Today is a grandkid watching day. My wife and I are hanging with our ten-month-old granddaughter, Felicity. When she comes over, I like to do art with her.

We bought these egg shaped, non-toxic, washable crayons, and I've been trying to show her how to draw with them, (instead of just esting them.) We also use chunks of cardboard to draw on, partially because it's cheap (we just cut up and recycle old cereal boxes and stuff like that), and partially because cardboard is much tougher than paper, which the baby tends to tear and chew up.

For THIS PIECE, untitled though it may be, I would have probably just drawn a bunny or snake or monster, but the kid was, like, "That's old hat, Grandpa. Let's try some mixed media work, like Dubuffet." (Pretty astute for a baby.)

I'm like, "No, let me grab a Sharpie and..." BLAM! She sticks a chunk of banana on the cardboard. At first I was like, "Gross... It's gooey," but I trust other people's artistic urges, so I just looked at it for a bit---and about an hour later, I got what she was going for!

I found another chunk of banana on the floor (babies are messy), and added it to the collage, then I snapped a photo and added some digital texture, a "mouth," and a signature. (The mirrored "YR" is my sig. It stands for "Why Are?" the standard existentialist question, and for Richard Yates, which is some of my names.)

And there you have it, an original, mixed media + digital art piece by a 47 year old and a baby. You can decide for yourself which of us deserves most of the credit.

My ultimate goal, regardless, is to make sure that the kid ENJOYS making things, creating art, and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. Even though I couldn't convince either of my daughters to become professional artists---though the older one does crafts and sewing, and the younger one enjoys photography---there's still a chance that I might get an artist out of a grandkid!!!)

Okay. That's it for now! I'll be back soon with more art, writing, creativity, comics, monsters, and weirdness! (Count on it!!!)

---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

[P.S. - All art and words by ME and the Little Kid...]