The theme of this current cycle of exhibitions at Saint Kate is “Family and Community,” and the ritual of attending school with a homemade lunch is a very familiar one to many of us. Some parents who happen to be artists, or are simply creatively inclined, supplement lunches with artwork to help personalize and enliven the school day.
This exhibition features artists who submit to a daily routine of drawing for their children, and the resulting work reflects a breadth of potential that is difficult to imagine without seeing the variety on display. Like art itself, until one considers the profound range of possibilities, it’s almost impossible to know how many dimensions a seemingly simple drawing can operate within.
We see work in the Vitrine made to calm and soothe, an impulse any new parent releasing their child to kindergarten will relate to. But there are also inside jokes, conceptual puns, games, references to summers past, summers upcoming, and some good old-fashioned dad and mom humor, that may or may not have been lost on the children who read them while trading fruit options with their friends.
As these works of art have all taken rides through various cafeterias, like so many paper astronauts, they bear the wear of their journeys: milk, banana, Cheeto, and ketchup stains. And of course, for each message you see here, another may not have survived the adventure. The punishment and costs of lunchbox travel can be great, but these heroic survivors tell a promising tale of family, care, and growth that can inspire us all to think about communication and family through art making.
