You call THAT representation!?

It is not true that all kids like to color and that you just need a box of crayons and some paper and they'll go to town.  Crayons at a restaurant were always useless for me since my oldest, despite his name, had no interest in coloring.  it was actually kind of stressful for him.  He practically begged to not go to his first preschool (before Willow) because the teacher made him do "hard things" like "play with crayons."  Anyway, Kindergarten kicked him in the butt with constant fine motor development and writing practice and since then I have been tickled by his drawings of bears, cacti, and our family. Then this year his second grade teaching assistant taught the class about Picasso and Matisse and we got this:
A pig seen with his parts "all in the wrong place."  Then what's that red thing on his head?  His stomach?  "His hat," says Art. Naturally.

And this...

This was his Matisse-style interpretation of the aquarium of guppies at his classroom table.  He named it Reflection.





And here is a chameleon.  The class learned a specific method for drawing them and Art has drawn a whole bunch of them since then.


Lewis has less resistance about crafty stuff than Art did at the same age.  Lewis loves to paint lots and lots of swirly abstracts but still gets put off by trying to color or draw anything specific on his own.  He did make this snowman from pre-cut pieces at preschool and painted this Harvest Moon as well.  I'm sure it's a fine motor thing.  I've learned to let go.  Anyway, I am being showered with artistic expression now and very happy.