Tenacious art

Whether it's drawing cartoon characters or carving pumpkins, art is huge with my kids. My son was carving his pumpkin the other night and it was all detailed and creative and he was scraping and carving and it took him hours.

He said, while he was carving his masterpiece, "I'm never going to do this again."

I laughed.

He then said, "I bet I said that last year, didn't I"?

Smart kid! I laughed again and said, "Yep!"

Then the two of them (my son and daughter) got into a discussion about art. It was fun to listen to them discuss it. They sounded like a couple of adults.

I'm paraphrasing, of course, but it went something like this....

She: Don't worry if it isn't perfect. I don't get too bent out of shape when my stuff doesn't turn out perfect.

He: That's not true. You get mad.

She: Not really mad.

And then the really profound statement that stuck with me:

He: You have to be a perfectionist if you are going to be an artist. You have to notice the things you don't like instead of all the things you do like, otherwise, how are you going to get any better at it?

I had to admit that, although I am constantly telling them to not be so darn serious and have fun with their art, I just may have to change my tune. I mean, how can you argue with a statement like, "You have to notice the things you don't like....otherwise how are you going to get any better?"

Well, I still don't think they have to be perfectionists, just tenacious. It worked for my son!

Besides, "tenacious" sounds "artier" than perfectionist!

Dawn