1/4/2024 0 Comments Kids doodle monster art“The kids don’t censor themselves, and the art is really poignant in a lot of cases,” she said.Ĭase in point: The "water monster" painted by Vega Clark, 10, a cystic fibrosis patient who had recently returned from a Make-A-Wish Foundation trip to Hawaii, where she swam with dolphins and was introduced to surfing. The latest fruit of a longtime relationship between Le Bonheur and MCA, the “Le Monster” project was initiated by MCA associate professor of illustration/comics Michele Noiset, who borrowed the idea from a similar effort launched in Houston, Texas. What was scary when Eli was just "a little kid" proved helpful later, providing visual inspiration for the "monsters and ghouls" of his artwork. Others come to the hospital for regular checkups, such as Eli Ezekiel, 11, of Wilson, Arkansas, who discovered only a year ago that he suffers from a narrowing of the aorta.Įli said he drew a monster inspired by a real-life fear, but he said that fear was unconnected to the hospital. "I love Halloween, but there was one house I would not go to because their blowups really scared me," he said, referring to a neighbor's inflatable decorations. Some patients have been at Le Bonheur since birth, essentially. These range from kids suffering from relatively simple injuries and allergic reactions to those with terminal illnesses. Le Bonheur treats about 200 patients a day, Whitfield said. ► More: ALSAC, Le Bonheur back plan to uplift blight-ridden area We're all thinking about mortality, we never know how much time we have, so seeing a 9- or 10-year-old express that in a drawing, it's something they wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable talking about, but they can draw it." Sometimes the monsters are very dark, especially with kids who have chronic illnesses or terminal diseases. Some will do something really cheerful or friendly. "Some kids will spin out some classic thing they've seen on TV, with fangs and a cape. ![]() "We don't give them any more direction than to say, 'Draw a monster,'" she said. Katherine Whitfield, director of volunteer and family services at Le Bonheur, said she is "obsessed" with the "Le Monster" project because the artwork is so colorful, surprising and revealing. Around the corner lurks what looks like a killer frog. A sort of mutant sea slug sculpture known as "Thunder Fish" stands near the gallery entrance. One is made from "wood, steel, copper, enamel and fossil shark's teeth." Another resembles an angry cloud, vomiting a rainbow of fabric. Their monsters are pastel, porcelain, ceramic and more. The kids mostly worked in crayon and pencil and, occasionally, paint. ► More: Waters: Memphis rallies around family with conjoined twinsĪ cardiomyopathy patient who drew her monster this summer while at Le Bonheur’s “Cardiac Kids Camp,” Valentina said she contributed a “creative-mind-wandering picture” of a “happy kind of monster.” Valentina said the picture conveys a message: “It’s not how we look on the outside, it’s more on the inside is what we are.” (As "Pan's Labyrinth" director Guillermo del Toro once remarked: “I feel that monsters are here in our world to help us understand it.”) “Monsters have a connection with us, I’m not entirely sure why,” said Valentina Romano, 10, of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, sounding like an adult in kid’s disguise. Witty Nathan Transou designed a "business monster." This monster carries "a briefcase with secret monster stuff (but mostly neckties!)." “Part Boo” is a pun on “Part Two,” an indicator that this exhibition is the second in what likely will become an annual series of collaborations between Le Bonheur patients and professional and student artists at the college. The proof is in the pudding, or rather in the otherworldly ooze and surreal spacescapes evoked in some of the creations now decorating the Rust Hall gallery at the Memphis College of Art in Overton Park, where a so-called "monstrous exhibition” titled “Le Monster: Part Boo” is on display through Nov. ![]() In other words: Monsters, contrary to the cautions of some grown-up worrywarts, may be good for kids, especially when the kids are responsible for the monsters in the first place. This may be true, and yet hundreds of kids and teenagers being treated at Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center have embraced a less saccharine therapy, one that uses fangs and tentacles and fishtails and fur to ease the annoyances of pills and needles and tonics. Mary Poppins, in the Disney film, told us that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
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