Smiling Leaves

In all my conversations and teachings about art with children I always stress the point that art can be found in everything we do if we use our imaginations.

When Joanne and I were living in Nelson, B.C. in 2002, I lived up to this philosophy.


It was autumn and the leaves were changing colour and falling to the ground. Instead of simply raking them into piles and bagging them for the local dump, I decided to have some fun with my art! I raked the leaves to form an image of a smiling sun, using one of the tree trunks as an eye.

The sun may appear upside down in this photo, but imagine that you were walking along the sidewalk at the top of this photo – it would appear right-way-up.

There was an elementary school at the end of this street, so many children walked past my smiling sun, everyday. I used to arrive home from work just before 8:00am – I was working the midnight shift at a nearby hotel – and I’d often sit on my front porch watching the students going off to school. While this smiling sun lasted I would always hear a few funny remarks from these students as they walked past my lawn.

It made me feel great to be able to do something so simple that caused the air to be filled with children’s laughter!

Jim