This one’s for all you parents.
As a child, the budding young botanist Francis Darwin, son of one Mr. Charles Robert Darwin, seems to have tried a bit of drawing. A fine work, The Battle of the Fruit and Vegetable Soldiers, is to be found gracing the reverse of one of only 28 pages of original manuscript known to exist from On the Origin of Species.
Francis’ work, and its obverse, were considered good enough for the university library at Cambridge.
Granted, perhaps one might think that the reason this youthful effort still exists at all is simply because it was scribbled onto the backside of a draft of a famous and important scientific work. Some parents, however, may hold out for the idea that perhaps papa Darwin was proud of his son’s talents and hung on to what would otherwise be a piece of scrap paper.
What do you think? Would Papa Chuck have hung onto his son’s art? Do you keep your children’s artwork? How long do you keep it for? How do you store it? Do you take photos, scan and save, frame it, keep the originals in a box, or leave it in sedimentary layers on the fridge until the magnets fail? Would you consider immortalizing it as a bag, a blanket, jewelry or even wallpaper? (Soft toys too!) Do you wish your parents had kept more of your kid-art? And, most importantly, do you wear macaroni necklaces?
The ART Inquisition (or AI) is a question posed to you, the Mad Art Lab community. It appears on Wednesdays at 3pm ET… Make with the comments!
