5.31.2006

Ava Thursday: Self Portrait

Ava Thursday: Self Portrait
This has got to be one of my favorites. Ava drew herself in class earlier this year. She's very proud of it. In fact, I decided to ask her this week what she wanted for me to put up on Ava Thursday, and this is what she chose.

Not only is she proud of it, but I am too. I mean, how could I not, you know? I love how she drew everything as it should be: brown eyes, brown hair with bangs, cute smile with pink lips, red shirt, sweet little nose. I asked her if they used mirrors in class and she said no. She then proceeded to tell me all about her classmates' self portraits and how Jack made his eyebrows like this, and how Nate drew his eyes like that—all the while showing me, hands gesturing wildly. This was done several months ago and I'm amazed by how much she remembers little details of the other kids' drawings. Ava pays attention to such details. More so than me at her age, that's for sure.

And speaking of which, I'm amazed by her talent on a daily basis. She's grown so much as an artist in leaps and bounds, it's mind-boggling to me. And she's always drawing, too. Oh sure, Ava will take the occasional break and play with baby dolls or Polly Pockets, but it doesn't last long. She'll get right back on a drawing jag and suddenly Andrea and I will find ourselves with piles of crayon drawings and marker drawings and pencil drawings in our laps for us to go through and look at.

When I look at this picture, I see a child who is headstrong and happy and full of life. I see a girl who's wide-eyed and taking it all in. I see my girl growing up. I see the future.

9 comments:

  1. Brilliant! She certainly has an eye for space and colour. Well done Ava!

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  2. Oh! This is fantastic! You're right, Ava just keeps getting better... I say in two or three months, she'll be after all of our jobs! :D

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  3. Just the fact that it's in 3/4 view, not straight on, is amazing. I love her work!

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  4. I love this (of course). I love seeing how she views herself and I love that it seems to be so different from other drawings.

    love your words here, too.

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  5. Hahaha...cute. I like how the nose is off to one side. That little detail is so quirky. I'd rather have quirks over perfection any day.

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  6. i love this for several reasons. First, she has captured that cute little haircut so well. But second because of the details like the background color and the sweet little smile, which is just how she does it. i just keep looking at it because she really is so good.

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  7. Mom, you still look at me with that "What in the world are you talking about?" look on your face. Seriously, I'm so lucky to have a mom like you to have supported my interests back when I was a kid. Dad was too. I was the luckiest kid alive. And now, Andrea and I are trying to give Ava what I had as a young'un, and that's complete, loving parental support. Thanks, mom.

    Jared, you should realize that I'm grooming Ava to be my assistant. Expect her to be listed on imdb.com soon.

    Garth, I noticed that it was a 3/4 view as well-- very different from your typical self portrait by a 5 year-old!

    Thanks for all your comments, guys. I always let Ava know what others out there in the Internet World are saying about her work. She loves for me to read the comments out to her.

    I'm hoping that she continues to work in this vein, but Ava loves to draw cartoony characters in scenarios more than "realistic" stuff like this. I'm not going to push her-- she loves drawing so much that she'll bring her notebook around with her for several days straight. It gets kinda beat up, but I love that about her. She seems to enjoy drawing and the joy of looking at things all the time. That is something that cannot be taught.

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  8. Hey, your little girl is scaring me! She's really good! That's right--scary good. And you can tell her I said so(if it sounds like a compliment to her to be "scary good"--which is how I mean it!). : )

    I can't wait to see what she'll do next..I've always felt that way, looking at her drawings. It reminds me of my childhood-only I wasn't this good at her age!

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