There is a display of childrens artwork being exhibited currently at the main Melbourne railway station (Flinders St.) that ‘celebrates’ our wonderful public transport system and our wonderful city. Children from primary schools around the state have done a lovely job, and the colours certainly brighten up an otherwise dull plaza area.
However, there is ONE painting that supposedly comes from Gr 2 (that’s 7 yr olds) from a suburban PS that IN NO WAY KNOWN has come from the wonky hands of young kids (or even your average adult for that matter). It depicts a stylised city skyline, with buildings and people and freeways (and railways) that are PERFECTLY in perspective, perfectly drawn and perfectly coloured in. The ‘labelling’ on the painting appears do have been done by an individual proficient at calligraphy skills, and the ‘people’ in the pic are cleverly characitured. No kid had a hand in ANY PART of this piece, and I am really disappointed.
Disappointed that the teacher of these kids has lied about the source of the work. Disappointed that these kids from Gr 2 cannot really feel any pride in the fact that the work attributed to them has been considered good enough to be displayed. Disappointed for the other little kids who have put in hours and hours of work to have THEIR picture displayed, only to be outdone by this forgery, and VERY DISAPPOINTED that the ‘judges’ didn’t sniff out a rat when first presented with the piece.
All the other works appear to be age appropriate (with perhaps a little help from an adult with spelling and logo’s), but this one stands out like dogs balls. It’s not fair, and makes a mockery of the concept of integrity. What is this teaching the kids?
Oh, and I’m not JUST ranting…I’m leaving for work early this morning so that I can lodge a complaint with the PR people at the railway station.
When I was 7 I started my first oil paintings. I’d already taken lessons on perspective, lighting, anatomy, etc. I won first place in my local art contest, and received a small stipend in savings bonds
It’s not average for a 7 year old, but not necessarily impossible that it was drawn by a child. I haven’t seen it so I couldn’t accurately judge, but I wouldn’t put a realistically-drawn, grammatically correct calligraphy enhanced piece of art above the realm of a second grader.
I agree with the other posters- you really should find out the facts before you rush in with the accusations.
I still remember the very painful event of losing a drawing contest at my grade school although my drawing was far and away the best one in the contest. The whole class, along with myself, was shocked that I didn’t even get any kind of honorable mention.
Losing the contest wasn’t actually the bad part- the bad part was later that day I when was cornered by two teachers who did a tag-team approach trying to get me to admit that I didn’t actually draw the picture, that it was my parents who drew it. My parents can’t draw a straight line, but they wouldn’t believe me and kept grilling me about it. They finally quit when I started crying.
I can understand quite easily that an individual child or even a couple of children might be artistically gifted, but this work was attributed to a whole class. If the class had participated in the creation, there would be differences in the ‘quality’ of the piece, but this had the appearance of being done by the one person.
Sure, it could have been a grade two kid, but not a bunch of grade two kids.
Anyway, having another close look this morning, this painting did NOT win one of the prizes. It warmed my heart to see that first prize was awarded to a class of Prep children, and their work, while perhaps not anywhere near technically as good, at least looked like it had been done by a class of preppies having a good time!!
When I was in Washington recently I saw these paintings (done by kids) in a concourse, hanging on the wall, chosen by various senators to represent their constituents. I was somewhat amused when I came across one that was merely a enlargement of a photo I remembered that ran in National Geographic back in 1983.
I agree with others here who point out that some kids can show great potential and very young ages. Especially if they get into a “kids art” program, something similar to “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”. The progress that even really young kids can make is amazing.
Fairblue: That SUCKS!!! SUCKS!! How could your teacher do that to you! The bitches!!!
Joe L: Yes, I see this sometimes too (and not just among kids). They present some artwork and let everyone think it naturally flowed from their brilliant fingers, but all the while it was really just a transferred or traced photo. Not that this exercise can’t be useful for artists in some cases, but when they allow everyone to think they are artistic geniuses who possess great technical drawing ability—well, it’s more than a little pathetic.
I have a drawing of Sponge Bob done by my grandson, who is exactly 7 years old, and you can’t tell it from the real thing. It’s amazing.
A couple of years ago, yeah when he was 5, he was into Calvin and Hobbes and drew them almost as well. I guess he’s a child prodigy, I don’t know. He lacks ‘getting along with others’ skills, but he has a great talent.
The really kind of amazing thing is he doesn’t use a model, doesn’t have to look at a picture, he draws from memory.
Really a child to watch, but I wish he got along with others better.
Gus, well I hope not. He is just a little ‘mine, mine, me me’ kind of kid, which at seven going on eight seems a little old for that. He shares, but only when it’s on his terms. :rolleyes:
I should have stated that his dad (my son in law) is a freehand artist too, though I don’'t know when he acquired it. In addition, my daughter (his mom) is somewhat artistic. So the genes are there. Zachary (the son) is extremely intelligent, as is his dad. Almost too intelligent, if you know what I mean.
His teachers (he’s been to preschool, kindergarten, 1st and now 2nd grade) all praise him and want to call on him. Teachers pet, so he’s probably spoiled and maybe that’s why he’s so ‘me me me’.
