This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 10:54 am and is filed under Family Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
So I was inspired by last week’s series, in particular the post about television. My daughter is becoming a pretty creative kid, and I am fairly sure that Toot & Puddle has nothing to do with that fact. So on Saturday I decided we were going to shut it off and do something a litle more stimulating. I give you the “I.T.W.”
The I.T.W., or “Interesting Things Walk”, is basically a photography hike. I strapped on my Nikon D40 and she strapped on her Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera and we embarked on a long journey to find and document all things interesting around our neighborhood.
When I was in art school, we had a photography project in which each student was assigned a small section of a road. We were to photograph it, then return for a critique. The first round photos was all the same; street signs, building facades, trees, etc. Our teacher, Dennis Keeley, lambasted us and urged us to look more closely or “go deeper,” as he put it. By the end of the assignment the photos were terrific. There were homeless men, shots of unkempt, empty hotel rooms with drained liqor bottles in them and an abandoned, unexplained campfire. I tried to pass this lesson on Frankie during our walk.
“Yes, that’s a tree, sweetie, but what is interesting about it?” She ate it up and got some pretty damn good photos if you ask me. Let’s critique a few:
Her first photo was simply a textural study, clearly intended to stimultate intereset by focusing on contrast caused by strong horizontal and vertical lines.
Her next one (two actually), surprised me. She knows that we don’t throw fruit roll up wrappers on the ground because it will hurt the trees, but I was amazed that she so adeptly illustrated her commentary on the cancer that is humankind, and its apparent commitment to furthering the decay of Mother Earth.
I was impressed with not only the composition of her next piece, but also with the maturity she displayed by visually stating her opinion that, even though we are a free people, declining property values in a struggling economy bind us to a larger degree to the pursuit of the almighty dollar, effectively “fencing us in” to our mortgages and rental payments from which we may feel we have no escape.
And this one is just a pretty flower.
All in all it was a terrific experience. We had a great time and I have vowed to to it again soon. The interesting thing was that, when we returned home, TV was all but forgotten, and we spent the rest of the day doing creative activities, of which my personal favorite was Playdough for the simple reason that we made this and that it is totally badass.
So, yeah. TV off for a while. At least more moderation. She took her creativity seriously on that day, and I am pretty sure she can’t wait to do it again.
-Matt
RedSparks.com
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:53 am
“When I was in art school”?!
Looks like you learned from ol’ Dennis for a lifetime and are giving him a legacy through Frankie.
The two of you also show great talent in clay.
Barbara´s last blog ..Looking Over My Shoulder
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Matt Reply:
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:09 pm
@Barbara, Yep! Art school. Graphic design. And thanks for the compliment. That little sculpture has been something we’ve wanted to do ever since I lost a blog contest and didn’t win the movie as a prize. What blog was that on again?
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Barbara Reply:
February 4th, 2010 at 4:04 am
@Matt, I ALMOST commented about what a good sport you were about that contest.
Barbara´s last blog ..Stim-Sense
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February 2nd, 2010 at 11:54 am
I especially like the one of the homes behind the fence; very astute observer of capitalism at it’s finest, methinks. As you well know, I believe that tv is if not the devil than at least it’s first cousin, despite the fact that we now have it-but like anything, moderation is the key-and I think this is really an awesome way to achieve balance!
Kori´s last blog ..Weekend Recap
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Matt Reply:
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:10 pm
@Kori, Right? She nailed it. Wise beyond her years, that one.
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February 2nd, 2010 at 7:26 pm
i’m so proud of you both…i love the photos. let’s do it again, next time somewhere in the wilderness. i’m sure she’ll find plenty to shoot.
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March 1st, 2010 at 1:33 pm
I love giving my kids cameras and just letting them go. One of my favorite pictures was taken by my then four year old of me and my then two year old. It’s amazing, how we looked through his eyes. I still have that pictures framed, 8 years later.
Mr Lady´s last blog ..Now, I Just Have To Get Him To Stop Picking His Nose, And We’ll Be All Set
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