I am fortunate to have quite a few artworks from my childhood that have survived, either through my mom’s careful curation or my tendency to save things. The Butterfly project, which consists of a plastic surface, threaded with yarn, and accompanying plastic frame, is one of the earliest pieces I have. I keep it in a beautiful display cabinet built by my great-great-grandfather because it is precious to me, and I can still quite clearly see my thought process in its completion.
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| Artist Kim Testone, a.k.a. Kimmy, nearing age 3 |
An imaginary conversation with my 3-year-old self:
Me, today: Tell me your motivation in creating The Butterfly.
Kimmy: Mumble mumble mumble
Me, today: Sorry, can you repeat that?
Kimmy: It needed to get made so I made it.
Me, today: I see. And did you follow directions?
Kimmy: No, I just made it.
Me, today: How did you know what to do?
Kimmy: I just made it the way I wanted to.
Me, today: What about this area right here to the right? It looks a bit different than the left, with some longer loops.
Kimmy: Um, I wanted to make it look like it was flying.
Me, today: Ah, so the loops represent movement.
Kimmy: Yes.
Me, today: And what about your color choices. Tell me about those.
Kimmy: I wanted the butterfly to be pretty, so I made it pretty.
Me, today: Excellent. Well, I can see you have a lot of projects you are working on now. I’ll let you get to it. Thank you for your time!
Kimmy: Okay, bye!
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