Make: Conceptual Kid Art

Hope everyone's Labor Day weekend was a fun one! I got inspired to do some "conceptual kid art" after visiting the John Baldessari print retrospective at the Legion of Honor.


Above: While the little one slept, I had a chance to zip around the exhibit and admire Baldessari's amazing prints, especially the ones with cut out noses and guitars.

I just loved that there was a print making space for kids to try their hands at some Baldessari'esque art. Above: museum staff experimenting with the press.



How fun would it be to take a black and white photo of your little one and have them stencil, paint, print their favorite motifs atop it? The work of the kids and adults who visited (above) looked awesome.

Since my little one is just four months and won't be able to craft for some time, I decided to do a sketch (above) instead. If you're wondering why I chose to have a beard motif, it's to commemorate his current phobia: beards! We discovered this at his recent pediatrician's appointment when he started hooting and crying (real tears) as soon as the doctor appeared. To the delight of the rest of his patients, our pediatrician has a full, silvery beard and is the spitting image of Santa Claus. But for my little one, he is the bogey monster. One day we'll be laughing about this, so I thought I'd create a beard motif that's supposed to look like a no-smoking/no-beard symbol.

I had fun with the sketch and I can't wait to try this on some of his photos.
above: John Baldessari. The fact that he's got a beard will be our little secret.