Unlike most other children who at 4 years old were carrying around dolls or teddy’s, my favourite object was my Mondrian biography. I carried it around with me everywhere for years.
This book belonged to my dad, when he was studying Fine Art at university. He showed me the book when I was about 4, thinking that the colours and shapes would be exciting to me. And they were. The book became my prized possession. Apparently I used to
Sit and look through all the images in the book over and over again. It was obviously very loved because it had to be taped together! I also completely defaced the book, with scribbles and spelling practise, which adds to the significance of the book.
I remember my favourite image from the Mondrian book- “The Red Tree.” Even now I know why I liked it so much. The colours are exciting, with the contrasting and complimentary colours of the blue background against the red for the tree, pushing it to the foreground. The expressive ways in which it is painted make it look alive and exciting. However when I was 4 or 5 the contrasting colours must have been visually exciting to me without actually knowing why I liked it. I just did.
I’d like to think that this object started my interest in art as well as the influence of my dad, and it probably did have a big impact on that. And that is why this object is so special to me; it helped me in my interest in art and was also a place I began writing and first started drawing (although they are only scribbles). I think this object will come everywhere with me in the future, as a memory of my childhood and as my beginnings into art (or hopefully).
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