10 x 10 Week 9: My Kid Could Make That (with Angela M.D. Allen and Marita Allen)

Art with your kids. Like, actually WITH your kids. Thanks to Angela M.D. Allen and her daughter, Marita.

July 27, 2015; 9:00 AM • by Susan Howson

Once, as an impressionable teen, I was in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, looking at a 20th century artist whose name I forget. “I could make that,” I scoffed at the big canvas, which contained, like, a line or something. I have no artistic talent, so this was a definite diss. My brother, who was in his mid-20s and knew more things, said “Yeah, but you didn’t.”

I have remembered that ever since, and it’s changed the way I think about art.¹

When someone looks at a Jackson Pollock and says “My kid could make that,” what they’re really saying is “I think art is all about fine motor control.”

Not so, of course. But the sad other part of that statement is “I don’t believe my kid is capable of making something interesting, so this is a real bummer for you, Jackson Pollock.”

Angela M.D. Allen and her four-year-old daughter, Marita, are about to prove the above speaker very wrong. And, they invite you to bring your own kid to 1708 Gallery and take the opportunity to make some art together. “Exploring the life-work balance within an artistic practice and parenthood, Allen wants to show that one’s art practice can change in unexpected and nontraditional yet exciting ways,” says 1708’s description of “My Kid Could Make That.”

As Allen’s week at the gallery opens, bring your child to the special workshop at 10:00 AM on Tuesday, July 28th. AND! Or, actually AND/OR come to the gallery for the rest of the week to see how it’s all going. On Friday, July 31st, from 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM, the official reception will display a bunch of parent/child made art that lets us all revel in the weird beauty of a kid’s mind–and the possible synchronicity of their mom or dad’s.