In my experience, the most powerful result of me turning my entire home into one big workshop and my entire family developing into artist/makers is that is makes is possible for my family to understand (and practice) that we create the world. We are art-ing and making our way into the world we want. This feeling of ownership in the creation of the world starts at home and extends ever outward. It has NOTHING to do with being a professional, paid artist, and everything to do with having a mindset in the larger world of being actively participating and making and interacting as a way of creation.
We have a kitchen table situation and so I got a small inexpensive rolling cart which had a brief period of stowing the art supplies in an organized way and now is a crazy jumble of crayons, paper, paint sticks, glue sticks etc but allows for art to happen at a moment’s notice which then get hung on the walls wherever my four year old can reach. Things can be corralled back into the cart when done, at least after a fashion. So it looks a bit visually chaotic but also very lively. I’ve had to let go of the desire to neaten things up! I love the idea of getting art books to browse from the library going to add that to my list. One of the things I’m enjoying about my child growing (and that helps balancing missing her baby stages) is that she can and wants to do more art and craft activities (:
When we built our house in the Oakland hills decades ago, I dedicated one kitchen cabinet to art supplies—and it was stuffed! I wanted the supplies to be easily accessible, and it worked! So much art happened at our kitchen table. When our kids grew up, I finally cleared out the art cabinet—there are now plenty of other places to keep art supplies in the house—and the day I did it, I cried and cried. That cabinet held so much of my kids’ creativity.
The drawer that is now our spice drawer is still encrusted with clay and glitter and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
As my kids get a little older and not as immediately oriented around me and the activities I suggest, I find they are most likely to make art if they see me making art. They'll gravitate over naturally. They might create for a bit or a long time, and as you pointed out, they are always light and free about it. I loved this piece. Thank you.
I am embarking on a homeschooling adventure and have found myself collecting any manner of craft-able scrap to have on hand for when inspiration strikes. Organizing it all is my (ever unfinished and often unraveled) happy place. My kids’ creativity astounds me regularly and brings so much joy. My work-in-progress is joining them more often and really letting the process and creation be the point.
This is basically my entire parenting strategy in a helpful explainer: just keep making and the rest will work itself out. Now I have a link to keep evangelizing the gospel. Thank you.
Thanks, Courtney, for articulating so clearly the value of art making and creation. Instinctively I know it is important, but it’s good to innumerate the benefits and outcomes.
As a parent - and a teacher - I tried to provide materials, time, space, inspiration and feedback.
When my son was growing up we used the kitchen table (plastic tablecloth) and had a couple of cupboards dedicated to supplies. The insides and outsides of the cupboard doors were The Fisher Street Gallery.
I have kept a few small cards/works he made to use as bookmarks….and one tote of artwork:)
As my little one is turning two he has started asking me to draw things he’s into. It has been fun to draw for someone that doesn’t care if Elmo really looks like Elmo. I love when we sit on the floor and scribble or color together. This piece is a reminder that while I didn’t think I was bringing intention to this, I actually am. Thanks, Kelsi.
We have a big craft closet with easy access to a wide variety of supplies. We've done some projects together. I also think not over scheduling and having a fair amount of free time allowed more time to explore creating.
This is so spot on! Thank you for taking the time to write it. I am an artist and a mother with three young kids, and we do all of this. We started with a dining room table space because my studio was the spare room in the house and a protected one, but now I’ve moved the studio out of the house and my studio turned into their studio. They have their own practice, often after dinner or between school and dinner, where they go in, take a bin down, and make a mess creating things. I love that in their world, they see possibility everywhere. They make cards and presents for their friends’ birthdays and express themselves freely with materials. It’s so special. We are nurturing a hurting world in our own mother artist ways and making it a better place to be. Keep doing the good work—I will too. Xx
Love this. We're sadly mostly past the newspaper-covered kitchen table, but my teenage son now comes home after a long day at school to relax at his pottery wheel. :)
We had a table in the basement when my girls were growing up that always had some kind of art, craft thing going on. Shelving units were full! Besides buying paint and brushes, we bought things at the recycle store, collected nature things like pine cones and got paper from my brother who worked for a publisher. When I moved across the country I was banished from the room while my daughters lovingly curated all of the supplies into "give away" and "yes, you may move these to Seattle to your new tiny space." They still talk about it... Now I have friends and grandkids over to "do art" together using my many supplies. I heard recently to just make/create with what you have...right now we are planning to make cordage out of all of the dried iris leaves and dandelion stems from the yard (because I still cannot resist collecting:) and to make books with all of that paper!
