... where family is the source of humor!

"Microsoft® Is My Muse!" by Carol Wells

Other mothers have refrigerator doors dotted with cheerful crayon or pencil drawings of houses, flowers, animals, or whatever their Junior Artist happens to share. My refrigerator cannot boast of being home to such youthful artistic renditions.

My son had a terrible habit of drawing on anything that did not move. Yet, somehow in his mind, paper mistakenly construed to being a moving object.

He decorated our bed sheet with his artistic rendition of the main characters of PBS cartoon Arthur. Yes, at the foot of our bed we have Arthur - complete with glasses drawn on, showing an eye for detail - and his sister smiling at our toes. I found it hard to be delighted about having aardvark siblings drawn on our sheets. Perhaps I may not have felt less than enthusiastic if the sheets had been older versus him deciding to use our new sheets as an art canvas.

Portions of our walls share attempts at creating still life or landscape murals. In the children's book Harold only had a purple crayon; our son had a 16 pack! Management, thankfully, understanding and tongue-in-cheekily complimented our son about his artistic side. My husband is less than understanding while paying for a can of primer to cover up the artwork. Feel free to take a lucky guess on what book is not in our son's personal library.

His father and I gradually discouraged our son not to use walls and sheets as drawing surfaces by buying coloring books, drawing pads, and other sundries to encourage him to outlet his artistic side in a less damaging format. We also showed him that using paper meant we could more easily display artwork on the refrigerator, something we could not do with wall plaster or our sheets. The side backlash result is a bombardment of all the sheets of paper that he feels deserves to decorate the refrigerator door.

When he 'graduated' to using paper, still life and landscapes became set aside while he decided to adopt a theme for his artistic expression! Had my son been influenced by Andy Warhol's past fascination with Campbell's Soup® labels? Could it be that he is demonstrating how vulnerable children are to advertising and logos and this is proof that some children programming advocates are correct about commercials aimed at the younger viewing audience?

I do not know. What I do know is that my refrigerator displays a young child's rendition of advertisements and company logos.

For a long time, like Picasso with his blue period, my son had a McDonald's® phase. I lost count of how often he proudly presented his father or I with various renderings of the Golden Arches or the basic restaurant architecture complete with an arrow pointing to the Drive Thru lane.

Until last month when one accidental mouse click on the revealed, to his wondering eyes, that one could change the desktop background. Ah, the euphoria that enveloped his body as he happily clicked and changed!

The one that most caught his eye and tastes, so it may seem, is the basic Microsoft® logo with the four square flag. I am basing this due to receiving at least forty of his artistic renditions of this flag complete in detail with smaller squares that 'break away' from the main flag. Tiring of the flag [sorry Mr. Gates], he explored to find more inspiration! Moreover, he found it!

I have side artwork of various other Microsoft® products to share with the flag logos now. Thanks to the graphic artists, hired by Microsoft®, my son figured out how to make 'bubble letters' that he later fills in! Call the company what you wish: Micro$oft, Microshaft, Mickeysoft, et al. It will not make a difference in the mind of my son who views Microsoft® and the logos of the company as his Muse.

Before Bill Gates brags about his company's inspirational role for my son's artistic explorations, last night the Computer Technology Gallery [also known as my refrigerator door] received a submitted interpretation of another company's logo: Netscape®. Yes, I think my son may start to branch out versus monopolizing the Microsoft® logo market.

Humorous Book Recommendations:             [ view all ]
Humor for a Mom's Heart: Stories, Quips, and Quotes to Lift the Heart
[Shari McDonald, editor; 245 pages]
A selection of humorous stories, quips and quotations for the mothers among us to enjoy collected by Shari ... can you relate?

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.
-- Mark Twain

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Humor Is Relative thanks Cay Dickson, from Houston Chronicle, for the compliment!

I don't own any of my own paintings because a Picasso original costs several thousand dollars and that's a luxury I cannot afford.
-- Pablo Picasso

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-- Lewis Carroll

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It's easy to understand modern art: If it hangs up on the wall its a painting, if you can walk around it its a sculpture.
-- Anonymous