Painted Macaroni: Artists Recall the First Piece They Made as a Child

A few years ago, I ran a series of more than 30 artist interviews on my blog called Six of the Best (click the link to jump into the series). Some of the best responses came from asking each artist this question: What's the first ever piece of art you remember making? In this post and the previous post, I've collected some of the most interesting answers. Click on each artist's name to find out more about their work.

Luis Roca: A painted macaroni piece of my left hand on green construction paper in kindergarten.

Tim McFarlane: The very first piece of art that I remember making was a cardboard figure of a man made out of a shoebox that my mother had. I was probably seven or so and that was the first thing that I put together by myself, using only my imagination. I remember it being a very spontaneous act: I pulled the box out from a bottom drawer in my mothers bureau, started cutting it up with scissors and wound up with a rough, squared off approximation of a figure. I don’t know what possessed me to do that, but it was the first time that I remember consciously making something.

Kate Ingold: I drew portraits my whole childhood. I think the oldest one my mom has is one I drew of her when I was 6. It’s ridiculous and huge and colorful and I have her wearing the giant bauble earrings that dangle down to her shoulders. Yet I think it’s rather spectacular! In high school I’d stay up all night listening to music and drawing portraits of my favorite dead movie stars, like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean.

Lynn Neuman: I was babysitting when I was 16, and after the kids went to sleep, I sat on the floor of their parents’ bedroom and made a drawing based on a piece of art depicting two lovers. Later that week I spent hours recreating it from the initial sketch. I planned to give it to my new boyfriend for Valentine’s Day, only, it felt too personal. Instead, I folded it up and carried it around for weeks, until I had the courage to give him the crumpled drawing. A couple years later I started drawing again, took my first serious art course during the summer at DAAP and then transferred into the University of Michigan art school in the Fall. Looking back, I recognize the curiosity and focus I had while making that drawing as my first real work of art.

Judith Mullen:  I remember always being able to draw from memory, but I think I really felt I'd made a piece of art after making and embellishing my first snowman.  I believe I was 4 years old.  My parents had just bought our first home and I was sent outside to play in the snow, in the front of the house where they could see me. This was my first experience of having an entire front yard to play in, so I think it became my first canvas! After I had rolled the snow into three body parts, my dad came out to help stack them up and we adorned it with a carrot nose, button eyes and tree branches for arms. To this day I love finding new snowmen creations in my neighborhood.

Rick Beerhorst: The first piece of art I remember making was a drawing of my mother. I remember it creating kind of a stir in our household because I was very young, maybe five? And apparently it was good enough to make some excitement among my family. I think I am still trying to create that stir and get a little bit of that attention I had that day when I was five.

Lisa Beck: A parrot drawn on construction paper with crayon, cut out and mounted on cardboard so I could perch it on my shoulder. As I recall, a lot of tape was involved.