Tuesday, January 31, 2012


Harold and the Purple Crayon has been in heavy rotation around these parts, and I must admit that I'm pretty excited about this new development.  Obj. #4 has been tearing through the paper bin, scribbling purposefully across a page, and then throwing it behind her on the floor as she dives into the pile for her next blank canvas.  By the end of a session, she's sitting in the middle of a volcano of color, most of it having settled in on her forehead, chin, and eyebrows.  


There's so much joy in the act, so much development inherent in the process, that I started reading up on the cognitive and emotional benefits of drawing.  There are so many!  Physically, socially, intellectually.  Along the way, I stumbled upon this little gem, "preschoolers draw what they know about the world, rather than attempting to capture a photographic mirror of reality. That is why we see drawings depicting both the outside and inside of an object at the same time (transparencies or x-rays)."  This phrase strikes a chord deep within me, and it makes me realize that really, we are all just preschoolers at heart.  Drawing our way through this world, projecting little microcosms of reality that are reflections of what we know to be true.  Sometimes, our truths accurately mirror reality.  But more often than not, we're just a bit off.  We overlap the inner bits of our own peculiar beings with the outside world, which itself is a mish-mosh of a billion other unique perspectives.  Every one of them packing as much vital information, intellect, release, relief, joy, hurt, and curiosity as one can possibly hold.

1 comment:

Scott Boyle said...

Beautifully written by a beautiful human. Object #4 is lucky to have inherited such exploration through creativity.