Dad, Mom and first-grade son were having lunch in a local restaurant. They were waiting for the Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Schools Art Show to open at the Albert Lea Art Center and were all looking forward to seeing the displays. The child’s masterpiece was a painting of fireflies. He was already basking in their attention and his eyes were bright with excitement.

I couldn’t help but smile. I, too, was looking forward to the exhibit. Each year when this show is hung, the walls seem to glow with a wonderful energy. Original art done by a child has a freshness and a freedom that comes from spontaneity and the knowledge that their work is more than OK, it is good. In Emphasis Art by Frank Wachowiak, he says, “It is a privilege, a revelation, and a joy to observe and guide children as they create in paint, crayon, pastel, clay, wood, yarn, cloth, paper and found materials. Their imagination and inventiveness know no bounds; their designs and configurations are excitingly unpredictable. No wonder, then, that their intuitive, naive, visual expressions have entranced and even influenced such noted painters as Henri Matisse, Paul Klee and Karel Appel. To see children grow from year to year in their artistic expression, is to witness a most fascinating aspect of human individual growth.”

He goes on to discuss what happens when a child begins to understand art concepts regarding light and dark, shapes, composition and colors, and how this enables them to see their world in a different light. He compares a stereotypical drawing of a square house with a triangle shape for a roof with a rectangle shape home with brick siding, different size windows with shutters, flowers and shrubs, a large tree in the yard, a blue door, and a family standing near the tree. The first drawing tells you nothing about the people who live there, the second tells you a lot. Before a young child will make the giant leap from drawing one to another, he needs to learn to observe the differences.

I was tickled to see that Wachowiak used Henri Matisse as an example of a modern artist whose work seems inspired by children’s art. Matisse is one of my favorite artists. His work has unpredictable freedom in his earlier paintings where dimension is definitely not a priority and in his later cut paper mimosa leaf collages. He certainly wasn’t concerned by “normal” art guidelines, and his work seemed inspired by a voice that said, “Listen to that childhood voice — Be spontaneous. Be inventive. Use your imagination. Have fun with your art.”

Mattise, like many 20th century artists recognizing that the camera could do on film what they had been doing on canvas, reached for an entirely new type of art — one based on feelings and imagination.

In the Art Center show, it was interesting to see that the Southwest Middle School Art was inspired by such famous artists as Louise Nevelson and Georgia O’Keefe. Well known for her up-close, extremely detailed floral paintings, O’Keefe’s work invites you to examine a flower with all of its intricacy and incredible color combinations. The three-dimensional cardboard assemblages done by the Middle School students encourage you to examine the unusual combinations of shapes and layering and to wonder at the perspective and dimension that developed as each piece was assembled.

Throughout the student exhibit you will find masks, snowflakes, sculptures, people — real and funnily abstract, shoes, and a multitude of other subjects, some two dimensional and some three. The Herfindahl and Storrer galleries are an inviting place to visit and to reminisce.

I can’t help but wonder if every adult that sees the show is reminded of a drawing or painting or sculpture that was done during those early years when he knew that “Art is fun.” And, somewhere in the memory bank, there is also the question, “What would my life be like now, if I had continued to pursue that interest?” Or, even better, “What would my life be like if I would try it now? Can I enjoy it as much as that little bright-eyed boy?”

We invite you to stop at the Art Center, enjoy the wonderfully imaginative student art on display, and think about how you can expand your own creative side. Maybe it’s time to try something new!

Bev Jackson Cotter is a member of the Albert Lea Art Center where the work of students from Halverson, Hawthorne, Lakeview, Sibley, Southwest Middle School and Albert Lea High School will be on display through Saturday, April 3.