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AN ARTIST'S STUDIO — When artist Mica Angela Hendricks worked on some sketches in the presence of her 4-year-old daughter, she expected to work in peace while her daughter doodled in her own sketchbook. What happened next, and the subsequent results, took Hendricks by surprise.
Her daughter insisted on completing the sketches Hendricks had started. At first the artist reacted as most parents would — with the frustrated exasperation of one who just just wants to work in peace — but eventually acquiesced and allowed her daughter to "collaborate" on her drawings.
"I would just draw on my own later, I decided. I love my daughter's artwork, truly I do! But this was 'MY sketchbook', my inner kid complained," Hendricks said on her blog.
The 4-year-old started to add a body to a large, female head Hendricks had drawn. The result was impressive; a whimsical, reptilian form to transport the listless, dreamy head through her two-dimensional life.
Hendricks decided to let her daughter pitch in on a number of sketches. Each one took a totally different direction as mother and daughter brought their own styles and views of the world to the drawing.
"She wasn't tentative. She was insistent and confident that she would of course improve any illustration I might have done. And the thing is, she did," Hendricks said.
Hendricks said the experience taught her oceans about not only what it means to be an artist, but what it means to see the world through the eyes of a child.
"Here is the lesson I learned: to try not to be so rigid," Hendricks said. "Yes, some things (like my new sketchbook) are sacred, but if you let go of those chains, new and wonderful things can happen."
The collaboration between the two yielded a gallery of amazing finished pieces. While Hendricks said she will post a few to sell, most of the prints she plans on saving for her and her daughter to enjoy throughout the years.
"Those things you hold so dear cannot change and grow and expand unless you loosen your grip on them a little," Hendricks said. "In sharing my artwork and allowing our daughter to be an equal in our collaborations, I helped solidify her confidence, which is way more precious than any doodle I could have done."
