Portrait of the Artist

A few weeks ago, I bought Isaac some finger paints.  I’ve been dying to get some baby art and even bought a frame at Target so that I could display his masterpieces.  One afternoon this week when Isaac was sleepy but it wasn’t naptime yet, I decided to get our art supplies down.  Here’s a view into the bear’s artistic process.

First we tried an actual paint/stain brush I had lying around: clearly at fourteen months, Isaac’s ready, right?

 

 

That would be a big no: after promptly eating some paint (it’s nontoxic) and giving himself a red mustache, I took it away.  But suffering is part of the creative process--think of Van Gogh!

Then Isaac decided to take things into his own hands.  This method proved to be more productive—for at least as long as it took me to get a couple good shots.

 

We then added some water so that he could “texturize” his canvas.  Clearly, Isaac’s creative process is complex and labor intensive.   But he was happy to keep dipping his fingers in the water and paints until he decided that keeping the finger paints on the page was too conformist.

 

Thus the creation of his instillation art.  I promise, I did not do anything but document this image after Isaac threw the plate ‘o paints to the ground.  If you turn it upside down, doesn’t this look creepily like the signature of the villain Red John on that show, The Mentalist?

After about fifteen minutes, Isaac’s genius could not be contained by the high chair, which he let me know by ear-piercing shrieks and pointing to the ground.  But at least I got a couple works of art.  Should I start the bidding at $500?

While I was cleaning everything up, I noticed that the finger paints have a suggested age range quite a bit older than Isaac.  So perhaps we’ll put up the paints for a few months.