Artistic Differences

I feel like we have always celebrated the girls differences as much as their likeness; and boy are their differences really starting to show!  We are trying to incorporate art into their daily lives.  Doug is musical, and athletic, both of which I am not.  I am not artistic either, so I am not sure if I am living vicariously through them or if I am trying to make sure their creative sides are being granted room to grow!  I do think being surrounded by people who love art, and who have made their living related to art inspire me.  So Jenni Mackey, Laura and Matt Davis, this post is for you guys!

The other week I decided to break out the finger paints (I feel as though I should do this more often!), and put the girls in their long sleeved smocks.  Set them up at the kitchen table with two paint brushes a piece, and 18 hole egg carton cut in half so each child gets 9 "cups" for paint and mixing new colors etc.  I fill each girl's carton with 4 colors (blue, red, yellow, and green) and then let them go to town.  WOW did the differences in their artistic style show immediately, and so pronounced that I couldn't help but laugh the entire time! 

Isabel was very neat, and meticulous.  Very intentional about each dipping of the paintbrush to get new paint; trying her hardest not to accidentally mix the colors.  Then she would paint straight lines down the paper being very careful not to mix the paint strokes there either.  She took great caution to not get paint anywhere on herself or the paper, or worst of all on the table.  She worked diligently and for quite some time on a single piece of paper, not wanting to start new or move on to another painting when asked. 

Alexa was the exact opposite!  She started slopping paint from one "cup" to the next creating a lot of "brown" paint, then scooping and slopping as much a paint as possible onto one sheet of paper making it so wet with paint I thought for sure it would rip.  She started moving it around with her hands, first the insides of her hands on her palms and fingers, then the tops of her hands, and eventually she started trying to pull up her sleeves to paint her wrists and arms.  When I told her to paint the paper, she decided to rub her hands on her face to smear the paint there too.  Then she began transferring the paint from her hands to new sheets of papers making hand prints and then trying to turn them over, next she leans in and is trying to touch her face to the paper to get paint on her face and then press it to another spot on the paper to make "face prints".  The table in front of her is just covered, and then I look down and so is the floor.  Her hair has paint in it, and most of her "paintings" were brown in color, and very little white from the paper was left showing.

When the painting was all done for that day, Alexa had 10 paintings and Izzy had 2 or 3.  Izzy washed her hands in the sink, and used a paper towel to wipe any other paint that may have gotten on her.  I had to just carry Lexi upstairs and put her in the bath!  I could not get over just how very different their styles were.  Amazing to watch, and difficult not to mess with either of their ways!  It is my nature to want to "clean", so just letting Lexi go was hard for me to do, but I am trying my hardest to let her artistic nature flourish.  To help encourage this I am trying to set up an "Art Center" in our basement, where I don't have to worry about what gets marker, or paint or chalk on it.