My Childhood Wallpaper

“Nature’s Wallpaper”  8”x10” Watercolor, colored pencil & Ink on construction paper. (1967 by Linnie Aikens)

I fell in love with nature at an early age. When my sisters were running about the fields playing tag, I often could be found bent over a stream looking at the changing light rippling over the stones below, or sitting very still to watch the water bugs tap out little dances on the water, and cornflower-blue dragonflies alighting on blades of grass, listening to the breeze, while the grasses bent over the edge of the stream, pausing for a drink. Nature mesmerized me.  Even in my childish, untrained hand, my pens and paints would seek out the wonder of nature.  I did many such drawings as this. They would become so crammed with plants and insects and animals that my dad took to calling my art “wallpaper.”  It was teasing, and I’m sure that equal part endearment and amusement were implied, and for a few years it never occurred to me to mind, and I happily captured my world this way. 

Ok, so as an adult now, I admit to myself that it does have the feel of wallpaper, every square inch of space used lest any bug or animal be left out.  I write letters this way

as well, for if there is white page left, I somehow feel I still have room to get out every last thought and idea.  This contrasts sharply with my activity of conversing with others. Then, I am quite content to listen and let the dead air hang silent. I always thought I just didn’t have anything to say.  Perhaps my art and writing claim otherwise and there was more afoot than a “girl of few words,” as most of my friends believed growing up.

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This is actually a composite reproduction of some old ratty drawings in markers and colored pencils that I had in a box, from 1st and 2nd grade, that didn’t photograph well.  I redrew them as close to the originals as I could. I found it amazing how easy it was for my muscle-memory to recapture these images in just exactly the way I recall drawing them over and over and over as a child!  I remember winning 3^rd place for a school competition that landed my artwork in a frame in the school library, a highlight memory of my young school years.

PARENTING TIP: As an art teacher much later in life, and remembering how important this moment was for me, I always encouraged parents to display their children's artwork, then photograph them before some pieces were discarded as their children age. For the same reason, as a regular ed teacher for many years, I also encouraged parents to scan their children's stories, poems, and little books they'd written. When my own daughter turned 30, I gave her a flash drive of her childhood art & writing portfolio from pre-school to her high school graduation, which came at an age when she would treasure them.

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Note: All artwork, stories and observations posted within should be credited to the author, Linnie Aikens Lindsay (unless cited in the post). Permission is required for any use of my words or artwork. Taken from my work, "My Life As Wallpaper Art".