Modern Moss Art

One of the reasons I love learning about child development is noting how different each kid can be and still fall in the range of completely normal. I also *love* how most developmental processes are very gradual and continuous, but every once in a while you get to catch a true aha moment in the wild. For over 2 years, Moss has had a consistent scribble/smear/stabbed dot artistic style, regardless of medium. Then one day,

"Mom I drew a shoe. It's a hand."

Wait what? Luckily, being married to Ben for 11 years has taught me more than zero ancient Middle Eastern vocabulary items. Hahahaha like father like son. Apparently, earlier in the day Ben had showed Moss the Sumerian word for hand, which is SHU.

A very Ben-like first attempt at representational abstraction

Shu hand

Later that week he drew a car (turn it upside down to see the driver's side window, the driver and the hood)...

... a house (complete with 2 bedroom floorplan)

And then 2 weeks later he pulled out the big guns. "Mom I'm going to write my name." "Ok, Moss." "Mom I wrote my name." "Omg, you kind of did."

Eeeeeeeee

Ok so it looks a lot like M O nnnnn, but because S is hard to write, if you pretend the things after the O are sideways Zs, then he's close. And for a literal first attempt? On point.

Then came the swing in our front yard...

Then a Lockheed C-130 

Then a ball bug (before Lyra scribbled on it)...

And then a front end loader...

...with extra seatbelts. All in one day.

Then later an awesome jellyfish.

Jellyfish says Eeeeeeeee

Then a somewhat closer attempt at M-O-S-S

Then some mixed media work

Untitled (Monster Mash) 

Moss, 2016

Play-Doh, googly eyes, glitter glue, sparkly pompoms

Then back to chalk - "It's a ladybug. But it kind of looks like a sun but it's not. It's a ladybug."

Then towards Halloween begins the Ghost Series: Ghost 1

Ghost 2

Ghost 3: Many Ghosts

Ghost 4: Bug Ghost

Culminating in a collaborative Mom/Moss exhibition: "Ghost Pumpkin Saying Ooooooo"

And finally, the 4 pieces I'm saving from this era of Moss art: "Grasshopper"

"Elephant"

"Animal with open mouth that's purple"

and "I think that lived 100 years ago".