For most of his life, Jones's artwork has been typified by being hastily done and monochromatic. In other words, he seems very uninterested in creating visual art. He just rushes through it to move on to the next thing.
By contrast, Freddie's art is usually meticulously done. Mrs. Shana at Clyde First Baptist taught him to not "scribble scrabble" when coloring, and it's a lesson he took very deeply to heart. He also uses colors a'plenty to create some of my favorite pictures on the planet.
Take, for instance, this beautiful drawing he did when he was waiting for last nite's Catechism class to start. Click on the video below the picture to learn more about the drawing.
After yesterday's watercoloring, I bought a frame for my new favorite painting. Freddie was SO PROUD to see it hung on the wall after his nap. In the video below, you can hear a little bit of the "Artist's Statement."
Neither of my boys has ever cared much for coloring, but in the last several days, Freddie has been bringing me typing paper page upon typing paper page of pictures he's "cuckored" for me. Generally, the pictures are of "the big, giant fair," which you and I know better as "Dollywood."
I have some of these pinned up on the wall in my room and some on the refrigerator door, which, of course, only feeds the fire of his fine art frenzy. He'll come in to my room in the morning, white page flapping in the breeze behind him:
"Ma-ma! I cuckored for you!"
He BEAMS when I praise him, does my Little Mr. Words of Affirmation.
Today, he took his cuckoring to the next level.
We were at the Allens' house. Joy pulled out her girls' watercolors for Reagan Moore to play with. I told her initially my boys probably wouldn't be interested. Then, Freddie found out what was going on, and he was up to his wrist in washable paint.
To be honest, I was ASTOUNDED with the final result. I was so astounded, in fact, that we stopped at Toys R Us on our way home to pick up some paint of our own, AND I'm planning to FRAME his first watercolor, because I think it's BEYOND awesome (as 3 year old's artwork goes),
Also, I'm biased.
Jones "paints" me plenty of "pictures" with the characters he creates and stories he tells; they're just not the kinds of things I can hang on the wall and put in a picture book, so Freddie's new fascination suits me just fine.
Apparently, the impulse to photobomb your brother is innate.
Neither one of the boys seem to be big on creating - at least not in the traditional sense, at least not yet. They're not much for coloring, and when last we tried it, Play Doh held ZERO interest for them. Knowing that, I'm not exactly sure why I thought that they'd get a kick out of finger painting. Chalk it up, I guess, to the facts that I HAD finger paints and that I needed a new activity to add to our regular routine of playroom, park, poor-man's-trampoline-in-the-den.
For the boys' first painting "adventure," I stripped them down to their drawers (having lived with Freddie long enough to assume this would be necessary). I then laid out three half-size pages of poster board, dotting one with three dollops of paint and assuming the others would be used, one each, by the boys to create masterpieces that'd hang in our home - or, maybe, Daddy's office! - for years to come.
"It was their FIRST GO at it, if you can believe that," I'd tell people, as they commented on my boys' remarkable artistry.
But.
That's not exactly how things played out.
Neither boy understood my instruction of "Paint HERE," even after I demonstrated it multiple times. About six seconds after they'd been out there, Freddie stepped on the pile of paint and wiped out, ending up wearing paint on way more than just his fingers. Then, he tried to EAT the paint, prompting a calm-but-cautious, just-in-case phone call to 1-800-CRAYOLA where a VERY helpful lady assured me all of their products are non-toxic.
Non-toxic or not, Freddie's "mees" was just about more than Jones could handle. So, after Jones practiced some of his Wildcat cheers (specifically, "C-A...;" we're hoping he'll have the "...T-S" down in time for football season), we headed in for an unplanned bathtime that was prompted by the fact that, ultimately, Freddie preferred painting on himself to painting on the paper I gave him.
Maybe playrooms and parks aren't so bad after all.
(The backstory to these videos is that, the nite before, I'd turned on my UK Pep Band music, which Jones hasn't heard, since Draft Nite in June. As soon as he heard it, he said the "C-A..." of "C-A-T-S" completely on his own ... AND on the right rhythm. I tried, unsuccessfully, to get it on video as it happened, but of course, I couldn't. I'd thought maybe I could if I played the Pep music while they painted. Instead, Jones was more focused on Freddie than the music. I did, however, eventually get his "C-A" on video, though it wasn't on rhythm. Oh, well. Here's a transcript of what Jones is saying at the beginning of the first video: "Oh. He mees. He mees on da piggies. He mees! He mees on da piggies! Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh. He mees. I keen up, Mama. I keen up.")
