Art Desk

Beside our desk in our office/playroom in our home, Tristyn has her art desk. She also has an art easel, which is upstairs, so she can be creative on both floors of the house. The art desk is always a chaotic mess. It has paper scraps, markers, crayons, paint, scissors, cards, scrapbooking supplies, and projects in various stages of creation. If she's in the house, she's arting something together. It could be a sign for all the doorknobs in the house...a picture she drew for Maelyn...a homework project....or just a bunch of pieces of colored paper stock. And the uncreative, non-scrapbooking mom in me sees this as a huge obstacle that gets in the way of a neat and tidy workspace. So I always try and clean it up or throw away stuff that looks like it's been used and done with. Sometimes she gets upset because I've thrown away the wrong scrap of paper or the picture she was going to hang somewhere. In my haste to clean up I'm wrecking her creativity. She told me the other day that she likes it messy because then she can continue working from day to day and I always put things back in the wrong place. Makes sense, huh? Artists sometimes keep a messy area while they're developing greatness. Supplies are meant to be used, not kept in bins and pencil cases. Those scraps are trash to me, but to her they're her next project or picture. I am going to try and resist my urge to clean up her art desk. I'm going to let her pile it up with whatever supplies and stuff she's working on and leave it alone. I would hate to squelch her little artistic mind with my need to keep everything organized. Who knows what she'll end up creating?