The Art of the Heart
Last year I posted a piece about the childhood experience of exchanging Valentine’s in school. That post focused mainly on store bought cards. The other side of that experience was the times when we were allowed to make our own cards.
Art instruction was not a regular course in my grade school. It was more of a filler when time allowed. As best I remember, we had maybe one day a week when we could do art. That wasn’t often enough for me, but I took what I could get.
i drew this little “kid-made” heart on a whim, trying to mimic the free and fun style of a grade school aged artist. As noted last year, our Valentine’s were mostly store bought, but I’m sure we made some for our moms, grandmothers, and maybe the teacher. I seem to recall the routine where you fold the red or pink paper, cut out the half heart shape, and unfold the paper to reveal the symmetrical heart. Violå, a Valentine.
A Bird in the Hand
The other seasonal favorite was the Thanksgiving Turkey. Put you non-dominant hand flat on the paper, draw around it, carefully going in and out around the fingers. Add a beak and the thing hanging off the chin. Feet, a wing, and then color. The rainbow of colors on the tail feathers was mandatory. As I had never seen a real turkey outside of a roasting pan, I really thought turkeys had multi-colored tail feathers. When I did journey to the country, probably at around age 11 or 12, and finally saw a live specimen. I was sorely disappointed that the fowl was rather drab.
Again, I sought to replicate my standard six year old hand bird (see above).
What childhood art do you remember making? I’d love to hear all about your experiences. Please leave a comment, or contact me through this website. I’ll be sure to respond.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you! I’ll await your art memories!
Be Mine ©2017 Ed Koehler Turkey in the Sun ©2017 Ed Koehler
My public grade school (transferred there from parochial school in 2nd grade) offered many different kinds of art instruction. My earliest memories were using bold and bright tempera paint on the floor on large rolls of paper. In 4th grade, we did weaving on a stiff kind of grid given to us, using colorful yarns and strips of vinyl. I also remember doing papier-mâché using coffee cans as a base. One very interesting project from 5th grade was learning some embroidery basics. We used burlap, yarn, and large blunt needles and learned to do some real embroidery stitches (satin stitch, blanket stitch, chain stitch to name a few. I earned my Girl Scouts needlecraft badge with that one, and I still have it.
Then, for 6th-grade camp (a week long), we used wood burners to burn our art onto our wood-covered camp books. During camp, we enjoyed making more papier-mâché over balloons filled with water, and the ever-popular Gods-eyes.
Valentine’s Day was always going to be great, as we got to decorate the shoe boxes that we brought from home to turn them into valentine mailboxes. Such great times, and all those experiences with art helped contribute to them!
Wow Linda, you had a lot more fun art in grade school than I did. We did make a papier-måché animal in 7th or 8th grade. A toothpick sculpture, as well. By 8th grade we delved into perspective drawing and a bit of figure drawing. I don’t think the art classes ever occurred more than once a week. We did a lot with crayons, but I don’t think we painted much. A little tempera from time to time, maybe. You public school kids did a lot more. Sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks for reading!
I remembering making a book cover for The Trumpet of the Swan in second grade…prob cause I kept it in my box of special things. I continuously drew comical mice in middle school too- on the uneven beam, jumping rope, etc. And let’s not forget how I wrote my name in kindergarten! Love, S T E ❤️️ P H
They sound fun. I want to see them. Maybe you can turn the comical mice into a series or book. Thanks for reading.