by Bethaney Wallace

The Social Robot is proud to announce its brand new sister site, Crappy Kid Art (crappykidart.com). Built with the premise of celebrating, yes, crappy art, CKA will host an outlet for bad artists everywhere. Although the word “kid” is in the title, we hold no age limits to those with no talent … ourselves included.

Each day, we will examine the ugly creations that adults were once forced to compliment us on. Remember giving your grandparents self-portraits? Even though it was a smudged mess, in no way resembling yourself, and they still said thank you?

Perhaps you created animals by Elmer’s gluing leaves to construction paper. Your parents accepted it graciously and with pride. “Look what an artist we have!” they swooned. It would be years before you learned their praise and thankfulness was a complete sham.

But, now on the other end of kid art, the side where you’re aware kids are messy, impatient, and take no pride in their work, it’s time to celebrate this transformation. Whatever your former forte – paintings, pencil drawings, coloring book failures – we want to see it. And paper isn’t the limit. In fact, David Sedaris, author and regular contributor on This American Life, once gave his mother a homemade ashtray covered in glitter and sloppy painting. It is a piece that, should a picture exist, would receive prime placement on CKA.

We also encourage the submission of current child’s creations. When you receive a handmade calendar for your birthday (even though you bought your child a nice, expensive gift for theirs), share it with CKA and give yourself the gift of entertainment.

So long as the art is crappy, whether in print, clay, or permanent marker on the hallways, it’s fair game. (This isn’t a place for show offs or award winners; if there’s no coloring outside the lines, no random limb placements, and no physics-defying factors, post it on your own blog.)

Please join us as we ponder these pieces of “art” and celebrate the former crappy artist in everyone. Subscribe to http://crappykidart.com and start receiving email alerts today.