The art of a child.

A week ago, or so, I had the chance to see what artistic motivations lie within my two youngest boys. They were at the Publika shopping mall, and a stall there was selling little art canvases for children. These had the outline of a scene on them. The point was to paint in the scene in the colours of one’s choice. The boys were left free to choose whichever scene they pleased.

What interested me was the choices the boys made. Fintan chose an animal which the family associates with me. In so doing, he was showing affection for his father. Now he could have chosen many other animals, objects and scenes, but wished to make a deliberate reference to me. I was touched. However, the sight of the animal provoked a little competition between the boys.

“I want that one!”, said Fintan.

“No! I do!”, countered Tiarnan.

“No! It’s mine!”, said Fintan emphatically and reached out for it.

So, both my sons wanted to reference their father. I smiled to see their little squabble.

Then Tiarnan saw something else. It was the outline of a cat. With certainty he reached out for it and picked it up with an odd tenderness. There was clearly a feeling in his heart.

Tiarnan chose to paint the cat in black and white. This was most telling. He even painted a particular black patch over the eye of the cat.

“This is Cow.”, he said as he worked on the painting. There was an intensity of emotion, in his voice, as he said the name.

Cow was our black and white cat who had been killed by dogs, a few months back – bitten alive.

“It makes me sad, to paint Cow.”, he confided softly, brush in hand, “but happy too.”

His work was well observed and skilfully painted. He had managed to capture the essence of Cow, in just the right choices of colour, and shape and brush-stroke. It was a good piece.

“I realize something, today, Mummy.” Tiarnan said, insightfully. “I really like Art and Craft.”

I was heartened to hear that. I am always happy when our boys discover an interest – for that is what motivates a person to achieve something worthwhile.

Fintan’s piece was good too. He had been forced to choose colours which were not natural to the animal in question since his palate didn’t include the right colours – but his choices were warm and somehow loving. I found both their work touching.

Tiarnan has taken to painting more frequently since then and really enjoys it. Let us see how this interest develops, over time.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

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If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

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Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

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Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Tiarnan gets to know his mummy.

Creative activity is usually pursued in solitude. As such our children don’t really get to see us when we are working, most of the time. Thus, it was a revelation for Tiarnan to see his mummy at work, recently.

Tiarnan came into the room, as Syahidah drew.

Curiously, he sidled up to her and gazed on the work, with great, absorbed interest.

He asked to do it, too. Syahidah offered him a pen and he started drawing.

After a while, he looked up, with a definite insight in his eyes.

“Mummy, you are kind of like an artist.”

She was so happy to hear that from him – for he said the word “artist” with such emphasis and relish. Clearly, for him, an artist is a very big thing indeed.

Syahidah carried on her work, with a lingering smile.

Tiarnan did so too.

I watched them, from across the room: two little artists, busily at work: the Master (or Mistress) and the Apprentice. It was warming to see, for I like nothing better than to see people being creative.

What is interesting to me, is just where he got this concept of “artist” from. He is only five years old. My mind is cast back to the episode of Doctor Who concerning Vincent Van Gogh. It could be that he learnt what artists are, from a time traveller. You never know what children learn from TV.

In time, the other two sons came in to watch too. In the end, all of them ended up drawing. It seems that mummy has inspired quite a little burst of creativity, in the household. It is heartening to see.

Happy drawing boys!

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks. You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Teaching Daddy how to see.

Tiarnan often sees things I just don't notice. It is quite humbling, in a way, to simply take a walk in the world with my three year old son. Today, I did just that.

First, we stood at the bus stop eyeing a "G.I. Joe" poster together. The strong image of a gun toting soldier, with chaos all around drew Tiarnan's attention.

"There's a tank.", he said, pointing at a dimly drawn object in the background.

"Oh yes." So there was. I hadn't noticed. "It is a tank."

"What's that?", he asked, pointing at the letters G.I, before the Joe.

"Oh that means an American soldier."

"Daddy look!"

I looked but didn't see.

"A spider! A tiny spider!"

I followed the pointing of his finger and there, in its line of fire, was a tiny spider, hiding in one corner of the poster. It was about one third of an inch long, and much the same colour as the background on which it hid. Yet, Tiarnan had spotted it. I, of course, hadn't noticed.

"It is very small.", he observed, peering more closely at it.

"Yes."

Later, as we got off the bus, he suddenly yelped excitedly.

