Brewer, the artist: watching my sons creativity bloom

My son is beginning to read and write and it makes me so happy. Little notes here and there or titles to his art projects. My own love of books and words amplifying my pride. He is such a bright creative kid, especially when it comes to his love and talent for drawing; I hope he comes to love the written word as much as he does the visual arts. Right now he is currently sitting, well half-on half-off the chair, drawing a witch. I have no idea where he would get his inspiration from…but he loves drawing all kinds of cool creepy things like ghosts and aliens and robots and zombies and Demogorgon’s. (Yes, the scary creatures from the upsidedown world in the Netflix series Stranger Things. I don’t know how he knows what that is or what they look like, but I suspect that’s what older cousins are for.)

Drawing and reading are some of the only times Brewer will sit still. Or can sit still. His blood runs electric and he just can stop the movements. But to watch him flip his creative switch and really focus on what he’s doing is a proud moment. He will from time to time get frustrated or upset when he can’t draw something right and that’s when I remind him that there is no ‘right’. There are many different styles of art and it’s all based on perspective and feeling. So I decided to show him some of Picassos’ work to try and give him a visual of what I meant; that you can draw what you feel in all kinds of ways not just the ‘normal and regular realistic’ ways. I didn’t tell him I don’t like Picasso. I like Brewer though. The person and the artist. And I hope he never tries to fit himself into any box, creatively or personally or professionally or socially or any of the ‘-allys’ that exist.

A lot of it comes down to choice. To making decisions. And understanding why. Or maybe not understanding why at all, but knowing that decision was yours. He chooses to have his hair long (although he has been asking for a mohawk lately), and he chooses what to wear each day and what book to read at bedtime and what cool things draw. Sometimes he decides what we should have for dinner or what adventure we should embark upon or what treat we should make. I try to give him options and not just tell him the way it has to be. It has to be that way so often that when I can I try to include his own perspective and opinions in our life. ‘Mom says’ a lot. Sometimes Brewer can say too.

And a lot of times he chooses to say ‘fart’ and ‘butt’ and ‘poop’. Like most of the time, even though his vocabulary is quite expansive. So when he came home from school and we were going through his backpack and I ran across one of his drawings on the back of his schoolwork and he starting cracking up, I looked again to see what I had missed. At the bottom of the drawing were the words ‘FRT. BT WRLD. FEIR TONDO.’ I sounded them out in my head and turned with a look of pride and surprise and maybe a little disgust and asked ‘Does this say fart butt world?!?!’ He laughed harder. Fire tornado was the next sequence. I then looked at the drawing again and could now clearly see that on the page was a massive green tornado like fart with a world on fire at its core. He doesn’t understand just how obscene yet accurate his art truly is.

This witch he’s currently drawing is so awesome it’s about to be my next tattoo. She even has cool blue hair and a cauldron of bubbling green, and the classic black hat and shoes that curl up. Her dress is purple and orange striped and behind her is a shelf with a skull, a crystal ball, and bottles of potions. I’m in awe. No YouTube tutorial showed him the ‘how to’s’ on this. It’s straight from the imagination of my favorite dude. Not that learning tips and tricks from others is a bad thing. Really, I just want him to have the freedom and the courage to be one hundred percent himself at all times and to accept himself even if others do not. May your light never be dulled or dimmed little one. Shine bright. Be bold. Whatever colors you want to be.