Inspired children

 

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Inspired by the Inspired

It was the first day of the half term break and my daughter crept into my bed for a snuggle while the boys were happily tipping soft toys out of the bucket in their room. I love mornings like that: my husband had already left for work, the children were all feeling the chilled out vibe of no commands to "Get dressed", "Eat your breakfast" or "Clean your teeth." There was some animated nonsense on the TV and I was catching up with the very important things that might have happened in Facebookland since I last checked about eight hours earlier!

As she glanced at my phone, my daughter gasped, "Wow, what was that, Mummy?" as she scrolled back up the newsfeed. She'd seen an image from Caroline Rose Art - one of the many pages that sprinkle beauty onto my screen - and she wanted more. There it was, instantly recognisable as a 'this is my thing and I want more of it' moment, and at just six years of age. We spent a few minutes looking through the photos on Caroline's page and chatting about her work. I explained all about collages and that we were looking at beautiful scenes made from lots of small pieces of paper. She was most smitten by this amazing street scene:

Street scene collage by Caroline Rose Art

Our leisurely breakfast was peppered with questions about types and colours of paper, how to cut fancy edges, whether to use a glue stick or gloopy glue and if you can eat spiders and slugs. Happy half term! Then, almost immediately the last Cheerio was swallowed, a miracle happened: my daughter cleared the table of all pots, all ... by ... herself! And of she scurried to the paper drawer and my pencil case for scissors.

It began ...

... and it continued ...

 ... and then it was finished ...

                  

... and boy, was she delighted!

She was so very, very proud of her work in this beautiful new medium that she wanted to write to Caroline Rose to tell her all about her exciting paper adventure! The wonderful Caroline was very obliging and gave me her address, and off we trotted to the postbox. Roughly one gazillion times a day for the next five days, my girl asked me if the postman had been/was going to come/would come again today!

Caroline and I exchanged a few messages, and I have to tell you that she is a lovely, kind-hearted lady. She knows what it is to capture the creativity of a small person and to run with it, to encourage it and to reward it in a way that will make it grow.  She wrote back to Beatrix, using an actual pen and actual paper, and sent a very special parcel in the post. 

That evening Beatrix read the letter from Caroline Rose over and over again, and I watched as my little girl had found something new outside of everything she had known before: she was inspired. She hadn't been instructed or directed, nobody had suggested that she 'might like to' create something. She had seen something, it had moved her, she had an idea and she went to make it happen for herself. Then she shared her work with someone else, a stranger, and got really lovely feedback, something it took me over thirty years to manage. She is on Cloud 9! Her beautiful gift, however, is not even on the wall yet; we're looking for a pink frame! 

 You can find Caroline Rose Art on Facebook and buy her utterly beautiful work on Etsy and on Folksy.