Thursday, May 1, 2008

Night of a thousand tissue-paper collages

Tonight was the Night of the Arts at Archer's elementary school. Everybody in the school had an art project hanging on the wall. There were award winners lining the cafeteria, refreshments, a pottery wheel demonstration, and music by the high school string ensemble.

The picture Archer had chosen to display was a marker, crayon, and watercolor study of the U.S. Capitol:



His art teacher chatted with us briefly, and said that he was a good artist -- if only she could get him to stop drawing numbers all over everything.

I must admit that I was impressed, as well. But I don't think we'll ever get him to stop drawing numbers all over everything. My only hope is that he'll be given scratch paper on which to sequester his numbers whenever he's doing work where random scores, temperatures, prices, times, cash prize totals, and equations are not appropriate. Without somewhere to keep the numerical patterns that make sense of his world, Archer would be lost.

3 comments:

Katie said...

I love Archer's artwork- it is quite detailed. I hope to see more of his creations in the future!

Anonymous said...

Since coming back home and resuming my summer job as a grocery store cashier, I've had to re-learn so many produce numbers (but there are those you use so much you never forget--like bananas, 4011). And I was wondering the other day how someone with autism, like Archer, would react to finding out that every fruit and vegetable has its own number... 4080 for asparagus, 4725 for russet potatoes, 3107 for oranges... It just seems odd that all these leafy, fleshy organic forms are organized with numbers. Has Archer noticed this? I can almost imagine a little kid asking his mom to pass the 4060 (broccoli).

Anonymous said...

Well, I'm glad that Jasper Johns didn't quit drawing numbers all over everything! I wonder if Archer would like his work?