"Look!", he pointed.

There, hidden in the under brush, in the vegetation that grew beside the road, was a lizard. It was really quite a big lizard - but, you know what, had it not been for Tiarnan, I wouldn't have noticed. It was a green lizard, hiding in green grass, under green shrubbery. Almost no-one on this planet would have noticed...but Tiarnan did.

We watched the lizard together for a minute or two, Tiarnan fascinated by its every little action.

"It is a very big lizard, Daddy."

It was, too. Perhaps fifty or sixty centimetres long.

I was rather getting the feeling, by this time, that Tiarnan really saw a lot more in the world, than I did. He noticed things, I just didn't see at all...and he did it all the time.

On the way back from the bank, he did it one more time.

"Look Daddy, a shoe!"

I looked where he pointed and there, hidden in the long grass, beside the path, completely BURIED in the ground, apart from part of the black sole, peeking out, at the level of the ground, was a training shoe.

Again, I hadn't seen it and wouldn't have noticed it, were it not for my son.

Together we examined the strangeness of this shoe and wondered how it ended it up buried in the ground.

By the time I took Tiarnan home, today, I was both humbled and impressed. Humbled, that Tiarnan should see so much more in the world, than I did - and impressed, too, that he did so.

He may be young. He may be small...but he sure is observant.

Thank you, Tiarnan, for trying to teach Daddy how to see, today. It was an unexpected but, dare I say it, eye-opening lesson.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals.If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

An unexpected dinosaur.

Yesterday, Tiarnan sat up in bed and said, quite out of nothing, "I have a dinosaur body."

We looked at our little three year old son and saw that he looked just like a little three year old son. We couldn't see the resemblance to a dinosaur, at all.

Perceiving, perhaps, our incomprehension, he bent forward to reveal his back, and then reached behind him to trace the bumps of his spine.

"There!" he said, as if that explained everything.

Ah. We understood. He was comparing the ridges on his back to the ridges on the backs of dinosaurs such as Triceratops. Indeed, by that measure, he did have a "dinosaur body".

Tiarnan, our little dinosaur, is funny in the way he thinks. He is always associating things and linking distant things together. A moment's reflection is always enough to see that he has a point and that the things he has connected could, indeed, be connected, if you looked at the world in the way he was choosing to.

I see, in the way he thinks, the beginnings of an artist of some kind, for, like many artists, he is a great associator.

In any event, whatever he chooses to be (and he has shown the traits of an actor often enough, too), it will be entertaining to watch him grow up and hear him make his surprising observations, along the way.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Tiarnan's gift for daddy.

A couple of days ago, Tiarnan, just turned three, a few days ago, did something strange and wonderful for me.

We were sitting at a bus stop, waiting to go into town together. He turned to me suddenly and said: "Daddy close your eyes!"

He always does this when he is about to present a surprise.

I did as he asked and closed my eyes.

Then, after a while, I opened them.

His arms stretched out, pointing at the road and he said: "Duh duuuh!"

Tiarnan had just introduced the world to me and more specifically the road, as a surprise.

I laughed out loud, for I understood in his gesture, echoes of other things. For me, it seemed like the act of an artist, to present the world as a surprise - yet Tiarnan had done just that.

He was laughing with me, mischief in his eyes.

Tiarnan is a child who manages to surprise, not just by what he does, but by what he thinks. Here he thought to present the world as a surprise. There seems to me to be a great profundity in that, in a way. Knowing him, I fully expect that profundity to be intended in some way.

Actually, the funny thing is that he DID surprise me. By presenting the road to me, in this way, he could not have done anything more unexpected. He had, therefore, managed to create a surprise out of the most unsurprising thing: a road filled with passing cars. Perhaps that was just his intention, to surprise with the unsurprising.

How surprising he is.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Bedtime for a fish.

Yesterday, Tiarnan, did a drawing on a type of magnetic sketchpad.

"It's a fish.", he explained, to his mother.

"A fish?", she queried, looking down at his carefully drawn lines. "I don't see any eyes."

"Oh...it's sleepy."

Then he took a hold of the sketchboard controls and swiped across the image, which promptly disappeared.

"...and now it's dead.", he observed.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Hafiz Osman's Economist Art Exhibition.

Hafiz Osman, my brother-in-law (and uncle to Ainan) has been commissioned, by The Economist magazine, as one of the Singaporean artists to answer the question: "What is your opinion of the world today?".

