Made-Found Art--Childhood Crayons

These are not only a child's crayons, but my wife Patti Digh's childhood crayons, crayons from when she was a little girl, crayons used by her 5-year-old chubby-fingered self, working away at her art-filled world..  Saved for years by her mother, Patti's crayons now live here at home in a very tall chemistry beaker.  Our younger daughter, Tess, wondered today why nobody used those crayons saying that we should use them to make something "interesting".  And so we did. The crayons are art in themselves, collectively and individually--the closer you look at each one of these beauties, the more you see that they hold their own histories of color.

Comments

[Charles]

Now that is just beautiful.
In my own artwork, I have spent decades developing the qualities of my images so that they are interesting at every scale of viewing, from across the room, to nearly microscopic level. And now I see a child could do that with just a beautiful accident.

[John F. Ptak]

Thanks so much for such a beautiful observation--I'll tell Tess; she'll be thrilled.

[Rick Hamrick]

I love that each crayon clearly shows the change it has taken on as a result of contacting other crayons. Gorgeous tiny flecks of color, as each nubbin reflects which other ones it has been close to over the years.

If only we could acknowledge as easily the impact we feel from our contact with each other, and how it adds to our own beauty.

Thanks for this, John and Tessie!

[Jeff Donlan]

May I suggest a poster of that work of art. It is ordered and organic at once. The patinas on each crayon are indeed lovely. They are inexplicably fascinating.

[John F. Ptak]

Rick--very poetic, and I like the metaphor a lot. Jeff--I think that it is the child making art with a child's things that begins to take over, plus the objects themselves are gorgeous. I'll tell tessie.

[Intuitivebridge]

I love the little flecks of color, and I love that Patti's mom kept these little treasures, and that Tess took them out and created something beautiful with them.
I would make a poster of that too!

[Jeff Donlan]

So, John, I'd like to order one for the children's room at my library. Please invoice, Net 30; advise discount for volume. This order backed by the full faith and credit of the people of Salida.

[Ray Girvan]

Lovely. Thematically connected: see Luxirare's Edible crayons post http://luxirare.com/crayon/

[John F. Ptak]

Thanks Ray. You are correct about the edible crayons! (Quite a site, there--433 responses to that edible crayon post.)