The Rooster is left handed.
I didn't think anyone else in our family was left handed until my father recently told me that his mother was a lefty.
My best friend from high school, who is left handed, taught me to associate being left-handed with being artistic.
I'm not sure if that is a myth or if it is true.
My father's mother, my grandmother, wasn't someone that I'd describe as an artist, though she was gifted in the art of crochet.
Artistic or not, my left handed Rooster spends a lot of time thinking about colors.
"Do white and red make pink?" she asks?
"Does red and blue make purple?"While The Mayor painstakingly labors over detailed renderings of the world around him, The Rooster draws in quick, bold strokes.
Great swaths of color combine with unlikely companions to form patterns and shapes that I wouldn't expect to appreciate, but I always do.
Maybe it's just because I am her mother that I admire her artwork.
I prefer to imagine that she sees the world through a different lens than the rest of us -- the three, very literal and linear people with whom she shares a house.
I wonder where her different lens will lead her. How will it shape her? What will she see and make of the world?
When we went to the beach a few weeks ago, The Mayor spent his time digging holes, burying his father in sand and building sandcastles surrounded by moats.
The Rooster wandered off on her own to gather seashells.
Eventually, she settled in near us to sort them by size and color.
Soon, our towels and mats were bordered by an unexpected flower garden.
51 comments:
As I write this, my left-handed nine year old daughter is drawing 'Mediteranean flowers' with chalks. Her creativity has always been very different, more instinctive than her right-handed sister.
I adore the shell flowers Roo made - a sign of wonderful things to come :-)
My two sisters are both lefties and both are arty creative people. I'm told that my paternal grandmother was also born a lefty but was made to be right handed as it was not considered a good thing to be a lefty at that time.
Very artistic.
I hope she enjoys her creativity her whole life.
Dear oh the joys. My little brother is lefty and a very gifted musician. My best friend's first daughter is a lefty and she's very intelligent (about to get bumped up a grade). Then there's some crazy statistic like 10 of the past 13 presidents of the US have been leftys!
It's not just because you're her mother. That is beautiful -- more so because it was unexpected.
Wow. Beautiful flowers! (And we are all lefties over here, writers, artists, musicians, not a desk jockey in the bunch...maybe there's something to the creativity clause?)
This is exactly the sort of thing my Pumpkinpie does, too, though she is a right-hander. Her ideass for art projects amaze me.
Wow, those flowers are beautiful!
I am a righty and haven't a creative bone in my body. My husband is a lefty.. I'm hoping my daughter inherits his.
WoW! Those flowers are awesome!!
Lefties are artistic, intelligent, beautiful, wise, thoughtful, well-loved. How do I know all this to be true?! Because I am a lefty!
I'm the only left-handed person in my family. My grandfather was left-handed but was made to be right handed, so he is somewhat ambidextrous - writes with his right hand but throws with his left, etc. My grandfather was an engineer. He's a good painter but doesn't do much original stuff. On the other hand, I'm very creative, but not very good at actual artsy stuff like drawing. I am definitely in the "literal, linear" section for the most part.
That is awesome. Go, Rooster.
Beautiful!
I'm a lefty in a house of righties. Lefties are good.
They're beautiful!! Frame that photo! Love it!!!
(written by a right-handed artist)
Your kid is destined for greatness:) Really, those flowers are very cool!
I don't know if the left-hand idea is true or not, both my brother and I are very artistic, but he was ambidextrous when he was young and he's definitely the one with his head in the clouds! I suspect it helps him with his music.
Lefty or not, those flowers are amazing! What a beautiful, creative mind to have seen the shells' and rocks' potential.
It would never ever have dawned on me to make flowers out of seashells on the beach.
As a pretty non-artist, I stand, well, sit, in awe.
I agree with Sour Kraut, that should be framed.
Both Peanut and The Champ are lefties but niether their mother or I are. My mom and her dad are though. Maybe it skips a generation?
Tell Roo that Grandma Seattle thinks her "flowers" are very beautiful.
She always seems to be creative!
There are lots of lefties in our family - 90% of the women in the past four generations on my mom's side. Some of us are artsy, some are not.
I personally am a leftie and definitely artsy. I can say without a shadow of a doubt I see the world through an entirely different lens. And I'm never quite sure whether it's a blessing or not to tell you the truth. Sometimes it seems perhaps more of a curse.
