2016 – 8th Grade National 3rd Place Winner

Daisy Maldonado, Florida.

The Colors of Creativity

The paintbrush comes in contact with the canvas, starting with a boring beige. The artwork began colorless, without expression. The woman the artist was trying to draw sat patiently on a stool. She was plain; she had straight, black hair and light pink skin. The artist glided his paintbrush across the canvas, filling the outline of the woman’s face with beige.

The artist became bored with the plain color, so he added texture. Elegant strokes of pink and purple defined her cheekbones. He gripped his paintbrush and used white to highlight spots that had been showered with the bright light of the lamp next to her. He added purples, reds, and greens into the shadows and crevices of her face. The artist made her lips blue and purple, adding the color to bring out her beauty. Her eyes, originally a dark brown, were painted a vibrant purple, bringing life to the character that was being painted by him. The paintbrush glided lightly along the forehead of his artwork, creating every hair of her eyebrow in an ocean blue. The artist and the paintbrush seemed to work in synchronization, as if they were one of the same. His wrist flicked and the paintbrush moved smoothly, moving to the scalp of the artwork.

The artist looked back at the woman, and saw her hair had been parted evenly, draping over her shoulders. She was plain compared to the endless possibilities of the canvas and its colors.

He moved the paintbrush from the roots of the hair, down to the end of the canvas. Blues and purples expressed the darks of her hair, making it look as if someone could reach into the painting. He added lighter blues and purples to express the lights of her hair.

He looked back at the woman and observed the background--plain, and dark. The artist looked back at his canvas, knowing he would paint the opposite.

He painted the background all colors...for there was an endless variety. The background was painted in a rainbow of possibilities, bringing every color imaginable onto the canvas.

Finally, he had finished and turned the canvas around for the woman to see. Her expression was atrocious, filled with horror and disgust.

“What is this?!” she yelled. “This is not what I look like nor what I wish to look like. My face does not have blues, purples, or greens. What monstrosity have you created?!”

The artist countered, “This is the beauty of imagination! You can create anything you like and still have a work of art. I imagined you, as you are, and how everyone should be---full of color and expression!”

“Find some other fool to buy this childish junk!” With that, she left in anger.

The artist sat in despair. Why does society see imagination as a bad thing, not accepting it? They see it as unnatural--to think beyond what is already there. Knowledge of what already is has ruined the creativity behind the painting.

 

 

Kids Philosophy Slam Home Page