Art & Nature Collide

I've always been a fan of collage and when I wanted to bring my son "down a notch" after playing football in the living room I thought it would be great fun to scavenger for our project. Even in sunny California, Fall is in the air with leaves turning color and littering the lawns. My son has always enjoyed collecting nature's treasures - pine cones, leaves, sticks, and rocks. The inspiration for our collage project was Fall's leaves and in pure Rauschenberg-style we were going to paste them onto our canvas and go at it with paint. I may be slightly biased, but I believe my son, even at four, has great color sense. He continually inspires my designs with his uninhibited use of color. After I glued on his leaves to the paper, I let him go crazy with the paint. He was not afraid to try different color combinations and even blend two or more colors together to see what you get. And I believe the final result is rather grand! I love the blues and greens (perfect for a Spring 2010 spacedye palette) and the plums, purples, and reds (just what I'm cooking up right now for Fall '09!) Painting can be such a zen experience and can easily calm the savage beast, that being my son, who lately is all about sports. But, as a designer and mother, I want to instill a little balance and make sure he has a creative outlet as well as a physical one. And the boy could not be more proud as you can see in the photo. Confidence is golden!