, and it's 6pm and I've been sitting here ALL STUPID DAY and am going CRAAAAZY.

Re: OMG KISMET

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

when he gets older, they might mean more to him than his own drawings, however adorable.

I think this is excellent advice.

I don't have a child, but I am an inveterate hoarder, and I advocate the method of chucking everything into a trunk, and going through it a few years later. I've always found that following a cooling-off period, my instincts of what to keep and what to bin are fairly sharply honed, and I'm able to be quite ruthless.

[socmot.livejournal.com]

Why not give some to relatives? You will eventually have to get rid of some of them, but I think maybe input from the Oyster himself here might help - would you have the same attachment to it if you knew that he didn't?

[ainetl.livejournal.com]

i use the cooling-off method before throwing anything. after that it's rather apparent what to keep and what not - a mixture of more detail, good memories, or in some way just very oisín. and of course any thing with a hand or finger print must be kept. after a little bit of time it will also be clear which pieces won't hold up over time, like things on thin newsprint.

kelli would get very upset if she saw me throw things away. not because she was old enough to know that i'm an artist and that i was possibly judging her work, she was too little. but she's always been quite the keeper and i'm the opposite. so i'd have to do it when she was asleep or not home, and she'd never notice since there was piles of it. now as she's older she's better at picking out what to keep and what not to keep, i always seems to have some spare frames around so things she's especially proud of i'll put up. and since i'm constantly rotating art work anyway she thinks it's completely normal for us to the same with her things.

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

a) You are hilarious.
b) Oisín is obviously a genius.
c) You're a better mother again! I have no trouble chucking out Gnome's excess scribblings.
d) This is the drawback of your faux-respectable faux-hetero nuclear family, you know. A couple more parents, and the problem is halved.
e) What kind of crayons? I need to get Gnome more as she's bitten the tips off all hers.
f) No helpful suggestions, sorry! But have you put name and date on the ones you really, really want to keep? I recovered from my mum's house a brilliant scrapbook full of infant artwork, but there are one or two which are unclear as to their origins (Animal's or mine? Sign of my early genius or just her showing off?) which is annoying. But the idea of my mum gathering this stuff and holding on to it for 25/30 years makes me cry, a bit. It's very, very valuable to me. But, NB, it is only one scrapbook, for two of us.

[pisica.livejournal.com]

Do they have Crayola here, specifically the box of 64 with the built-in sharpener? Because that is the essence of coloring, for me.

[pisica.livejournal.com]

Keep it all. Then move house a few times. By then it will get pared down through the natural force of house moves.

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

Scan everything and burn to CD. Keep a handful of physical ones. Throw out the rest. (Sorry!)

[londonn7.livejournal.com]

Ah-ha. I was recently the recipient of a lovely picture from my 3-year old niece E, who had done it in anticipation of my visit, presented it to me very proudly upon my arrival (always a big deal, since I am a rarity in Dublin) and was roundly praised for its magnificence. Do I know where it is now? Did I accidentally leave it behind, breaking her poor excited little heart?

Something tells me that my anti-clutter radar will need some serious adjusting if/when DrJ and I begin to propagate.

To assist? With these kinds of dilemmas I ask a future version of myself how I will feel about the decision in, say, 10/20/30 years' time. This may help....