Young Artists

To the children's probable detriment, my parenting mantra is that if you read enough books and learn enough ball sports, then the world is your oyster. Doesn't leave enough (any?) room for arts and crafts, which I hated as a child, and don't have much proclivity or talent for as an adult. Fortunately the kids have Kate.

Their first artistic endeavour was finger-painting during my parents' recent visit. It was an unmitigated failure unless you consider eating the paint to be an act of artistic expression. When Jacob looked disdainfully at the paint and refused to touch it, my genes took a withering attack from his mother.

- Molly with evidence of her paint eating

- Jacob willing to smile at the paint, but not to touch it


Next project was decorating the gingerbread men, which to my eye was a bit beyond their capabilities, but their mother was unfazed.

- The twins appearing unfazed as well

- Molly wondering if it will taste as good as finger-paint. Jacob giving me the "Dude, you're kidding me. Does mama realize I'm 16 months old? What does she expect me to do with this thing?" look.


The final project was to get the twins naked, roll them around in paint and encourage them to roll around on a canvas. You're hoping I'm kidding. Trust me, I wasn't present for this one.

Reminiscent of Yves Klein, except he did it with nubile young women - ah the French are clever. As an aside, the linked video above must be one of the few on Youtube with full nud*ty (not that I've conducted extensive research).

Anyway, the twins' project was deemed such a success that the work is now hanging in my parents' kitchen. Not that they're biased either.


And finally, for the diehard fans, here's a video of the gingerbread experiment.