I absolutely love this idea and wish I’d run across it when my kids were younger. I have one who loves art but gets super frustrated by trying anything new because he’s not immediately good at it (he got my perfectionism genes, sorry buddy…) and one who just doesn’t care and doesn’t even want to try. I’m getting some simple “how to draw” books and hoping to incorporate crafting time into our homeschool this next fall…we’ll see how it goes
Courtney, I love that you and your daughters are learning more and more about one another through creativity. What I constantly tell others is that you don't need a fancy studio to make art. The kitchen counter is just perfect. Or the top of the washing machine and dryer. I have made some of my best and most favorite pieces while working in my small bathroom on an open surface by the bathroom sink.
Creativity is also a beautiful way to resist. People talk about resistance and creativity as if they are two very different things. There are many ways to create as well as to resist. I resist by creating community through creativity. By encouraging others to find their own ways to express themselves, I offer them a positive path to strengthen their inner knowing and joy.
For my resistance and my creativity to be a lasting force for good, I must show up authentically. Creativity allows me to know my highest and truest self. We all have intrinsic gifts that can make the world a better place. Creativity is mine. It is the force I use to build community, bridge divides and spread hope and love.
For me, creativity is nurturing and is my touch tree. There is a sense of peace and hope found in tapping into our imaginations. Making art encourages me to move forward with the intention of creating joy and affecting change. I love that creativity accepts all versions of me as well as meets me where I am-whether it be the joyful me or the sorrowful version; it honors the present me.
Creativity is not one-size-fits-all. It can be bold or quiet, loud or gentle, public or deeply personal. What matters is that it comes from an authentic place. Whether through visual art, music, writing, singing, acting or storytelling, creativity offers a way to simply holding space for ourselves and well as for others. Creativity fuels me rather than drains me and keeps me moving forward. ❤️
In my experience, the most powerful result of me turning my entire home into one big workshop and my entire family developing into artist/makers is that is makes is possible for my family to understand (and practice) that we create the world. We are art-ing and making our way into the world we want. This feeling of ownership in the creation of the world starts at home and extends ever outward. It has NOTHING to do with being a professional, paid artist, and everything to do with having a mindset in the larger world of being actively participating and making and interacting as a way of creation.
"we create the world" lovelovelove
Love this love Ruth love you
We have a kitchen table situation and so I got a small inexpensive rolling cart which had a brief period of stowing the art supplies in an organized way and now is a crazy jumble of crayons, paper, paint sticks, glue sticks etc but allows for art to happen at a moment’s notice which then get hung on the walls wherever my four year old can reach. Things can be corralled back into the cart when done, at least after a fashion. So it looks a bit visually chaotic but also very lively. I’ve had to let go of the desire to neaten things up! I love the idea of getting art books to browse from the library going to add that to my list. One of the things I’m enjoying about my child growing (and that helps balancing missing her baby stages) is that she can and wants to do more art and craft activities (:
Yes, I'm on the letting go of neatening things up journey, too. Sending solidarity for the beautiful mess.
+ 1 on rolling art cart at home. studio on wheels
When we built our house in the Oakland hills decades ago, I dedicated one kitchen cabinet to art supplies—and it was stuffed! I wanted the supplies to be easily accessible, and it worked! So much art happened at our kitchen table. When our kids grew up, I finally cleared out the art cabinet—there are now plenty of other places to keep art supplies in the house—and the day I did it, I cried and cried. That cabinet held so much of my kids’ creativity.
The drawer that is now our spice drawer is still encrusted with clay and glitter and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I love this so much. Like the wardrobe, but an art cabinet as portal. And I can totally see you cleaning and weeping and it is so moving.
As my kids get a little older and not as immediately oriented around me and the activities I suggest, I find they are most likely to make art if they see me making art. They'll gravitate over naturally. They might create for a bit or a long time, and as you pointed out, they are always light and free about it. I loved this piece. Thank you.
I am embarking on a homeschooling adventure and have found myself collecting any manner of craft-able scrap to have on hand for when inspiration strikes. Organizing it all is my (ever unfinished and often unraveled) happy place. My kids’ creativity astounds me regularly and brings so much joy. My work-in-progress is joining them more often and really letting the process and creation be the point.
This is basically my entire parenting strategy in a helpful explainer: just keep making and the rest will work itself out. Now I have a link to keep evangelizing the gospel. Thank you.