The Economist Art exhibition is in to its second week now and goes on until the 26th November 2008. Hafiz's work, which used 500 backdated issues of the Economist magazine as its materials of construction, is a comment on both the fleeting nature of the media, and the fact that it is so often seen as nothing more than visual sensation that is not understood in context. His work is meant to reflect the "-human interpretations, language barriers, political and cultural interventions, all of which obscure true understanding of what is actually happening." He goes on to say that: “I would like people to form their own, independent opinions, through viewing the work, about modern media.”

Hafiz is an up-and-coming young artist, who has held fourteen exhibitions (this is his fifteenth), and been an artist-in-residence, three times. He has had exhibitions as far afield as Istanbul, in Turkey; Belgrade, in Serbia and Delft in Holland. He is also presently a lecturer in Fine Art at La Salle College of the Arts (he was previously earning his living entirely from his art).

If you would like to catch a glimpse of one of his works it is to be found at Chevron House, in the foyer, at 30 Raffles Place, until the 26th November and is available for viewing from morning until 6.30 pm.

I hope you get a chance to see it. Thanks.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

An unexpected architect.

Ainan has long been a designer of buildings, either drawing them or making them. The other day, however, I discovered something unexpected.

I came across Ainan sitting in the kitchen. Next to him, on the dining table was a model of a building - a most exotic construction. It was of the most otherworldly design, looking at it felt like one had glimpsed a tower from an alien city. It was both bizarre and beautiful.

"That's lovely, Ainan." I said, assuming him to be the creator of the work.

"It's Fintan's.", he said, looking at it with respect.

"Fintan's?" I said, to check what I had heard.

"Yes. Fintan's."

I felt, perhaps, we were both impressed. There was something very sophisticated about the design - and something original too. This building had a vision all of its own. It was unlike any building I had ever seen. Fintan had taken the idea of a building and made it his own.

Fintan is only five years old. Yet, I can see something happening in him, that happened in Ainan, too, when he was a younger boy: his mind is starting to come alive, he is starting to express himself and show a unique character and viewpoint. Fintan's viewpoint is different to Ainan's. That building, for instance, which Fintan had designed, was unlike any that Ainan had ever made. Fintan's was made to fulfil an inner aesthetic, Ainan's were always designed to be structurally sound and solid. Fintan designed for beauty, Ainan designed for longevity. They had a different outlook on what a building should be - but each also had their own viewpoint as to what a good building was. Ainan's buildings had their own characteristic personality and flavour - and now I had discovered that Fintan's did, too - but a very different one.

It is funny to think that they are brothers and therefore share 50% of their genes - because there are both great differences and great similarities between them.

I don't know how Fintan is going to develop, but I am already seeing the beginnings of a boy taking his own path, in his own way, to his own destination - even if it is not yet clear, to us, where that might be.

It is interesting to note, though, that Fintan is showing high spatial skills - for that is one of Ainan's attributes, too. Yet, they each make different use of those skills.

Though I wonder at the future, the present is interesting enough as a parent. It is good to see each of them flower in their own way, yet also just as interesting to see the inter-relationships and commonalities between them. They are brothers, after all...

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

Fintan finds an identity.

Many people, whether they know it or not, are in search of themselves. By this, I mean they are in search of an identity: a means to describe themselves, to define their natures and perhaps to define their purposes.

Fintan, five, is well on the way to such a definition. A few days ago, he came into the room with his mouth all taped up. "emmmhhhuuuaaaatttt". He said, most unintelligibly. He was most intent. He looked up at me and tried to communicate a thought. "emmmmhhhhuuuaaattt.", he said, again. One further puzzled look from me was enough to make him give up. Then he stripped the sellotape from his mouth and went rushing after his elder brother, Ainan.

Ainan thought otherwise of Fintan's intent and promptly ran away. A farce ensued. Fintan ran after Ainan and Ainan ran away, both circling our bedroom, as fast as their feet would allow.

What struck me was the words Fintan chased Ainan with: "I'm an ARTIST!", he said, again and again, "I'm an ARTIST!", to justify his wish to tape up his brother.

I thought it a most splendid moment - an iconic one, even. For it showed that Fintan had a belief in what he sought to do, that was framed in artistic terms. He sought to use Ainan (involuntarily, though), in his self-imagined work of Art. Ainan was to become part of some statement that Fintan sought to make.

