Woodland Art Gallery (September)

About 6 years ago I was at my brothers chatting with my sister-in-law. 

Around the corner came my outraged nephew Logan. 

"What. Is. This?  What is this?"  

His little voice is still so vivid in my ears, just thinking of it makes me laugh. 

He had some of his artwork from kindergarten in his hand. 

He had found it in the trash.

{Me & Logan back in the day}

Recently I went through a similar awkward situation with Fiona.  Of course I lied and told her it was a mistake and I didn't mean to throw her beautiful art in the recycling bin.

But really, what do I do with all of this artwork?
  I don't like to place blame but I feel certain in her few years Fiona has depleted a rainforest single-handedly.  Crafts and art consume most of her free time.

I've saved pieces over the past few years that now occupy space in my parents attic.  I fear they will yellow, the cotton balls will fall off, the sparkles shed and lay at the bottom of the box.  There are many pieces that I failed date so there will be a loss of perspective.

I want to keep the memories crisp in some way.  I want to look back when she's a famous artist and see her progression from the beginning. I want her to know I care and am so proud of all of her work. I don't want to rent a storage container to accomplish this.

I've come up with a solution.   Before her artwork is buried deep in the trashcan I'll take pictures of them and will compose a yearly Snapfish photo book of them to enjoy for years.  The trouble is, right now I don't have the extra cash for the books. So I've adapted my solution to have two steps.   Step one: I put the photos into a collage and on a ,hopefully, monthly basis post them here for preservation until step 2 (the photo book) comes to fruition.

Reed does do crafts as well but they are almost always a bit forced.  I usually force him to do his workbook pages instead hoping not to stifle his joy for the arts that I know one day he will have.  He too will have his own art books to look back on.  Now that he has started school I have a lot more crafts coming in to add to his collection.

Here's just some of Fiona's work from September that I was able to preserve before they made their way to the recycling bin.