The encouragement of an artistic creative and expressive mind of a child is a delicate process if the in depth analysis of so many is to be believed. I have a personal theory. As I am an artist, not a child psychologist I am stating my own personal views based on how my own parents, Faced with a child of ten years old who wanted to draw 'a lady with no clothes on' as her very first attempt at an oil painting, Was given the very best encouragement of all, my parents didn't raise an eyebrow, for the early 60's that was a phenomena in itself. Still a little hide bound by the 50's Victorian influenced attitude towards females and female artists in particular. My parents gave me ......support.
My father took me on a journey through the library and the art museum and left me see for myself the 'ladies with no clothes on'. I saw Fransicos de Goya's , The Nude Maja, Paul Cezanne's , Seven Bathers, Venus of Urbino by Titian, all were as it where, laid naked before my eyes. I stayed a little longer around a depiction of The Veil a beautiful sculpture, my hands itching to touch and smooth this amazing substance. Then Greek Mythology gave me cartoon like depictions of Venus, Athena and more and the early TV displayed Anthropology films of beautiful women, gloriously naked from the waist up dancing African tribal dances with abandonment.I gloried in the research involved. Never realising how well this journey would prepare me for adulthood and my eventual involvement in the processes of 'real art'. I was inspired further by my own experiences of naked female flesh. I had my end of year health check and saw my school friend naked.........
I processed the thoughts and the memories and realised I had been inspired by my Mothers magnificent chest, my aunts and my friend , also aged 10 who had developed a very prominent chest ahead of so many of her peers. Stripped naked before us all for the obligatory end of year health check with the school doctor, she had hidden herself in embarrassment. My Mother had been horrified at the absolute lack of privacy for this developed young girl and had firmly turned me away from my fascinated view of a pair of breasts on a 10 year old girl, In comparison my 'two backs' display of lack of figure had disappointed me greatly.
My desire to paint a 'lady with no clothes on' was finally understood...breast envy! I had wanted to be like my friend, like my Mother and my aunts, on the very brink of puberty I had been haunted by my lack of breasts and my lack of understanding in those bygone days had expressed itself in the art I depicted. I drew every girl with Boobs! I drew females, never males, I was expressing in the only way I could, words failing me, that I wanted to be a grown up and rub shoulders with adults and be..............me.
The ten year old me was inspired, I painted her, inhibited only by my lack of expertise. I sculpted her in sand on Rhyll beach to the amusement of many , I made her in paper mulch and I drew her once more when I was 43 and laughed and laughed at the memories of my budding (then) artistry and blessed my Father for never once inhibiting what was possible in my child's mind.
The creative mind expresses the inner views. These days my obsession with the female form at that time of my life would have been analysed and understood. But as a parent, I genuinely never inhibited my children's art, I tried instead to analyse what it was they were saying, and that brought me to this article on the creative mind, or the search for a blue cat.
Let's Pretend:-
Your child has just drawn their very first cat, and painted it blue.
What do you say?
The answer will tell you what you have done to your own child s creative mind.
If your words would be 'cats' are not blue darling' and you hand them a brown or black or a 'normal' cat coloured crayon, you have just instructed your child's mind to stay within acceptable parameters as defined by yourself and that step leads to the peer pressured realms of staying inside the boundaries. You murdered the first seeds of creativity and you are responsible from that very comment for instilling in your child one single thought...I must be a realist. Exploring what could be, what might be, what may be possible, is dead because you damned them with faint praise.
What if.........................
What if you exclaim how beautiful the cat is and what an amazing colour. Then you have given your child the gift of expression, exploration, enquiry and exhibiting freely their own concept without criticism...well done you.
It would be even better if you and your child then found a way to look for a blue cat, to have a look on the internet, teaching and learning about the research abilities on the internet and safe children's sites and who knows, you might actually find a blue cat.................in the teeth of all decriers and in the teeth of all those who originally thought 'what cat is blue?' A visit to the local museum, the library, the art galleries on a quest In Search of the Blue Cat.
At home the beginning of the quest has one query, What books has your child been reading? Red Cat Blue Cat by Jenni Desmond has a pretty big blue cat on the cover,Puff the Blue Kitten from The Little Golden Book series is a fairly in your face blue cat, Erika Lebarre illustrated Blucy by Julia Dwek with a very large blue cats face...your child is not necessarily influenced by the cat next door, perhaps the childs own library has begun the influence. Your child is displaying memory, recall, and creativity all in one small painting.
One has to ask 'does your child watch cartoons?' the blurring between reality and cartoon, for a child is not unrecognised by the media. Chaos is a blue winged cat in the TV Aladdin series, Peg and Cat has a blue cat, Doraemon is a blue robotic cat from the series of the same name. Furrball is a greyish blue cat in Tiny Toon Adventures,Gumball Watterson stars in its own series as a blue cat,His mother is also blue Nicole Watterson by name,Oggy in Oggy and the Cockroaches is an adorable little chubby blue cat, Proud Heart Cat is an amazing turquoise (still in the blue palette) from Care Bears, Finally (for now) Tom Cat that beloved of so many is the anthropomorphic grey/ blue cat always in trouble.
The dyed in the wool realist can discover the British Blue and Russian Blue are actual breeds and when viewed the coat has a blue tinge which is very observable, that is one aspect of the journey the creative mind would absorb.
The fact they sell for anything between 80 - 1000 GBP per kitten dependent on their pedigree is another string to the original questions.
Of course cats in art itself, that is famous cats; are prominent in the works of Koontz, Baselitz amongst others but a blue cat, now that's another journey. Mind you, having found that cats are actually famous in paintings, especially the Victorian era where the obligatory cat was painted on the laps of many a females portrait has already begun to open the eyes of both child and adult has it not?
But a blue cat, we are now searching for validation of a real piece of art with a blue cat and a famous painter.
Clicking on images with the search term 'blue cat' reveals hundreds, nay thousands of images blue cats, cats painted as the Mona Lisa, Cross stitch patterns for blue cats. Water colours, Oil paintings, Acrylics. Sculptures and papier mache creations. Cats with blue flowers for eyes, but the predominant theme is BLUE and CAT.
It is in Renoir and his famous Sleeping Girl (Girl with a cat) one sees the depiction of a young woman lying slumped back in her chair, a cat on her lap.its definitely blue, Franz Marc painted Two Cats Blue by Yellow, Suddenly your budding artist child is no longer a 'stupid child, cats are not blue' your child is a budding prodigy, rubbing artistic creative shoulders with two great Masters of the art world. You have been on a journey in fascinating research, discovered cartoon characters, paintings and truthfully explored and found sources for Blue Cats beyond all expectation. The broadened mind of the adult in you, now harmoniously joining with the creative genius of your child's beautifully nurtured, expressive and creative energies.
Your child's blue cat is rubbing shoulders with some pretty amazing artists, creative minds who are unafraid to push a few boundaries.
So maybe now, you could make a cat out of paper mache ? air dry clay...go on...explore.
paint it , of course, BLUE.
So if your tempted to tell your child...there are no blue cats and pass them the brown crayon..DON'T
SMJ artist and I now paint naked men ...so there!
