Not Just a Tree

I would like to wish all my loyal and faithful readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I had planned to get a couple new posts up before the holidays, but because of a couple of really big projects launching right before the break, I wasn’t able to carve out the time to do so. As a result the delay has been almost a month since my last post (ghasp!). Fear not, I do have some draft posts in the works, and I will be back to my more-or-less weekly posting henceforth. One of the posts I have been scheming about for a while is a retrospective of my son’s drawings over the last few months. He loves to draw, and I am always amazed at the stuff he comes up with. At four, he shows promise way beyond my skills, and I want to show off a few of his cool ideas. I hope I’m not the kind of parent that will push his kids to follow in their footsteps, but for now I remain a proud father and simultaneously my son’s drawing idol. When asked to describe my day work, Finn says with some wide-eyed wonder “He goes to the office, does drawings, and people pay him!”. We drove to Lethbridge, Alberta for the holidays this year, which is a 4 hour trip. Finn spent most of the trip drawing in his little note pad. At about Fort MacLeod, he tears off a piece of paper and says “Hey Baba” (that’s what he’s called me since he could talk… an infant corruption of ‘Papa’ that has stuck) “I drew this for you”. With that he hands me a piece of paper with the drawing below on it, and adds “It’s not just a tree; it’s a Spirit Tree!”.

I was flabbergasted. Sure, there is some parental pride involved, not to mention some artistic pride that my son has remembered my involvement in the Spirit Tree sculpture. But the fact that he has noted the tree, as well as the clock tower beside it, and drawn them both from memory with the correct colours, shapes, and approximate dimensions is incredible to me. I won’t say they are incredibly detailed, but they are remarkably accurate considering he was drawing it in the car. If you want to compare it to the original have a look at my post about the Spirit Tree sculpture here. Anyways, I’ll post a few more of his drawings over the next little bit if you don’t mind indulging me on this bit of paternal promotion.