I'm Sure He'll Grow Up "Normal"

I'm sure you've figured out by now that my style of art is well...not the norm? I like humor, death, birth, the unexpected, whimsy, nature, critters...you know, life stuff. I like weird and mysterious. I think my son is starting to pick up on that...he is 3 weeks shy of 4 years old now, and a highly sensitive little one (to sound, overstimulation, people, lots of "unknowns" and the like)--but with an eye for the strange. 

For example, I have a Dia de los Muertos piece where I shaped and painted skeletal dinosaurs--he digs them, "I really like your triceratops mommy, they're really good dinosaurs!" Most recently, I have a spider that I think will become part of a larger something or other, but in the meantime I've placed it in the car, on the dashboard--positioned so it would be looking right at my son when we drove to his swimming lesson. I wondered what his reaction would be to our macabre little hitchhiker:

  

His first reaction was, "Mommy, what is that?" Fifteen minutes down the road he was trying to get me to agree that he should have him. "I like that spider's face, mommy. He's funny." He named him Skele-Spider by the way, but he apparently goes by Spider Bones too.

My son quickly adopted Skele-Spider and insisted that his new friend wanted to learn how to play his video game and wishes to be added to his bed (stuffed) animals... "Mommy, I promise 'kay? I heard you, he's not a toy, I will be careful mommy, pleeeeease." I agreed that Skele-Spider would probably love to learn how to play MarioKart but I didn't think he should be with his toys. After much negotiating, Jeffery agreed show him the games then return Skele-Spider to the car to go on trips with us instead.

Jeffery can't really hang out with me too much while I'm working on pieces because, 1) I work with dangerous, sharp and crusty metal objects, 2) he's usually asleep anyway, and 3) there's just not a lot of room for him to do his own creative thing while I'm doing mine. One of my sooner-than-later dreams is to create a better space in our garage that is safe, with more room, and more inviting for both of us to be out there together. I want him to witness a variety of creative processes while freely developing his own.

I watched both of my parents creating wonderful pieces and projects while growing up, jointly and individually. I was always encourged to create my own things verbally of course, but equally important I remember that I always had plenty of space and materials to do so! I want to make sure I provide the same for my little one...surrounded by skull beads, fantasy bugs and creepy creatures made of found junk--complete with skeleton spider friends. You know, "normal."

"Skele-Spider" made with skull bead, scrap telephone wire, copper wire, medium x-mas light bulb. ~4 1/2" leg span.