See also the book, Young at Art. ❤️
JUST KEEP MAKING AND THE REST WILL WORK ITSELF OUT. I love that so much.
Thanks, Courtney, for articulating so clearly the value of art making and creation. Instinctively I know it is important, but it’s good to innumerate the benefits and outcomes.
As a parent - and a teacher - I tried to provide materials, time, space, inspiration and feedback.
When my son was growing up we used the kitchen table (plastic tablecloth) and had a couple of cupboards dedicated to supplies. The insides and outsides of the cupboard doors were The Fisher Street Gallery.
I have kept a few small cards/works he made to use as bookmarks….and one tote of artwork:)
Love the idea of naming the cupboard. As artists, we take ourselves seriously before the rest of the world does.
As my little one is turning two he has started asking me to draw things he’s into. It has been fun to draw for someone that doesn’t care if Elmo really looks like Elmo. I love when we sit on the floor and scribble or color together. This piece is a reminder that while I didn’t think I was bringing intention to this, I actually am. Thanks, Kelsi.
Need tattooed on my face: Let go of perfection or completion.
We have a big craft closet with easy access to a wide variety of supplies. We've done some projects together. I also think not over scheduling and having a fair amount of free time allowed more time to explore creating.
This is so spot on! Thank you for taking the time to write it. I am an artist and a mother with three young kids, and we do all of this. We started with a dining room table space because my studio was the spare room in the house and a protected one, but now I’ve moved the studio out of the house and my studio turned into their studio. They have their own practice, often after dinner or between school and dinner, where they go in, take a bin down, and make a mess creating things. I love that in their world, they see possibility everywhere. They make cards and presents for their friends’ birthdays and express themselves freely with materials. It’s so special. We are nurturing a hurting world in our own mother artist ways and making it a better place to be. Keep doing the good work—I will too. Xx
Love this. We're sadly mostly past the newspaper-covered kitchen table, but my teenage son now comes home after a long day at school to relax at his pottery wheel. :)
Dreamy.
We had a table in the basement when my girls were growing up that always had some kind of art, craft thing going on. Shelving units were full! Besides buying paint and brushes, we bought things at the recycle store, collected nature things like pine cones and got paper from my brother who worked for a publisher. When I moved across the country I was banished from the room while my daughters lovingly curated all of the supplies into "give away" and "yes, you may move these to Seattle to your new tiny space." They still talk about it... Now I have friends and grandkids over to "do art" together using my many supplies. I heard recently to just make/create with what you have...right now we are planning to make cordage out of all of the dried iris leaves and dandelion stems from the yard (because I still cannot resist collecting:) and to make books with all of that paper!
I absolutely love this idea and wish I’d run across it when my kids were younger. I have one who loves art but gets super frustrated by trying anything new because he’s not immediately good at it (he got my perfectionism genes, sorry buddy…) and one who just doesn’t care and doesn’t even want to try. I’m getting some simple “how to draw” books and hoping to incorporate crafting time into our homeschool this next fall…we’ll see how it goes
Courtney, I love that you and your daughters are learning more and more about one another through creativity. What I constantly tell others is that you don't need a fancy studio to make art. The kitchen counter is just perfect. Or the top of the washing machine and dryer. I have made some of my best and most favorite pieces while working in my small bathroom on an open surface by the bathroom sink.
Creativity is also a beautiful way to resist. People talk about resistance and creativity as if they are two very different things. There are many ways to create as well as to resist. I resist by creating community through creativity. By encouraging others to find their own ways to express themselves, I offer them a positive path to strengthen their inner knowing and joy.
For my resistance and my creativity to be a lasting force for good, I must show up authentically. Creativity allows me to know my highest and truest self. We all have intrinsic gifts that can make the world a better place. Creativity is mine. It is the force I use to build community, bridge divides and spread hope and love.
For me, creativity is nurturing and is my touch tree. There is a sense of peace and hope found in tapping into our imaginations. Making art encourages me to move forward with the intention of creating joy and affecting change. I love that creativity accepts all versions of me as well as meets me where I am-whether it be the joyful me or the sorrowful version; it honors the present me.
Creativity is not one-size-fits-all. It can be bold or quiet, loud or gentle, public or deeply personal. What matters is that it comes from an authentic place. Whether through visual art, music, writing, singing, acting or storytelling, creativity offers a way to simply holding space for ourselves and well as for others. Creativity fuels me rather than drains me and keeps me moving forward. ❤️