The Art of Wren

Wren loves drawing. If he is having a tantrum because I have denied him access to the computer / sugary breakfast cereal or soda or have chastised him for hitting Frost (with a wooden dagger, again) I can always distract him with the offer to draw. Wren has never had a scribbling phase of drawing. Even when he first started he would draw lines and talk about them. Now, he assembles a kind of mental map of the thing which may or may not be recognizable to anyone else.

Diggers
One of Wren's favorite subjects is big machines. He routinely draws diggers and big cranes and crane-diggers. This drawing shows a digger. The little orange circles are the centers of the crawler tracks which circle around them. The bumps are the crawler track treads surrounded by a big BODY of the machine. The top protuberance is the operators box and the scoop. The scoop is the line with a balloon like thing on the end. I think the lines may be a ladders since I often draw one. It may equally be a crane attachment or a bird. Frost was humbled by this drawing. "Wren draws better circles than me" he said.
Abstraction or Code?
Things are not always clear to me. This following picture is beautiful but I have no clue what is happening. It was drawn while we were on Vashon so I doubt Wren remembers either but he is not just making marks. He talks as he draws imagining what is going on. I can ask him tomorrow - he will probably say its a digger because there is a scoop up top but what are those little lines (usually called FUR when I ask)?
The Daddy Picture
Wren drew this when Heather was babysitter Frost and Wren. She says Wren drew it while Frost talked to him so I am imagining he drew the basics and then Frost asked him "where are Daddy's eyes?" or something like that. They both swear Wren drew it and Frost only wrote the title for him. Hrmmm.

When I asked Wren who he was drawing he said "daddy" but "Frost wrote Daddy." I then asked about the two lines on the chest and he described those as being "fur". He also described the hair on top as being "couple hairs". It was very funny..


HUGE Robot
Recently, Wren has started drawing robots. Today when he did this drawing I asked him about it and he said it was "a HUUUGE robot dancing with chains." Its interesting because it is much more upright than the diggers which overwhelm the page with their apparatus.
Wren Do Writing Like Frost
Finally, here is an example of Wren's WRITING. On many of Wren's pictures you will see dashes like morse code to one side. This is Wren "writing" some title and signing DRAWING BY WREN. He noticed me writing on the sides or backs of some of his drawing and has become possessive about signing them himself.

This drawing of writing was done while Frost did his handwriting book this morning. We have started doing daily handwriting practice after breakfast and Wren, not to be left out, works quietly at his own writing. He said "Wren do writing like Frost".


I have signed Wren up for a weekly toddler art class at a nearby studio. I know he will enjoy painting at an easel and trying new ways to make drawings. I am looking forward to it myself.