He does have an extremely well developed memory I’ve noticed. Even when he was two or three you couldn’t confuse him by driving around in circles. He would alwasy remember where he was by saying things like: ‘Oh, this is where we ate that time’ or ‘Mom bought my crayons at that store’. Even at night, he’d remember. an uncanny sense of direction, probably a photographic memory, an excellent ability to draw, just wish the social skills would catch up.
Just for comparison, I snapped the one next to it as well. That was probably the second-most ‘good-looking’ of the posters - note that it was done by kids three years OLDER. Most of the others on display were far more basic.
It’s fairly clear to me (especially examining the original) that yeah, there’s no way this is the work of a Grade 2 class. I don’t think it was even coloured in by Grade 2s, let alone any more significant input.
OTOH, just to be fair to the producers of the Offending Poster a number of the others looked like they’d been primarily designed by adults, with the kids just let loose to do some colouring and maybe a couple of wonky buildings. The teachers responsible for this one just went that little bit too far with the “helping”
Thanks Aspidistra!! Having the photo AND your agreement that there is something dodgy about the work makes me feel better.
I spoke to the Station Master about it yesterday (there is no Centre Management at Flinders Street, as such) and he admitted that he hadn’t even looked at the display, but would do so and make some further enquiries. He at first thought I was a disgruntled teacher, complaining that MY class had not won a prize!!.
But I WILL check back next week to see if anything has come of it.
Thanks to the photos, I’d guess the poster from the OP is drawn by one person. Whether that one person is a kid in the class, we can’t tell. But it is possible. The second photo is also done by one person. In fact, it is even signed on the wall “Sarah Woodcock on behalf of grade 5W at Mount Waverly Primary School.”
OK, that’s funny and sad. No way is that by kiddie-giblets. But the adult has been taking liberties. Upper left is the airport train from Brissie (built for Expo and the most useless piece of infrastruture in Australia). Mid right is Sydney’s zoo. Royal Park is not on the water. And sheesh, where’s the Bolte gallows? How many light-towers doth the MCG have? And surely everyone knows that the risible Melbourne Eye project got the arse…
Encourage him! I began cartooning around 5. I had a natural talent. My mother was encouraging, but my father had different plans for me. Engineering. I continued to sketch stuff for family and friends but never took my talent seriously and it faded away. Too bad…I would have loved to work for Disney. The only thing I fool around with now is lame internet art.
I wanna know why you hate people on a dial up connection? You have not ever heard of resizing a pic? 11 meg pic you posted? ::: sheesh :::: Detail is good but you might warn folks. An additional one at some REASONABLE size would take you 30 seconds to process and start up loading. If you can post that monster, you can post a reasonable pix also. IMO An warning and a link to a reasonable sized pix would be so hard to do
Gee thanks for wasting my time.
Oh, I agree with most of what has been posted and replied.
I appreciate the intent of your posting the pix and the trouble you went to get it. But why did you turn you mind off at that point? ? Oh, just quick and dirty? Then why take all the trouble you did, to show us what you are talking about?
My complaint is about the unthinking pix posting. Happens all the time it seems like any more as more people forget that not all can afford mega puters and T-1 pipes to play with or have access at work, You got a great camera / scanner / and a good connection so why care about the little guy huh? :: sheesh ::: Maybe we wanna see too… But you don’t give a rat cause you got the right stuff…
Grrrrrrrrr
Ever hear about timing out? Not in Australia huh? Must be nice…
Grrrrr X 42
Thanks for all the trouble you went to. Just kinda got me ‘sideways’ there with the HUGE pix…
:::::: of course I would never do that, nope, not me, I’m perfect. :::
Of COURSE everyone who’s ANYONE has broadband and work access to the internet. Slow connections are God’s way of telling you to get a better job. I mean, what do you DO all day if you don’t surf the web. Work??? Gah! I pity you pore fule. I bet you don’t even have a Beer Fridge.
[sub]By the way, is “eleven” US-speak for “one” these days? Just wanna be completely clear here…[/sub]
Actually it’s my workmate’s camera which I had for Completely Unrelated Purposes. So no, I can’t. But I might be able to get him to. When he saunters in to work at eleven. Aaaahhhh this is the life…
[sub]Of course, some might say that the fact that MY computer nearly crashed when he mailed the buggers to me might possibly have been a warning that they were all too large. But I wouldn’t. After all, I’m perfect ;)[/sub]
**Zebra: ** no way, this kid runs me outa 'puter paper all the time. Everything is freehand. Since this is show and tell time, I put Zack’s picture on my website, see Sponge Bob Square Pants!
The spatula, you see, is from when he works at the Crusty Crab, a fast food joint in Bikini Bottoms.
For those of you without little kids, either your own or grandkids, Sponge Bob is the number one show on Nickolodeon, and from what I’ve heard it probably the number one TV show, period. At least in the US.
done by my grandson, who is exactly 7 years old, and you can’t tell it from the real thing. It’s amazing.
