Art History

This post is a retrospective of a budding young artist, Desmond A. Vasicek.

Last week Desmond drew his first person.  Artistically speaking, I don't know what this signifies in terms of development, but it's pretty amazing to watch him draw these people.  They are almost always the same: large head, two giant circles for eyes, a horizontal line for the mouth, and a vertical line for the nose.  This week he also started adding tummies, and a few of his people have had arms and even feet.

Young Desmond's foray into the world of art began in April 2013 with his first work: Dead Rats.

"Dead Rats"

At the time, I wrote on the back: "This is a picture of a 'dead rat.'  We saw one on a walk, and Desmond came home and drew a picture of it.  I saved it because it was the first picture he's drawn that truly looks like what it is.  It has an oval body, a tail, and Desmond told me the squiggles inside were its fur.  So however morbid it is, it is worth saving."

Almost a year later, Desmond is really into chalk.  We've been doing a lot of chalk art at the park lately, and a lot of it has centered around space.  Desmond is really into Earth, the moon, the planets, etc., so we started out drawing this picture of Mars together.  I drew the circle and the lettering, and he helped me fill it in. 

This is an aside, but worth mentioning: If you draw a circle, Molly will come stand in the middle of it and call it a circle.  It's a game she really likes.

Next I drew a moon, and Desmond drew his own moon next to it.

Then, and this came as a surprise, Desmond drew a picture of Joe.

Joe showed this to some of his coworkers, who wanted to know if he was getting struck by lightning.  Desmond told me that long green line was Dad's neck.  You can see that Joe's mouth is represented by a straight line, but there are no eyes or nose, and the neck is in the wrong place.

This is where it gets cool, because you can see how much he's getting this in just a few days.

A few days later we went back to the park, and Desmond asked me to draw an alien for him.  I drew an alien body and asked if he could do the face.  It looked like this.

You can see the eyes are now in the right place, and there is a mouth and nose, also in the right place.  He also gave him a tummy and some underwear.

Desmond then drew another picture of Dad.

The long horizontal lines with perpendicular lines attached are Joe's arms.

As of today, he's doing the faces and bodies all by himself.  Here are a whole bunch he did today, with descriptions.  If you see your name on one, it's being mailed to you. 

This is a picture of Joe, and the first time hair has made an appearance.

Helen, I think this was for you, not of you.

Aunt Chris.  Note the large head.  LOL!

Another pic of Joe.  This time he has hair and a hat!

This is me.  I guess I have three eyes.

Grandpa John.  For you, not of you.

Grandpa Patrick.  For you, not of you.

Auntie Teresa.  This needs more explanation.  See below.

This last one is Desmond's auntie Teresa, who as you can see, is pregnant.  That line on the right inside her tummy is the baby.  Desmond told me, "It's very tiny."

And finally, here is a portrait of the artist, looking very pensive.  He's home sick today, and I couldn't get him to crack a smile.

I will bring you more as Desmond's artistic abilities blossom.  For now, I hope you enjoyed the artwork.