You Think You Can Do Better?

One thing kids always appreciate is a good story. Lucky for me, the Villa galleries are full of objects that tell great stories. So I often find myself talking to groups of kids about artifacts in our Trojan War gallery that help tell the story of Odysseus and the cyclops. It just so happens that the Etruscan pithos I use the most to tell that story does not depict a cyclops in the way your average 21st century kid-- living in a world of HD t.v., graphic novels, and computer animation--expects it to be. Since they always seem so convinced they can do a better, more accurate job of representing a cyclops, I hand out the art supplies and invite them to give it a shot. As you can imagine, that means I spend a lot of my time in these cyclops drawing sessions. Eventually I gave in and started drawing my own version along with the kids, and I produced a couple of decent examples (at least in my judgement), so I thought I'd share them with you here. The one on top earned me the title of "bestest cyclops drawer ever" from one third grade class. It is skills like this that will stand me in good stead for the rest of my career.

Sketching Herakles

Last month one of our teachers brought back a rather entertaining souvenir from an "Art Odyssey" lesson, which is our family program at the museum and is meant for family members of all ages. She featured mythological heroes in the lesson, and as the activity at the end asked everyone to sketch one of the most famous statues in the Villa's collection, the Landsdowne Herakles:


Below is the drawing that a grandmother on the tour produced:


I wonder what was on grandma's mind?