Madeline Barber

knock knock children’s museum artist in residence

the process

I was very excited about the opportunity to work with the children at Front Yard Bikes in Baton Rouge through my Knock Knock Childrens Museum artist residency.

Because this project needed to be made outside (due to the COVID-19 climate), it also needed to be durable and moveable. We decided the best action plan was to make a large mural on canvas. Creating work out in FYB’s lovely garden, it only felt right to create a scene representing the nature we were surrounded by. 

Moving from the bottom of the canvas to the top, the FYB children and I approached the scene in segments. We created the scene the same way, starting from the ground and moving towards the sky. I gave them vague ideas and encouraged them to create what they were inspired by. I told them, “paint something you’d see on the ground,” and the results varied from dirt, grass, and flowers to mini apple trees and rocket ships. We accepted these decisions as part of the larger story we were telling. By the end of our artistic journey together, one child had created a complete account of how everything in the mural connected (and had ideas on what the story’s sequel would entail). 

In my first session, a young girl who seemed, and remained, very excited about this project, began to paint grass, “I’m making it texturful,” she said as she roughly scrubbed paint onto the canvas surface. And with that, a new word was added to my vocabulary. The grass, alligator, and trees are all examples of this “texturful” painting technique. 

Of course, along the way, there were, in the words of Bob Ross, “happy little accidents.” The children and I took these accidents as challenges. In my second session at FYB, a young artist pointed out a mistake she had made the week before determined to fix it. “Instead of painting over it,” I said, “Why don’t you look at it again and carefully decide what it could be.” She looked for a few seconds and then exclaimed, “It’s a duck! And I’ll make a family of ducks! This will be the daddy.” We moved forward like this. What could a long red paint streak become? A dragon, of course! Why is that tree orange? Because it’s Fall in Louisiana! 

By the end of my time at FYB, the young artists and I were proud of the effort we had put forth on this mural project. We laughed over the silly parts we had created and looked on with satisfaction at the parts that we deemed exceptional. Most of it was exceptional. 

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