Homage Monday - Artists in Training

Children have an astounding capacity for art. It seems as though the world itself, this huge learning experience, is tangible to them through artistic endeavour. They are like tiny walking musicals. The rules that seem to bind a society into propriety do not apply and as much as children are sticklers for black and white, right and wrong, the idea that being covered in paint (or any media for that matter) from head to toe then breaking into song (and dance) would be abnormal does not occur to them. Yet. Thank goodness.

In this brief moment when we as parents, friends and pundits are training them to live inside the box (to  keep them happy and safe) they are blessedly on the fringes, balancing on the threshold of total freedom. Therein lies the rub. Teaching them to follow their bliss, but not into traffic. To nurture their artistic being, while shaping their social responsibility. To instill in them empathy, while maintaining self-worth. To teach a child to give of them self freely, without giving them self away.