Five-year-old Breezy and I spent Sunday afternoon at Bubbles & Brushes, a children’s art studio, painting together. It’s one of those places where you pay an hourly fee for use of the studio, and you get access to the paint, glue, glitter, brushes, scissors, little stuff to glue on one’s artwork, and then you pay extra fees for canvases, plates, pumpkins, etc.  We’ve been there many times.  I have a studio downstairs at my own home, but it surely is a lot easier to let someone else clean up the mess.

One of the pieces of artwork she chose to do was to “copy” the mermaid, because she had seen another little girl and her father working on that project.  When she completed hers, as seen at the top right of the post, she said, “Well, it doesn’t really look the same….”  “I LOVE it,” I responded sincerely.  “Every artist has her own style!”  She seemed OK with that.

I started painting about three years ago.  One of the hardest lessons I learned was that my paintings weren’t going to look like the teacher’s paintings.  And then, I finally came to the conclusion that I didn’t want them to look like her paintings. And I didn’t want them to look like anyone else’s paintings.  And then I quit going to those Friday night classes because I didn’t want my paintings to look like redundancy. I started painting my own thing. I became free to be the artist I wanted to be.  I’m not a terrific painter  🙂  A bit of an understatement.  But I really like the fact that I can call myself an artist and that I can paint what I want to paint.  I do plan to continue to paint and probably take some more individualized classes when I retire, or maybe before, I don’t know.   I want Breezy to know NOW that her art doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s and that her style is beautiful. And I’m not kidding.  I think her painting is so cute.  I really can’t take my eyes off of it.

There are so many lessons I hope to pass along to her, but this is right up there at the top of the list.  The earlier we women, or young girls, learn to embrace our own style, the happier we’re going to be.  But I will tell you one thing; this is a kid with a very strong sense of her own fashion style!  She could probably teach all of us a lesson or two.

I buy her clothes at consignment shops and off of clearance racks because she’ll decide to spend the night with me at the drop of a hat and just jump in my car and come home with me.  So, long ago I stocked up on toothbrushes, toothpaste, brushes, underwear, socks, etc. and I also have a little wardrobe.  Well, the older she gets the more picky she gets about the clothes.

The other day I had a pair of $4.00 navy blue leggings and a purple shirt at the ready for us to go to Waffle House for breakfast.  She told me the shirt looked like a pajama shirt!  I thought it was adorable. But she did wear it, only because Papa asked her not to be mean to Gigi!  However, rather than making her yield to my style, I am learning what HER style is and am buying things she likes.  Because even at five she definitely has her own way of dressing.

By the time she was three she’d stop wearing socks with dress shoes because she “just didn’t like the way it looks.”  Now I know just the kind of strappy shoes she likes to wear.  And don’t even try to get her to wear anything that even vaguely resembles something a boy would wear.  She is all girl.  I once bought her some blue flip flops with orange fish on them.  She said she “hated” them because they were boy flip flops.  OK. Fair enough.  She’s got a her own style and I can appreciate that.  She knows who she is and what she likes at five.  I’m really happy that she is so accepting of her fashion style at five.  I hope she she continues to accept herself and her style with such fervor.  I hope she learns to accept her style as an artist with the same passion!  I hope her Gigi does the same!

Military Ball Gown.

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