My husband is also a leftie - though not at all creative - but both of our daughters are righties. Yet, they both seem to take a lot of the way they see the world from me.
Either way, those are beautiful flowers.
WOW! I am so impressed!
She did such a beautiful job. They'd be gorgeous mounted on a flat piece of driftwood.
That's gorgeous.
Wow! Those are awesome!
I get a little sensitive about the lefty/righty debate. I'm a creative RIGHT-HANDED soul and somehow always feel less genuine than my left-handed counterparts.
My daughter shows tendencies to being a lefty, which makes her dad proud (his mama is a lefty, too)!
Roo's got quite the talent. Keep up the good work, mom. (By that, I mean the parenting AND the writing!)
I balance out the above Jessica. I am an un-creative lefty.
I mean, I write, and sing... but no art art, or crafts.
That is real talent.
those flowers show instinctive talent - not that I think art needs to be marketable in order to be legimate, but something like that set in a thin round of concrete would not look at all out of place in the gardening isle of any local greenhouse/gardening store, market, or beach-front curio shop.
Beeeeyootimous!
Beautiful flowers!!! Lovely!!!
From what I understand, left handed people access more of the right side of their brains, which is where abstract thinking lies.
And yes, many recent presidents have been lefties. Clinton and Obama - I think that guy who starts with a B was also a lefty - but also Seinfeld and Jon Stewart!
As a lefty working in a creative field, I know plenty of very creative right handed people. So I may have learned something in 20 years. :)
That is SO impressive! Wow! I think you definitely have a lot to look forward to, artistic wise, with her!
Isn't it wonderful to have someone near who forces you to see the world in a different way? My daughter is like this too.
How very cool. As for me, with my youngest the only lefty in my life, I've just always associated leftiness with mischief and too much intelligence and -- how do I say this about a little boy? -- evilness? ;)
Have you ever noticed how many stars are lefties? I do think it is an artistic trait. I am ambidextrious (but unsure how to actually spell it). I do everything left handed EXCEPT write. My mother was a lefty until teachers tied her arm behind her back forcing her to write right handed. Apparently it was considered evil to be a lefty back then.
I love it!
If my lefty daughter made those flowers in the sand, that picture would definitely be hanging in my house!
Really pretty. :)
Breathtaking.
Monkey and his dad are both left handed. I love it for some reason. Husband is a scientist, Monkey is an unknown. Lefties are smart, they are mysterious, they are delicious.
Move up here. We are waiting for you.
A southpaw huh? I too am a southpaw and I believe lefties to be more artsy.
Whether it has to do with her handedness or not, she is definitely artistic.
All four of my grandparents, 3 of my uncles, and two of my siblings are lefties. Which is an interesting study of heredity, if nothing else.
The flowers are amazing. Go Roo!
FYI, Uncle Eric is a lefty.
Left-handed people are usually right-brain oriented: spacial concepts (artistic) and emotions (understanding more through feeling and sensing) override the methodical, organized right handers (= left-brain orientation.)
I'm not a lefty, but there are certain things I approach with a right-brained attitude; I once took a test that determined I was about 50-50 on that. I was the kind of kid who made a mosaic of the food on my plate at restaurants, but also critiqued anything the grammar on the menu. ;-)
Right handed or left...she is naturally talented. The flowers are very creative and beautiful!
I certainly don't want to jump all over your theory, and she definitely has a gift, but my mother is left-handed and can't accurately depict a cube if she is asked to draw it.
The flowers are beautiful!
For a moment I thought I was looking at a picture of real flowers that had been pulled apart and then put back together again. Shells? Really? Totally and awesomely beautiful!
that is GORGEOUS!!!!! I am NOT KIDDING!!
My sister and brother are BOTH lefty's. I'm the odd girl out.
Pretty!
That is prettier than anything I have made. Every.
I *love* this - the art, the creativity, and the post itself. Having a lefty for a daughter too, I completely understand.
Wow! That is amazing. I'm sure her "lens" will take her to many different places.
I am beyond impressed! Truly an artist! Wow! Gorgeous work!
Lefties are really associated with being artistic. I have several friends who are left handed and they are all artistic in their own ways.
The shell flower garden is really pretty, I guess the artistic side is already showing! :)
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