Overcome by Art

When I saw this one come home from school last week, I knew exactly how Ralphie's Dad felt when he first clapped eyes on the leg lamp. Overcome by Art.

It's a chalk drawing on black construction paper.

Crazy Cat Lady

Just when I've bragged that my kid can handle perspective, he turns in a drawing with a window like that on it. Oh well. He says he was in a hurry to draw the Crazy Cat Lady. And if this looks familiar, it's because I showed him this:

Paddle Treatment Follow-Up

Just in case you want to know what the paddle treatment ended up looking like. At least in the minds of two future victims . . .

Oh, Oma . . .

My brother Randy and I have a theory: Dad did many things to increase the value of property he owned, but one of the most important things he did -- at least in his eyes, we assume -- was to increase the sheer weight of said property, thus increasing its value. That, we figured, was the only way to explain why all of those landscaping rocks came home from Kilgore, all those buckets of nails and screws came to be underneath the work bench, how all those old trucks and Jeeps kept showing up, and why Dad was fascinated with building shed after outbuilding and yurt and such. We teased her earlier this week that one of these days we'd come to visit her and see her sitting in a room bare of everything but her TV, her recliner, and, of course, the cats. That's Monkey inside, with Klinker in the windowsill outside.

So with Mom actively giving away her stuff -- which is her right, it's her stuff'; she can do with it what she likes -- we have to wonder what Dad thinks about his property getting lighter now. Probably not worried, because his kids' properties are getting heavier with each visit.)

Perspective Perspective

You know, I'm not sure I knew what perspective was when I was Liam's age, but here he is, showing off his prowess as the doe-eyed Scooter crosses out his name on the comic and adds his own.

The Amazing Ryan

Yet another school doodle, featuring an occasional Scooter comic strip character: The Amazing Ryan. He never has any luck, no matter what he does.

Paddle Treatment

You know, I don't think they do paddle treatments at school any more. Maybe this is why. This was done on the back of a bit of math homework, by the way. The apple did not fall far from the tree.

Star Wars

Our three children love the Star Wars movies, proving once again that they really are aimed at a prepubescent audience (which is, of course, why I like them).

Here is a series of drawings our youngest has produced of the film -- well, I can't call it a trilogy, so maybe I'll call it a travesty -- and its main Jedi characters. (He's heavily into Jedi stuff; he has his own light saber and walks around the house in my Dickies jacket because it's way too big for him and makes him look like he's wearing a Jedi robe).

First, Luke and Crewman No. 5. Luke's the guy in orange. He doesn't remember who the other guy is.

Next, of course, Yoda. Obviously not in his later, SWK stage, but in an earlier, more robust and obviously more buff stage.

Then good ol' Obi Wan Kenobi, wearing what looks like an angora sweater.

And last but not least Qui-gon Jinn.

Our Landscape Artist

This is a rather unusual drawing for our oldest to do -- there aren't any comics or comical situations, nor are there airplanes shooting at each other or Indiana Jones sarcastically looking through his bag to find just the thing to put on the booby trap instead of the idol.

It's a landscape. A rather peaceful one at that.

I kinda like it.

Guest Art -- But by Whom?

It's nice to have guest art on My Refrigerator. Too bad our daughter can't remember who drew this picture. Oh well.

I Get Notes

Just so you know, I repaired Eric.

Basking in the Glow of Utter Civility

Here's Scooter again, trying to deal with one of his sophisticated friends.

This one I believe is inspired by a Foxtrot comic, thought I can't quite peg which specific strip, precisely.

Lisputania, or, He Is Definitely My Son

Our oldest, tired of meticulously copying maps of the states out of the atlas -- because he can; I don't ask for explanations any more -- decided to create his own country. Just like I did when I was a kid. The cartographer never falls far from the tree, obviously.

Tonight, One From Each

I am seriously falling behind in posting drawings here, and the kids just keep on producing them. I've got a bale scanned and another bale waiting to be scanned and I'm beginning to feel like one of those hoarders they have on TV. So I'm offering up three drawings tonight.

The first, shown above, is another Scooter comic from our oldest. This is kind of copied from Peanuts. Almost.

This one is the oldest I've got still to use. It's a portrait of our youngest on the left, by our youngest, done more than a year ago. That's me on the right, with his mom in the middle.

Then there's this contribution from our daughter: Typical.

Rata Tata Tata!

Ya gotta watch those Nazis. They'll sneak up on you.

And if I didn't know better -- I know he hasn't seen the movie -- I'd think he'd gotten the idea for this from "The Battle of Britain."

Again, I enjoy seeing these ideas come out of my kids' heads.

Cutesie Pie Dog

Once and a while one of our kids will produce one of those bits of art that you know they've copied from somewhere, rather than come up with on their own. This is one of those drawings: the inevitable doggie with the huge eyes and lolling tongue. Not that it's bad, you know. Just cliche.