I want to be a stripper like mom…

A friend sent my this drawing of a child’s aspirations to follow in mom’s footsteps. An interesting career path…

Fortunately, the mom immediately sent a follow up letter to the teacher:

Dear Ms. Davis,
I want to be very clear on my child’s illustration.  It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint.  I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm.  This drawing is of me…. selling a snow shovel.
Mrs. Harrington 

As humorous as it is, I am continually inspired by the naïve simplicity of children’s art. As a dad of both a 4 and 7 year old, I have been the recipient of creations like this all the time (although not quite as embarrassing). I love the unfiltered and wildly imaginative work children produce. Somehow we manage to weed out our artist inhibitions as we ‘mature’ and grow older- that’s not a good thing. Self-filtering is the enemy of creative work and it’s a bad habit we develope. So take inspiration from this young child and create unashamedly. Sure you might occasionally embarrass yourself but that’s sure better than being lost in a sea of boring obscurity.

Thanks to my friend Mark Richards for sending me the pic!

Tagged: creativity

Posted in: Design Rules