Last night for Monday – Murals, we started out with this series of murals from the article Fun New Murals by ROA Utilize Tunisia’s Domed Architecture, then checked out 30 Wonderful Examples of Large Scale Street Art Murals!
The boys were blown away by the talent displayed in these murals. They couldn’t get over the enormous vastness of these paintings. We would count the stories of the buildings, and try to find a person nearby to judge how tiny they actually were in comparison to the size of the art. Ben was wondering how this even works. “Don’t you have to get permission from someone to paint over their windows?”
Scott started explaining how people actually pay an artist to do this. Ben’s eyes got huge. We started talking about the idea of a portfolio, a sampling of work, examples to show a potential client the types of things an artist can do. We talked about how maybe a muralist would start out with a really large canvas, and then get a chance to paint on a building that wasn’t in the public eye as much, somewhere to practice. And once he has enough samples, he may get the chance to paint on a really public building.
I pitched the idea of Art School as a way many artists develop their portfolio – because at Art School, they have all the supplies, and all the materials, and artists get to try out lots of different styles to really hone in on their gift. Ben didn’t even blink.
Here’s the thing. Ben has been resistant to art classes since he was a little kid (I mean littler than the 10-year old he is now). I don’t know where he got the idea, but he says things like “Art cannot be taught,” “You either are an artist or you are not,” “Art is in the Soul.” These are things I may have heard somewhere too, but I also realize the value of learning from the greats.
Only this year, Ben was willing to do a piece of art based on a suggestion. Up until now, if it wasn’t his own idea, it was not going to fly.
So, I’m encouraged that he may be warming to the idea of Art School. This EAT ART series might be our greatest idea yet!
Brilliant! I’m a dad of 12 kids and all of them love art in one form or another.
All my daughters (8 of them) draw and more than half are exceptional cartoonist–which is my first passion. My second oldest son is a master sculptor and he developed his talents by following people on YouTube and practicing relentlessly for years.
Only 10? Yeah, I wonder where he heard those sayings…and I’m not sure what’s true anymore or not. I’ve made a good living with my skills over the years–but never taken a formal class. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have profited by some formal instruction.
Thank you for the wonderful article =)
-Jaime Buckley
wantedhero.com
12 kids? I think I just passed out. Thank you for stopping by and commenting. I don’t think that everyone needs art classes. I definitely see my artist son as being incredibly self-directed and focused. But I think being open to learning from others makes for a more well-rounded artistic life. I know that my poetry developed to new levels when I started widely reading other poets.