Hazel’s Art Gallery

Hazel is my little artist.  She really truly loves creating things, and has such a spunky little style that is all her own.  She’s fascinated with art and artists and styles.  She’ll look through art books and sort of copy things, but add her own little flare.  Her favorite ap on my iphone is one that quizzes you on different artists and paintings.  She enjoys art museums.

I love it.  Love love love it.  And I want to indulge it.  The question is, what do you do to help your child pursue his/her talents.  And, how do you even know if it’s a talent, maybe it’s just a passing phase, or maybe I’m just an overly proud parent?  This last question is a larger question, one I've had spinning around in my head for a few years, and I don’t know the answer.  I want to be really proactive as a parent in helping my children pursue their interests and develop their talents.  But, there’s such a find balance between exposing your kids to things to determine interest/talent and over programming them with so many pursuits that they don’t have time to be kids…..but that’s a blog post for another day. 

So, I’m busy trying to find ways to nurture the little artist inside of Hazel.  It seems like a tricky talent to nurture…..I mean, it’s not like gymnastics or sports where they take specific lessons and learn specific skills and just practice practice practice.  I feel strongly that I want to protect Hazel’s own unique sense of style, and I worry that if I sent her to an art class she might feel pressure to make things look a certain way.  I remember worrying about the same thing when I enrolled her in her first dance class when she was three.  I loved her funky dance moves and didn’t want her to think that she had to move her body in a certain way to be a good dancer.  And you know what?  She did stop busting out those funky dance moves for a little bit as she was trying to nail the shuffle-ball-change….but once she mastered those skills the funk came right back (and it was probably a bit more coordinated funk than it had been prior to the classes).

So, any ideas out there for nurturing your child's inner artist?  Classes? Art exposure? Art camps (they have one that looks awesome at the MFA….but it’s $$$).  Good websites?

While I’ve been mulling this over in my head the past few months Hazel has been busy setting up her own little art gallery on our kitchen wall.  A while back I explained how art galleries work to her and the wheels in her little-trying-to-earn-money-head started turning.  Thanks to some very kind friends and a gullible little brother Hazel has made exactly $3.45 selling her art.  I’ve had to beat a few people’s offers in order to keep a few of my favorites for myself.