Irish Snowman

As one might surmise from the various clues to be seen, this photograph was taken on St. Patrick's Day, 1971. I am a little over a month shy of my third birthday; my mother is 22. This is probably the first snowman that I had any direct participation in, and certainly the one I have the most vivid memories of (though that can probably be attributed to the existence of the photograph as much as any other factor).The eyes and buttons are radishes (a vegetable I otherwise have no tolerance for), the mouth is obviously carrot-based, and the hat is, I think, from Hallmark.

Other Fun Facts:

• This is the front yard of 139-A Cochran Road, where we lived from 1970-74.
• I still have a scar under my arm where I got pinched badly by shifting parts of the swing set in the background.
• The scarf and hat were particular favorites of my mother in those days; I still have said scarf, currently stored with my own seldom-used winter accoutrements.

Mixed Media

I'm not sure whether this was my original intent, or whether I drew something and then opted to glue some stuff to it afterward. I don't believe I was in day care yet, so this would seem to have been my idea rather than an assigned task.

Collaborative Piece

I assume that this started with a request for my father to draw Snoopy for me, to which I then added my slightly less "on-model" rendering of Charlie Brown.

Armless Man with Hat

I don't know if he's running very fast or doing a split.

Goofy-Looking Fellow

This didn't sca very well, but he's a happy-looking fellow, isn't he?

Snowman and Three-Legged Thing

A couple of earlier pieces today. Firstly, a snowman. I can state this with certainty, as my mother thoughtfully noted my intent. This is on the back of a legal pad that has several pieces dated "Jan. 1972". I believe that this may be inspired by the snowman we built on St. Patrick's day that year, who wore a cardboard Leprechaun's hat, with facial features made from gummed paper shamrock labels, though this drawing lacks the detail necessary to confirm it.
From a few months earlier, we find a ...a thing with three legs and one eye. Because bilateral symmetry is for sissies.
I think maybe it was going to be a bird originally, but that's pretty much just baseless conjecture on my part.

Frankenstein? (or not)

The earliest piece presented yet, showing that I was such an artistic prodigy that I was actually using costruction lines to draw the human head. Or, more likely, I drew some random shape and then turned it into a face. It also looks almost as if he's wearing a mask, but I think that's just happenstance. One thing that I can deduce with near-certainty is that the oddly-shaped paper is from one of a series of "pop art" notepads shaped like various consumer goods that were sold in those days. I don't recall having one around the house as a toddler, but I have one now in the form of a can of Gerber apple juice that's the exact same shape.