Creating Authentic Art with Children

12/16/2021

Creating Authentic Art with Children

I personally find inspiration in life’s 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows….Part of the artist’s temperament is that inspiration is possible in all things.
Marc Bamuthi Joseph, poet, dancer, playwright and educator

In the beautiful dual-language book, Treasures in the Thicket | Tesoros en el monte, one of the authors, Rosalina Rodriguez, reminds us how children’s art can be a window into their souls:

"When I look at the children’s paintings," says Rosalina, "I feel I can see the way they view the world."

This delightful book, which actually includes a complete copy of the children’s collaborative book, provides great insight into how to support children’s authentic self-expression through art.

The authors write:
"Although the paintings children created for the book were of animals, in some ways they were also self-portraits. Children painted windows into their ways of seeing, into their ideas, and into their identities…
We have found over the years that the impressions and possibilities glimpsed when we open our eyes in this way to children’s art offer us connections to children that serve us in our daily work."

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