A Collaboration with my Toddler
"Prince of the Wild"
by Theodore & Ruth Oosterman
I was so excited for this particular collaboration because I felt it represented Theo's wild personality and I was able to maintain his original and spectacular paint strokes. He is really into mixing colors to come up with new combinations and trying out different brushes lately which makes for explosive artwork.
One of my favorite parts of sharing our collaborative process on social media is reading the never-ending varieties of unique perspectives that explode from the same exact image. I shared Theo's original piece on Facebook and Instagram and was amazed at the wide range of imaginative answers, here are a few:
- A young girl dancing and twirling a ribbon, and a random chick to her right
- A tribal warrior/chief wearing a brown wolf’s head on his head, a purple loincloth/bottoms, and holding a blue/black rattle/stick/cane.
- A skater doing a jump by a palm tree.
- A horse jumping a hedge with a tree in the background
- An elephant on a cliff overlooking a purple fish and a yellow duck. With a tree for some scenery
- I see a mother, wearing a long skirt and black belt, playing with her daughter in a yellow dress, who is handing her a purple ball. Palm trees in the background.
- Conductor’s baton about to tap the stand, the deep purple is the audience waiting and the gold in the lower right is shining off the bell of a French Horn.
- Mad Hatter with a purple tea pot and yellow tea cup
- A merman with a trident with a sea creatures swimming below
- A fairy picking a purple flower while Absolem the caterpillar and a fat little yellow bird watch on.
Thank you for taking the time to share your visions and to think the answers above are just a few taken from the many!
Watch the Timelapse Video:
Although I saw a variety of things in his piece (like the elephant!) I had to let go of certain ideas as it is a collaborative piece and my goal is to include as many original lines and shapes that Theo creates. Whenever we collaborate I try to maintain as much of the original work which forces me to think outside of the box and my comfort zone and let it be inspired by the child's personality rather than my vision.
Theo is a wild child of nature with the biggest heart for animals and in another world, I could totally see him surrounded by creatures of all shapes and sizes who adore him almost as much as he would love them 
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- A young girl dancing and twirling a ribbon, and a random chick to her right- A tribal warrior/chief wearing a brown wolf’s head on his head, a purple loincloth/bottoms, and holding a blue/black rattle/stick/cane.
- A skater doing a jump by a palm tree.
- A horse jumping a hedge with a tree in the background
- An elephant on a cliff overlooking a purple fish and a yellow duck. With a tree for some scenery
- I see a mother, wearing a long skirt and black belt, playing with her daughter in a yellow dress, who is handing her a purple ball. Palm trees in the background.
- Conductor’s baton about to tap the stand, the deep purple is the audience waiting and the gold in the lower right is shining off the bell of a French Horn.
- Mad Hatter with a purple tea pot and yellow tea cup
- A merman with a trident with a sea creatures swimming below
- A fairy picking a purple flower while Absolem the caterpillar and a fat little yellow bird watch on.
Thank you for taking the time to share your visions and to think the answers above are just a few taken from the many!
Watch the Timelapse Video:
