Portrait of an Artist

It is so cool that at Oliver's daycare, they do real art activities. I got to witness it in action on his birthday this year. I posted some photos to The Oliver Chronicles, but they had also taken these shots at school, where they laminated them, added captions, and hung them on the wall for a period.


He just had his quarterly "parent/teacher-conference" and "progress report" last week, so they sent home everything that he's created in his mere 6 weeks there along with these action shots. It's already quite a collection of original works, not including the valentine he adorned with his cute little footprints.

Of course, being as unsentimental as I am, I feel the conflicting sentiments brewing already. "Clear the clutter." vs. "Aw... my babies first fingerpainting". "If you don't use it, lose it" vs. "I wonder if I should use an acid free mat when I frame this crayon drawing".

And then my love for technology entered the picture and I thanked the heavens for the inventor of the affordable All-In-One printer/scanner/fax/copier that allows me to preserve his greatness in a format where it will actually get seen with relative ease. No, I'm not going to just pitch everything as soon as Windows tells me it's captured. We'll keep the hardcopy as backup, as I'm sure they will be worth something someday -- plus the scanner seems to be cutting off the edges a bit. But I do like the idea of scanning them in to create more of a catalog of work. Much more palatable for my organizing sensibilities. Plus, then I get to share them more easily with all of you. Please feel free to open the bidding at a level commensurate with Renoir.

With that, let me unveil The Winter Blues: A Frigid January by Oliver James Weinstein -- and for other great art, please see his Daddy's website (oh, wait, he doesn't have one -- Eric, get busy!):