The art of Zeke and Michelangelo

This morning I read an extract from a text by Alain, (French philosopher, 1868-1951) where he said that often it is during the execution of a project that the artist makes discoveries which serve her vision. The artist becomes a spectator to her own work in progress. She recognizes the challenges her vision presents and she adjusts accordingly. It is at this point the work takes on its originality and distinctive quality.

My eyes wandered over to a drawing by Zeke, my husband's grandson, which was pinned to my billboard. He was four at the time and was experimenting with the colours of a new box of crayons. Quite spontaneously he drew the shape of an ungainly, uncrested bird, stood back from it momentarily, and then added vertical lines to the body and filled in each band with a different colour. Look Kathy, he said, it's a rainbow. He signed his name to the drawing. We called it Zeke's Rainbow Bird.

A couple of weeks ago, Zeke and his family came on vacation with us. Each morning, I would embroider in the garden as the children played. Invariably Zeke would come and watch me work. I reminded him of his Rainbow Bird and told him that when he visited in May I could prepare a canvas for him so he could transcribe the drawing in thread. He was excited by the idea and as he ran off back to his toys, he shouted back at me that he would like me to add a crest.

So this week, I set about designing something for 6 year-old fingers; large holes, thick thread, bright colours, simple technique. As I worked the test piece, on a smaller canvas, I wanted to create the effect of feathers in the tail. My first idea was to make a chequerboard with two colours. I had finished the lighter colour and set the project aside with the idea that the next day I would fill in the spaces with a darker colour. But when I viewed the project with fresh eyes the following morning, I realized that the tail in its unfinished state had already the feathery effect that I was looking for.

I had an immediate albeit very elemental example of Alain's idea of discovery while working. I chuckled at the thought that even at this childlike level, some basic ideas are common to all creative works. In this small way, Zeke's drawing echoed the work of Michelangelo...