Some of the best art in the world isn’t stored in museums. It’s magneted to refridgerator doors. Yes, I’m talking about fridge art and I will fight anyone who says it’s not among the best stuff ever made.
I used to laugh at those parents who had a fridge door full of crayon scribble scrabble on white construction paper. I mean, seriously, where was the perspective or theme that made art such a wonder to behold? Yes, I was more than just a little bit naive. (Old news, but ever notice how naive backwards spells Evian? You know, like the bottled water? Wonder what they’re trying to tell us?)
Right now on my fridge, I’ve got an abstract, multimedia piece by my youngest little dude and a surreal vision of a self portrait by my middle little dude. If 13 seems a bit old to still be producing fridge art, well, yes, it is. But I’ve managed to coerce both of my older little dudes into taking art classes as part of their eighth-grade schedules. That procudes some wild, pretty cool art. The self portrait of my middle little dude is, in fact, quite awesome.
Mostly, though, the fridge is taken up with art from the youngest little dude. I’ve got zombies 1-4 (different variations on a green-faced, red-eyed toothy monster staring out from the paper), and the aforementioned multimedia piece. That last is my favorite. For no reason, we both started talking about his art class and we decided to make something. We went and raided his mom’s scrapbook closet, which really hasn’t been used in years, but is still stuffed to the trim with loads of neat craft stuff. He grabbed whatever caught his fancy and then went to town. I loved the hour we spent just watching the little dude work, his tongue stuck out between his lips and fingers flying over his supplies.
If you get a chance, let the little dudes and dudettes go nuts and then display the work for all to see. They get a kick out of seeing their work out in the open like that and I think you’ll get a kick out of that.
– Richard
Tags: A Dude's Guide to Kids, art, Art Class, Art Classes, Art In The World, Best Art, Bottled Water, Construction Paper, Cool Art, dude, Dude's, Dudette, Fingers, Fridge, Grade Schedules, little dudes, mom, Monster, Multimedia Piece, Museums, Old News, parents, Perspective, Scrabble, Scrapbook, Self Portrait, Surreal Vision, Taking Art, Variations, White Construction, Zombie, Zombies