The Art In Everything
RJ is Creative Director for Type In Type Out (TITO), a graphics and brand strategy firm based in Los Angeles. A champion for the City, he was lucky to be raised in the thick of a heavy art, design, museum and architecture scene in LA with a knack for the southern California vernacular. As a foster/adoptive parent, he hopes to show that appreciation for art & design to his 3-year-old every single day.
Let’s face it, art, in the time of Covid, may not be the easiest thing to connect to these days considering museums are closed, pottery classes are on hold, and these days sharing means spreading. Kids are thirsty for sensory play and active participation in the arts and all the art in everything. But how do they find their art fix while doing it safely and while respecting the distance between their friends? Art is everywhere you look. And while you may have to look hard for it, it may very easily live right underneath your nose.
By far, the easiest way to connect to art is by getting into your car and driving down the street. No need to even get out of your car. But in the instance that you’re able to walk around, Row DTLA is a great place to spend the time with your toddler. There is art everywhere, including works by muralists Retna, Abel Macias and Leta Sobierajski. Native New Yorker, Carly Kuhn, has painted a series of ‘Faces’ plastered onto walls and columns on Market Row. They are textural and add a little bit of whimsy to a seemingly concrete jungle of mass. You’ll have to choose your time wisely as it tends to get crowded at Row DTLA over the weekend. But it seems that the best time to visit these faces are during the week when you and your toddler can get some good one-on-one time.
There is architecture everywhere you look. If you’re lucky, you don’t even need to step outside to experience it. But in the event you and your toddler happen to stumble on a historic piece of architecture or a construction site, take a minute or two to capture that moment in time. Believe it or not, built architecture evolves throughout time and history. It is a living breathing thing that needs to be treated with the utmost respect and dignity it deserves. Teaching your kids how to respect architecture at a very young age will go a long way, I guarantee it. Even when you take a picture of an Eric Owen Moss building being erected in the background of a sprawling green park, remember to teach your kids to look up and to take a mental picture of it, because it will never look the same as it did the moment they did it. And how wonderful is that thinking?
How awesome is it to shop for art in the comfort of your own home (and most especially in your lounge attire and semi-tossed hair). These blocks from Himiku Blocks are a great way for your kids to exercise their tactile sense while thinking creatively. I can’t tell you how many hours my toddler and I have spent building and demolishing and building and recreating new structures. You can even create games out of art play especially if they vary in size, shape and color. There are, what seem to be, a million different types of art blocks in the market, but there is nothing like Himiku Blocks that seem to get it right.
There is nothing like the feeling of getting your hands around a Crayola marker. Now picture what it’s like to have your toddler experience that seem feeling for the first time. The one thing I ask my toddler to do every single day is to “create, create and CREATE!” Our kids have the opportunity to create something that nobody else has created in this lifetime - how powerful is it to empower a little brain with that type of thinking? Markers aren’t just colorful tools to help communicate ideas and emotion, too. They help exercise motor skills and to spark creative movement with just the flick of a marker or crayon. It’s so powerful!
Cut to present day when all your toddler wants to do is turn on his iPad, grab his Apple Pencil, and scribble. If you asked somebody 20 years ago what an iPad or Apple Pencil was, you’d most likely say, “The what now?” Our kids are smarter than we were at their age and that doesn’t scare me at all. I think of all the new geniuses, doctors, inventors, designers and vaccine scientists there will be 10-20 years from now and I will marvel at how the world will be a better place for everyone. And to think it was because I bought my child an iPad, I sit amazed every single day at how far technology has come.
- RJ aka Art & Design Geek Dad
insta: @rjnotarjay
