Connor painted the deck yesterday. Which would have been helpful except that he only painted a small circle and used bright primary colours.
I’ve been wishing lately that he would play a little bit more independently, and this is what I get for letting him do that while not paying total attention. I guess that’s what happens when a kid with a wild imagination grabs his still-wet paint brushes and wanders out on to the deck while his mother is otherwise occupied in the kitchen (which has a clear view of the deck, I might add).
On a related note, “Don’t paint the deck!” is not an effective way to avert this type of DIY home reno project.
By the time I got out there, he had completely filled in a circular burn mark on the wooden deck. (You can ask my husband about that one.) A red streak across the top, the bottom half of the circle equal parts blue and green, and yellow interspersed throughout. It only took him about 2 1/2 minutes.
I took the paint brushes away, but he was not deterred. First he had to explain what it was.
“It’s a giant’s forest,” he pointed out. (And so it was.)
I thought that was that, but I underestimated his creative genius. As soon as my back was turned he was in the junk drawer grabbing a pencil, a felt pen and some sticky notes. Apparently the giant’s forest needed sign posts.
After the rain. (No artist’s art lasts forever.)
My mom, upon seeing the latest masterpiece, commented that it was actually quite pretty. It was, but I wasn’t so sure my husband would agree when he got home. Surprisingly, he didn’t care much. “It could be worse,” I think was his response, and I had to agree that he was right.
Despite my admonishments — “Don’t paint the deck!” was followed by “We don’t decorate the deck, okay?” — Connor was totally unfazed. It was as if his mother hadn’t just had a small freak-out about his choice of canvas.
But in the end, especially after a day of rain when (sadly) some of it has washed away, I’m feeling pretty unfazed myself. It really did look sort of cool, and he was so proud of his creation. I now look at it as a snapshot of just how creatively his mind works when my be-creative-but-only-in-this-manner guidelines aren’t in place.
And hey, at least it wasn’t on the walls.
***
Speaking of creativity, Energizer is hosting a Free Their Imagination contest from June 25 to October 1, 2012 involving hourly draws with over 2,000 Crayola prizes available to be won. For more details visit www.facebook.com/EnergizerBunnyCanada and check out the Free Their Imagination contest tab.
But that’s not all! I have a unique code to share with you that will give you an extra chance to win. That code is Paint. (Tell your friends.) And if you win something, please come back and share the resulting artwork with me.
Disclosure – I am participating in the Energizer program by Mom Central Canada. I received compensation for my participation in this campaign. The opinions on this blog are my own (but if some extra creative tolerance wears off on me it won’t be a bad thing).
