Chris Alvarez - Child's Play

Recreating the art of my young children has taken me to places I hadn’t expected. I thought I was simply reinterpreting my kids’ art, but I found myself reflecting on the past and learning about art in new ways.
When my son and daughter were little, they would spend their days in my studio making art alongside their dad. Revisiting their work brought those memories back with surprising force. Sometimes I found myself in tears as I “copied” their drawings and paintings in oil. I miss those fleeting years when my children were tiny, and this project has allowed me to reconnect
those past moments with the present.

I was fascinated by the carefree nature of their original work. Made in watercolor, pencil, and crayon, it was created without attachment to the outcome. It was made in the moment and for the moment, simply for the sake of play.

Trying to recreate that freedom was much harder than I expected. I could spend hours or even days on a painting that my child had made spontaneously. I could reproduce the marks, colors, and forms, but I could never quite reproduce their energy.

As I worked, I began to see unexpected connections between my children’s art and modern artists such as Kandinsky, Picasso, Sandzén, and O’Keeffe. Looking at their work alongside the art of children has made me see both in a new way.

These paintings were created with love and respect for my children, who have grown and are now traveling their own paths. I wanted to honor their work and their process as equal to mine, because it is.

Perhaps that is what my children taught me: sometimes the most important part of making art is simply to play.