I let them run after each other for awhile, before Fintan realized that Abang Ainan wasn't going to co-operate.

Fintan, the artist, was left standing there, his sellotape art materials in one hand, an idea in his head and a distinct determination to become an artist, whether or not Abang (elder brother) Ainan wished to become involved.

If Fintan does become an artist - which, given that his mother is one, he might very well become - I will remember this moment as the first on which he concretely expressed that wish - whilst in the midst of creating a work of Art, with the intended participation of his brother.

I will now just have to wait to see what my Artist son does next. In the meantime, perhaps I should ask him what his work of Art meant to him.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

The best colour in the world.

Fintan has a favourite colour: you'll never guess which it is.

The day before yesterday, Fintan came to me holding a blue bicycle helmet in his hand. I had already examined it, with Tiarnan earlier and knew that it had a missing fastener. It needed replacing - either the fastener or the helmet.

"Daddy...", he began, his eyes searching mine, his tongue searching for the right words to approach the issue, delicately, "Can you buy me an orange helmet?"

"OK...we will do it this weekend."

Unusually, though gratified by that, he didn't seem content.

"Daddy...", he began again, measuring the size of my indulgence, inwardly, "Can you buy me a new bike?"

Now, a bicycle helmet, I could handle, but I wasn't prepared for a new bike: the old one still had the mandatory two wheels and that was good enough for me.

"Why?", I probed, realizing I couldn't see why he would need a NEW bike, when the old one was not broken down.

"Because it is not orange."

Ah. I see. I dwelt on his words for a moment or two, in silence.

"Can I have an orange helmet and an orange bike, Daddy?" He repeated, no longer prepared to wait for an answer.

"You can have an orange helmet. But not an orange bike - they are very expensive."

He was silent for only a moment.

Then he came back with a very reasonable tone: "Okaaay. I will have an orange helmet...but use the old bike."

I was warmed by the reasonableness of his reply. He understood and accepted the situation and my imposed limitation on his desires. He is good like that. Fintan is very accommodating. He never fails to understand the reality of a situation when it is presented to him. This makes it a whole lot easier communicating to my newly-minted five year old. (Newly minted because he has just turned five, a matter of days ago.)

This whole exchange is characteristic of Fintan. He has a particular aesthetic outlook, with a strong point of view on aesthetic matters - one which is very much his own, uninfluenced, it seems, by our own choices. He makes decisions based on aesthetic priorities over other considerations. It is interesting to watch a young child so certain of his views of what is beautiful, of what is acceptable, of what is desirable. He never fails to have an opinion on such matters. It seems that there is a nascent artist in him waiting to come out - for the first gift of an artist is a point of view: without that the art would have no personality or individuality. Fintan, at least, has an aesthetic point of view.

This is not our only brush with the colour orange recently. It looks like we will be living in an orange world for some time to come.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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Tiarnan and the meaning of art

A few days ago, Tiarnan was hurtling about the house, as he likes to do, when he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

He pointed at a little green badge and said: "Kuda". This is Malay for horse.

There, on the badge was a rather confused line drawing. It was of a male rider, drawn over a horse, about a centimetre tall. It wasn't a very good work of art for the lines of the man became confused with the lines of the horse. An adult would know what was meant to be represented (if only from the name of a riding school on the badge), but it was a surprise that a seventeen month old baby could work it out - for it was not at all clear.

From this, it is clear that Tiarnan is aware of the littlest things in his environment, which he is able to pick up at speed, even when moving around quite quickly. It is also clear that he understands the relationship between art and object; between the representation and the thing represented. He has long shown this understanding, but this is just one more example of him drawing that connection, with little information to go on.

(If you would like to more of Tiarnan, seventeen months, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and seven months, or Fintan, four years and no months, then please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Fintan chooses his colours

Today Fintan, three, dressed as a Power Ranger to go shopping with us. It is a normal occurrence in life with Fintan, to be accompanied by some variety of Super Hero. He prefers the attire of such people to his everyday clothing and will change out of his school clothes in the afternoon, after school, and slip into one of his Alter Egos or true identities. We, of course, accept this without question.

Anyway, today he was a blue, yellow and white Power Ranger. That was not what I thought was unusual. What I did notice was two straws that he had selected, somewhat earlier. He had been given the choice of many colours - and what did he select?

