At Home with Little Ones? Make Friends!
Below image from Brian & Wendy Froud’s Dark Crystal workshop
Making Friends with Little Ones
Enacting Creativity from Home
I often hear folks say that they’re not sure they’ll ever be any good at something new- as if time is against them. I hear myself say it, too. With so many of us required to stay indoors, and many with children who are now out of school, we have the chance to tap into our creative side, and possibly with a bit more time to spare. Creativity at this time isn’t for our bosses, or to be critiqued by teachers or professionals of any kind. It’s just for us. All that’s truly required is an interest and willingness to try. Whether you live in a house or a studio apartment, you likely have some basic art supplies such as string, paper, cardboard, markers, grocery bags, old socks, tape, pens, or even clay and wax. You can carve soap if you’re looking to create some fun bath buddies, or make food faces which could even successfully get little ones excited about vegetables (a broccoli nose or green bean eyebrows can go far). This is a good time to break the rules. Play with your food. Splash in the bath. Say yes to the mess. Keeping our creative sensibilities afloat will help adults and children alike, as so many of us find ourselves physically distant from friends, school, work, and our sources of creativity and play. We’ll have to embark on new ways to incorporate these important parts of our lives, and perhaps improve upon them, together. For children, this adjustment can be incredibly challenging, perhaps leading to more screen time than normal as parents struggle to make time to fill in for the absence of school and community. It’s a foggy moment for all, which is why these activities, when done together, can really lighten what might feel heavy or daunting.
Create backstories for your characters if they don’t already have one! Find out their names, and share some details about who they are and why. This can be a wonderful way to go inwards, and express our feelings in a way that feels safe. We may even understand parts of ourselves and our loved ones more clearly through the artful new friends that are made. To create is an act of bravery.
Here are a few individuals to gain some inspiration from:
ROSA RAMALHO
Portuguese Artist + Ceramicist
Rosa Ramalho, a Portuguese shoemakers daughter born in 1888 who later grew up to have seven children, is now remembered as one of her home countries most beloved artists. She crafted fantastical beasts, little demonesque creatures, and friendly magical beings from clay, making her world and the extended world around her abustle with whimsy. And she did this from age 68 onward. If you have a bit of used wax from worn out candles, clay from an art shop or nature, some good mud from outside, or even ingredients to make your own bread dough to shape and bake, you can create a new creature and then let dry for some new natural buddies to decorate, paint, or dress up if you so desire! This is a great opportunity to incorporate natural treasures, such as rocks, sticks, blossoms or crystals.
LALEH MOMEDHI
Melborn-Based Food Artist
Kids can be crazy picky eaters. Laleh Momedhi knows this firsthand, which is what initially got her interested in shaping foods - encouraging her son to eat them. Sometimes a little one will stab into a vegetable and say “what’s this?” as if they’ve discovered that you’re trying to covertly poison them. Instead of saying “it’s a mushroom,” you can say “that’s Spongebob’s pants, what are you doing, he’s going to be pantsless!! You better not eat that!” And because kids love to challenge anything that starts with “you better not,” they might just give it a go. Look, I don’t like Fortnite either, but maybe - just maybe - this could be a good time to lean into some of the things your kid likes, and meet in the middle. It creates trust, and compromise can be kinda fun, as it turns out.
JIM HENSON
Mississippi-Born Creative Mastermind
I have to make mention to my birthday twin (September 24th), Jim Henson. He was also born in Mississippi, which is where I spent the first few years of my babyhood. Do you know how he first made his most famous muppet, Kermit? Originally, he was crafted from a dilapidated coat and cut-in-half ping pong balls. Kermit went through a few different incarnations, beginning with basic materials found at home in 1955, and never drifting far from it. In fact, the Jim Henson company has always made a point to use recycled materials (often reusing parts of old characters to make new ones), as well as a variety of secondhand fabrics. The opportunity to create is all around us, if we’re willing to look beyond the ordinary like Jim was. He was rewarded with a lifetime of friends he made in his studio such as Kermit, as well as a real life community of supporters and craftspeople.
J.F. SEBASTIAN
Fictional Good Guy, Friend Maker
Poor JF. He really did his best to be a good friend to Pris and Roy. Even though he’s not a real person, I just had to include this sweet character from Blade Runner, one of my favorite films (and favorite Microsoft Windows video game, thank you 1997). When asked if he gets lonely living alone, he explains that he makes his friends. Let’s follow his lead, but maybe also follow our gut too when we feel like someone might be replicant. Social distancing, JF!
