______________________________________
In our April diary, we write about the invention of a beginner's mindset, the funny logic of children's misremembered words and a new project in the studio that is pushing us creatively.
______________________________________
I keep a running list in my head of the great mistake words that our children mix up and misremember.
When she was three, our eldest daughter firmly believed she was right, and I was wrong about how to pronounce many, many words. She had then (and still has now) a strong inner conviction of her own rightness.
“I want to bring my UNDER-brella”, she would say as we left the house on a rainy day. I try not to correct a small child’s pronunciation. Instead, I try to drop the same word into my own follow-on sentence, offering the child the chance to hear the correct pronunciation.
“Good idea, let’s bring our UM-brellas”, I would say.
“UNDER-brella” she would repeat the word back to me impatiently. As if to say - When will you learn? She has never worried about correcting me.
Another of her great mistake words insisting on calling the cupboard - the COVERED.”
“The plates are in the COVERED,” she would say. I understood the logic in her thinking. In our kitchen, there are open shelves, and then there are shelves with doors on them - in her mind, these are the “covereds.”
______________________________________
Many of her mistaken words have just become the vernacular in our home. I have almost completely forgotten that under-brella is not the word that everyone else uses.
As her younger siblings came along and learned to talk, they added lots more great mistake words into our family vocabulary. New mistake words that I now just can’t unhear.
______________________________________
At the last midterm, we spent a few days in Dublin, and managed to fit in visits to a few galleries. In the Douglas Hyde Gallery, we went to see Atsushi Kaga's beautiful recent exhibition when our youngest, the three-year-old, announced loudly for all to hear… “I like the paintings, but I don’t like the EXTRA - VISION”
“The extra what?” I whispered, trying to encourage him to bring his voice down,
“The EXTRA-VISION!” he said, waving his arms around in the air and gesturing generally towards the entire gallery room. “Ah, the exhibition!” I realised.
I understood immediately what he meant. He’s a three-year-old. He likes doing practical "jobs", breaking things apart and “fixing” them. He likes working on things and touching things - that how he understands his environment. He liked the pictures but didn't like the enforced sombre of gallery environments.
______________________________________
Small children are beginners at talking. They are learning all the time. There is such a lovely openness, logic and invention in these great mistakes. For a small child, the “covered” makes more sense than “cup-board.”
A three-year-old doesn’t know, or care, that um-brella comes from the Latin word umbra, meaning shadow. In Ireland, we really only use umbrellas for wet weather. “Under-brella” describes her experience of what it feels like walking in the rain, tucked under her brella.
For now, our youngest has locked in on “extra-vision” as the correct pronunciation. When I floated the idea of an upcoming trip to Dublin to visit family, his immediate reply was "Can we go on the train?!" followed by "I don't want to go to any extra-vision again."
And, when I hear the word exhibition now, I think immediately of the idea of an “extra-vision”. In my imagination, this is a place for deep, deep looking, like a kind of visual meditation room. A place where, maybe if we adults stare long enough at any given artwork, a portal could open up. We might even catch a glimpse into another realm. And then I think about how odd it is that this is only a place for looking, but no touching.
______________________________________
One of the reasons my log of funny mistake words is on my mind now is because April is the time to watch out for "WOODLAND ENEMIES".
"Wood A-NE-MON-ES,” I corrected our middle daughter when we were out for a walk together. She either didn’t hear me correcting her or didn’t care (and knowing her, I would guess the second).
“WOODLAND ENEMIES, WOODLAND ENEMIES” she pointed delightedly each time we came upon a patch of anemones.
Again, it eventually dawned on me - woodland enemies - what a brilliant mistake.
Wood anemones (above) are a beautiful, delicate white flower. They are an indicator of an ancient woodland and are one of the first flowers to bloom on the woodland floor in Spring.
I will forever imagine them now as a small army of white flowers invading the grumpy, dormant winter woodland - like something from an Elsa Beskow illustration. The woodland enemies announce the spring, their dropping white flower heads like little helmets nodding together in agreement. “It’s time to wake up in here, people. Rise and shine!”
______________________________________
I have noticed that our children have tended to make these great mistake word inventions around the age of three or four. I guess this is just as they are growing in confidence in their own use of language, but before they start formal “school.” This is the time when they have the freedom and confidence to imagine up their own version of a word they have misheard or misremembered. And a time before they learn about “the right way” of doing things. They make mistakes freely. Their word-filling system is brand new. And like a beginner trying out a new craft, they allow their imagination to fill the experience gaps. They make mistakes and, in the process, invent something brilliant.
______________________________________
Of course, I keep this running little list of funny words partly because I think our children are the cutest children ever. I know that in two years our youngest will start school. And as with his sisters before him he will slowly “iron out” his tendency to invent his own versions of a word. I am filled with future nostalgia. This time will pass. One day, I will be walking in the woods on my own, smiling and waving at the advancing army of woodland enemies.
______________________________________
“In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.”
Shunryu Suzuki
______________________________________
But there is actually another reason I keep this mental list of great mistakes. Each word is a reminder of the openness and invention of a beginner's mindset. Everytime I see a woodland enemy, I remember the value of great mistakes. There can be so much more humanity, humour and invention in our beginnings than in our “expertness.”
The zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki wrote, “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.”
How many creative breakthroughs came about because of something misremembered or misunderstood? The openess of a beginner's mindset brings a new perspective or a new way of doing things because they don’t know the correct way of doing things. How often has invention come as the result of not knowing the standard process and doing it your own way.
______________________________________
I never trained formally as a printmaker (I studied architecture and fine art). When I started printing for Superfolk, I improvised, experimented and developed my own way of doing things. But now, ten years later, I have 10 years of experience. I have my own way of working, and I'm no longer a beginner.
This week in the studio, we have been working on an illustration project that is pushing us to see things differently. For this project, everything has to be black and white only - no colour at all. Usually, our prints rely a lot on the use of colour and shade working together. Its making me think a lot about simplicity and effort - what's enough, what feels balanced, what feels relaxed in itself.
I don’t want to stay a novice, but how can I remember to keep a "beginner's mind" - to stay open and to be inventive?
I don’t want to stay a novice, but how can I remember to keep a "beginner's mind" - to stay open and to be inventive? Maybe this is what midlife as an artist, a designer and a parent is going to be all about?
______________________________________
This morning over breakfast our youngest child made another "great mistake" - calling kefir “the KEEPER.” “I only like the KEEPER with the honey on top,” he announces confidently. I smiled and said nothing, adding another great addition to my mental list of misremembered words. The KEEPER.
______________________________________
Words: Jo Anne Butler