Last Friday, Tilly asked you to draw masks. Here’s what she said:
Draw someone wearing a mask. Maybe it’s you, or your mom, or your neighbor, or a whole bunch of people wearing masks. Then, tell us why they are wearing those masks. Is there is an occasion for them, or not? If you need help getting ideas, put on a mask before you draw!
I got a bunch of masks in my inbox, but I noticed something interesting: It seems the Bobbledy Drawing prompt is not just for kids anymore. No fewer than four adults have sent us their drawings this time around.
But let’s start with some kids, for old time’s sake.
Here is a mask by Diego. Raise your hand if you like Diego’s mask. I want to know much more about this one-eyed green fellow, but alas, this drawing arrived with no explanation.
Sometimes, mysteries are more satisfying, anyway.
And here is a mask by Garcia. There appears to be lightning coming out of this fellow’s ears. Or is it really long, yellow hair? I want to know more, and yet I am left to stew in the mystery of it all.
Apparently, Diego and Garcia made these drawings while their rock star mom Gina was singing her lungs out at a gig. The three young women who volunteered to watch the boys that night each made their own drawings of masks.
Cynthia
Ariana
And Rosalia
Rosalia, I think, is just trying to make the best of us look bad. Show off.
Did I mention that Cynthia, Ariana, and Rosalia are all members of the Williams College women’s rugby team?
Not to be outdone by a trio of college students, Garcia and Diego’s dad Michael threw his hat into the ring with an election-themed drawing.
I’m rather fond of this one.
Next up, we have Emily and the usual entertaining message from her mom Cathy.
I won’t blather on too long since I know the deadline is nigh, but attached is Emily’s mask drawing. She really just wanted to decorate the paper with some princess stamps she got for her birthday, but when I asked her the prompt questions about who was wearing the mask, she was stumped and so quickly drew a face in the corner. The James Henry in her description is her best buddy at preschool and the invitations business comes from the fact that we have recently received several party invitations from her classmates. Two parties in one day, in fact, on the 27th. And another the weekend after that. Who knew preschool had such a demanding social schedule?
I can concur with Cathy that the preschool social calendar is intense. Alden has been invited to more parties in the past month than I have been invited to in the past five years.
Moving on to Spencer and Tyler, who are still in Taiwan and still determined to keep drawing in spite of it.
Spencer’s mom Eunice writes that the boys were excited about the mask prompts, so much so that, apparently, “Spencer “roared” the entire time he was drawing his picture.”
Eunice went on to note that “Spencer’s picture is of people at a mask party. Apparently, the figure in pink is proposing to the person on the right (thus the hearts connecting the two of them). I had no idea Spencer was such a romantic!”
Eunice wrote that Tyler’s picture, “is of a person in a house wearing a kitty mask. I’ll see if I can get clarity on what the gray blob next to the kitty-mask wearing figure is, but he has not been very forthcoming with details so far.”
When I tried to enlist my own children in the mask-drawing enterprise, I was greeted with blank stares. Apparently, I have failed them in my fathering by not adequately teaching them about masks. As a result, though Alden did paint, her subject was not masks. Not at all. Instead, she drew “a painting of the all the colors of the sky that’s falling down now. It’s really far away. It’s going to happen really soon.”
Here is the painting in question.
And here is the artist in the act of not painting a mask.
I suppose a prompt is but a call to action, a spark to ignite a flame. Any art is good art, mask or no mask. So says the postrationalizing father.
As for Kato, he didn’t feel like drawing, and so he took down his “shape game” and built himself an elephant.
Which is kind of like drawing a mask, right?
Just moments ago, I received Robbi’s mask, which I wish she hadn’t shown me right before bed. It’s a little spooky, if you ask me.
As for Baby August, when given the chance to make a drawing, he elected to eat popcorn instead. What’s that you say? Babies aren’t supposed to eat popcorn?
Try telling him that.
Thanks, all, for sending us your drawings. I’m glad that this is becoming a multi-generational affair. Here’s hoping that some week soon, someone’s grandma will join the fray. Grandpas would be welcome, too, of course.