The kids and I had a wonderful time doing kids portraiture for our first theme of Momma Art. Despite a return to “school” which was a crisis virtual model to get through spring semester I decided to continue Momma Art.

In our art cupboard we have a variety of art books such as The Dot, Perfect Square, and Beautiful Oops. All of these books are wonderful art books for young students who are learning it’s ok to make mistakes, or start small, or see something differently than everyone else! So while Beautiful Oops was simple, especially for my 6^th grader, the lessons are ones artists young and old can practice and learn from and was just the inspiration I needed for our next Momma Art theme!

At first I made the same “oops” we saw in the book. From ripped paper, bent pages, coffee rings and splattered paint I liberally caused damage to our art notebooks that the kids then had to transform into their own beautiful oops.

It was SO MUCH FUN! It was fun to make the oops for the kids, to play it up as if I had no idea who would be so rude to put their coffee cup on our art books or leave them on the ground and have dirty shoes come walking through the pages! Then it was fun to try and transform those “mistakes”.

Our kindergartener often made a very similar version to what she saw in the book, while our 6^th grader was able to let his imagination soar.