Essay / Avant-Garde

Psalmtooning 3: "How Many?"

Phoebe Age Seven interprets the first line of the third psalm as an actual question –“How many are my foes?”– though it was apparently intended as an exclamation: “Wow, that’s a lot of foes!” Phoebe Age Seven adds the exclamation point, but you can tell

Essay / Avant-Garde

Nonconformist Droid

It’s not all Psalmtooning around the house these days. The artists known as Freddy Age Ten and Phoebe Age Eight are nothing if not prolific, and their work cannot be confined to any single medium or genre. The resident curators (also known as parents) are

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"Me First!" Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath

Here is a little two-minute video presentation of the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:8-16). The team at my church’s media ministry put it together, and it features drawings by my kids, accompanying narration by our friend Anna. This video

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Psalmtooning 2: Serve With Fear

Phoebe Age Seven draws her way through the second Psalm. In her earlier psalmtoon work, she showed a strong commitment to unifying the entire page composition. In the second Psalm, for whatever reason, she has apparently abandoned the quest for a unified composition in favor

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Psalmtooning 1: Planted by Rivers of Water

I don’t know what other families do for devotions, but at my house we are cartooning our way through the book of Psalms. With world-famous artists like Freddy Age Ten and Phoebe Age Eight living under the same roof, it’s an opportunity not to be

Essay / Avant-Garde

Z72

Freddy Age Nine is well known for his mastery of highly complex compositions, but his recent work has tended toward a stark simplicity. The image below is striking for its vast quantities of white space, so much that the two major figures in it seem

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Whiteboard Mathmachine Mousehouse

Freddy Age Nine isn’t opposed to math. But as an accomplished visual artist, he knows how to use visual design to add interest and motivation to the routine arithmetical functions required of today’s busy fourth grader. Simple operations can be carried out with this mouse-operated

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Kittens in the Air

Phoebe Age 7 combines word and image in this celebratory ode. That stylized text is: Kittens in the air Catnip in there lair Soreing over beare And you can see the beare over which they are soreing. The kittens are supported in their soreing project

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Sprawling Puppy Notepad Fugue

It’s one thing to see an artist’s finished works hanging in a gallery, and another thing to live with an artist and see works in progress. When you live with an artist, you never know for sure which bits of clutter might be art, or

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Otter Kitty

By Phoebe Age Six. The young artist who produced this image has described it as either “a kitty who thinks she’s an otter” or “an otter who thinks she’s a kitty.” Well, which is it? Even if we allow for the ambiguity of pictorial representation,

Essay / Avant-Garde

MeowsyLand Chronicles II: Bird Tuesday

Once upon a time in Meowsyland, the cat a-meows-ment park, the cats members were making a plan to eat some birds. They were all cats, you know, and cats love to eat birds. Suddenly, a tiny bird flew up and landed right in front of

Essay / Avant-Garde

MeowsyLand Chronicles: Snow Monday

Once upon a time in Meowsyland, the cat a-meows-ment park known as “The Meowiest Place on Earth,” the cats members were all getting ready for a very busy day. Stripey was the Mayor of Meowsyland, with a big office on Meown Street. He was also