He chose yellow and blue - in shades that perfectly matched his outfit. He then joined them end to end to make a kind of sword in blue and yellow, that co-ordinated perfectly with his Power Ranger costume.

It was a small touch - but one that captures Fintan's outlook very well. He is not only fashion conscious - but he carries his personal aesthetic over into everything he does. Even the choice of a straw is made against the backdrop of how it would look with what he was wearing at the time.

One day, his wife is going to be very happy to have a man who can advise her on what she is wearing!

I am becoming more and more convinced, as the months pass, that Fintan will be some kind of artist. He already is in his way of looking at things - and it peeps through in much of his behaviour. He makes choices and does things that could only arise from conscious aesthetic decision-making. They are choices that would only be made if his thinking were along aesthetic lines, following some internal sense of taste. It is very interesting to watch this growing in him.

Fintan's creative perception

Fintan, three, sees the world through artist's eyes. An example of this occurred a couple of months ago.

We were travelling back from the East Coast (an artificial beach, actually), when Fintan pointed out of the window and said: "Man who...", then he pulled back an imaginary arrow on an imaginary bow, indicating with actions what he had no words for.

I looked at where his eyes were fixed. There stood an incomplete metal structure. It looked like part of a giant Ferris Wheel. It was positioned in the Marina area. A memory came back to me that once it was mooted that Singapore build a giant "Eye" like that in London. Perhaps this was it. Or perhaps this was some kind of industrial machine whose purpose was not clear. It was a grey metallic structure consisting of an upright column, with a metal framework attached shaped like a slice of cheesecake: an arc stretching out into space. Clearly it was only partially built. Now, that he had pointed it out, I, too, could see how it could be seen as an archer, standing majestically by the sea.

How beautiful is Fintan's world that he can see such things in it. He sees patterns everywhere, reinterpreting the world with his artistic gaze wherever he looks. In many ways, his way of seeing is much more interesting than the world actually is. For everywhere he looks he sees something exciting in it. This pattern matching, of course, is an old tendency of many men: one need only think of those who first saw the constellations above in points of light and gave them names and histories. Fintan is doing the same in his own way, with his own world: giving a little magic to a world that may have none without it.

Perhaps Fintan the pattern finder will become Fintan the artist, one day. His outlook certainly seems like one.

Tiarnan's first adventures in Art

There is something spooky about Tiarnan in that he does things which, if done deliberately would appear to be remarkable - but, we are left to judge - was it deliberate or was it accidental?

This phenomenon occurs when Tiarnan is given a pencil and paper. We have only recently done this. He holds the pencil firmly in his fist but, interestingly, does not scribble on the paper. He applies the pencil to the paper, with control. The first time I saw him do this he drew a heart-shape - and a square: both recognizable. Was that deliberate or not? We have no way of knowing.

Yesterday, however, with his mother, he added a single line to a drawing she had done. Now, again, we are left to wonder at the coincidence of it. Did he intend the line - or was it lucky happenstance? You see my wife had drawn a face without a neck. Tiarnan added a single line. It was not a straight line but one which bent in a rather apt fashion. The odd thing is where he put the line. He drew it in exactly in the right position so that it completed the drawing and gave the face a neck and suggested a chest below. I didn't see him do this. So, when I saw the drawing, I complimented my wife on the interesting way she had drawn the neck. "I didn't do that...Tiarnan did."

That could just be miraculous luck. However, it should be noted that he controlled the pencil very well - it was not a scribble, but a carefully placed line, that looked like it had been fashioned by my wife.

What happened next is, however, very clearly deliberate and indicates Tiarnan's state of mind with regards to exploring Art.

He took each coloured pencil in turn and drew the same straight line on paper, for each one. He did so methodically, drawing one line for each colour and studied the result. He also drew some of them with his left hand and some with his right as if trying to decide which hand was better for this task.

It was interesting to note that he drew the same line with each one: it was as if he wanted to compare the appearance produced by each pencil, by controlling other variables (like what he actually drew). Again, he didn't scribble. Each line was carefully controlled.

So what do we have here? We have a baby who doesn't scribble when given a pencil, but draws careful lines. He is thirteen months old. Could he be an artist, in the making?

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan, thirteen months, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and three months, a scientific child prodigy, or Fintan, three, then please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, IQ, gifted education, intelligence, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)