Adults love to read coffee table books of beautiful art.
Well, let me amend that. Adults love to buy coffee table books, put them on our coffee tables, and occasionally flip through them a few pages at a time. Few adults I know actually like to read art books. How or where the artist painted the picture or the angst behind the portrait doesn’t really appeal to most of us.
When it comes to art, kids are the same way. They love to look at beautiful illustrations and honestly, no one is better than a preschooler for finding details in a picture. And no one has a better eye for identifying beautiful art than elementary age kids. They just get it.
That is why the founders of CRICKET, SPIDER, LADYBUG, BABYBUG, and CICADA Magazines made beautiful artwork created by accomplished artists a cornerstone of the magazines’ mission. We’ve blogged previously about the accomplished artists who have gotten their start in CRICKET Magazine, but delivering beautiful art for kids goes beyond just talk. Flip open virtually any page of our “bug magazines” and you will be exposed to different types of art: cut paper, collage, watercolor, acrylics, sculpture…this list is as endless as there are types of art.
Both CICADA (our magazine for teens ages 15 and up) and CRICKET (for kids ages 9 to 14) even take the time to discuss at least one piece of art each month. In CRICKET you will find information about the cover artist, their inspiration for the piece of art, and the medium they used to create it right on the inside front cover.
Here’s the inside front cover of the October 2016 issue of Cricket, talking about the amazing art created by artist JooHee Yoon.
CICADA has a regular feature called “Artist Allies,” which is an interview with an up-and-coming artist. The artists are drawn (how’s that for a pun?) from all realms of mediums, including zines, digital art, and the more traditional acrylics or watercolors. A teen reading “Artist Allies” will get a sense of what it takes to succeed in the art world, where the opportunities may be, and what type of training they might pursue in order to get where they want to go.
If you have a young artist in your house and are wondering how to inspire them, look no further than your mailbox. Subscribe to any of our bug magazines: BABYBUG, LADYBUG, SPIDER, CRICKET, or CICADA and your child will be treated to a cornucopia of beautiful artwork each month…and you’ll still have room on your coffee table.
