Cardboard Creations

My passion is creating imaginative play systems from cardboard and found objects with my children. I believe the most important attributes I can foster in my children are the confidence to access and share their creativity, as well as a deep, inner knowing that all things are possible with a willingness to try.

Armed with a loose plan, a crayon and construction paper blueprint, a roll of tape and a pair of scissors, we have the ability to put together a cardboard creation more clever and ingenious than any heist ever pulled off by the Five Points Gang.

We can spend hours together with a stack of cardboard and some random household odds and ends, creating and perfecting something exciting that we enjoy interacting with for days, and sometimes weeks afterward. It’s powerful to see how beginning this creative practice early in life, has already expanded my children’s imaginative choices in their own efficient designs. Such as meticulously cut and strategically taped plastic baggies, to act as eye shields for their cardboard space helmets, or a pair of carefully constructed cardboard wings with elastic handholds.

A child’s imagination, coupled with the possibilities of the flat, malleable cardboard, beat the most beautiful, innovative toys on the market almost every time! After all, there is so much more appreciation and pride in the things we create for ourselves and each other to enjoy.

During my own childhood, my fondest memories were creating hybrid cardboard and blanket forts with my sister and brother. Our grandmother was our crafty inspiration—always having the best clothes pin or turkey blaster solution for our hard hitting design conundrums!

The way we were given free reign to build what we wanted—the random supplies to cut, string, stack and glue together—truly was hog heaven! I couldn’t get enough and still can’t. As an artist, a teacher and simply, as a person, creating and patching my own, perfect world—the technical

skills and intellectual prowess I’ve gained—are invaluable. Just about any artistic medium comes naturally, and I understand how to fix almost anything, just by studying the brush strokes, the way the staples are articulated over the upholstery, or how an adverse experience is hitting my heart. Cardboard creations teach self sufficiency and self awareness. I can’t think of a greater gift that I could give my children than showing them the power exists within them to create, manipulate and repair their world and themselves.

I wholly support and participate, with passion, in this kind of free form, art education. How it teaches us to think outside the box (the cardboard box that is!) and see everything as multi-functional and utilitarian. Letting our minds open and allowing the space to freely create, is how the most difficult problems in this life can be solved. The process always gives way to conversations that blur into so many other disciplines and aspects of our lives. We aren’t just cutting holes in cardboard—we are learning about each other and learning about ourselves.

I am inspired to be creative with my children in this way, particularly because I feel this process teaches them so much more than anyone can see. Cardboard creations help us bond deeply. The process shows them how to work together, to trust each other and their own judgement. They begin to stand with confidence in their creative choices, and accept when a design doesn’t work out as planned. They welcome suggestions and delight in the project evolving into something completely different and more amazing than they could have imagined. But ultimately, the sense of accomplishment and ownership—that their own opinion of their work—is what matters most, is everything.