Two sixth grade classes at Mary McGuire Elementary School, taught by Mrs. Carroll and Mrs. Walter, were given an assignment by an Art Reach docent in the Picture Program. The students were told to look at clouds in the sky at recess and jot down what images they saw.

Eryana saw “a fish eating a smaller fish. The big fish had teeth and two big eyes, and the little fish looked like it was swimming away.” Ty was shooting hoops at home and “I saw a cloud that actually like a basketball. It had all the details that a basketball would have like the lines on it and the logo by who made the ball.” Lenge saw “a huge blue cloud with really poufy white on top. I thought it looked like a bubble bath.”

Shailyn said, “One day it was sunny out so I went outside and described the first cloud I saw. It was a blob but then I saw something else — a bunny with long ears. Another cloud looked like a worm.” Baily saw a rabbit and a face. Another student (who didn’t include a name) saw “a dragon with wings, fire coming out of his mouth. It was a fat dragon fighting a knight on a horse.”

Caleb saw a cloud ‘that looked like a UFO and it had a disk in the middle and two half spheres on the top and bottom.” Erica saw “a cloud that looked like a cat sitting in a tree.” AJ insisted a cloud was “a big cylinder with a bubble on top. You can ride on one and it has a circle of light. A beam can pick you up. The person who rides in it has a head that is like a cylinder.” Two other nameless students discovered a shark with teeth and a lumpy warship.

Austin said a cloud “looked like a house with a weird looking top and a sidewalk.” Dakota insisted on “a Chinese dragon with a long body and a feathery tail.” Danny saw one that ‘looked like a pirate ship and pirates on it. Then I saw a cloud that looked like a dog.” Hailey saw “a gummy bear! I’m guessing it was coconut flavored. It was huge in the sky. It stood out so much that’s why it caught my eye.” Zeek saw one “that looked like a straight line that seemed to go on forever. It was wide and fluffy.”

Children are able to use their imaginations. Encourage them to tell you what they see in clouds, in random autumn leaves on the lawn, in snow drifts, in the smears at the bottom of the unwashed gravy pan at Thanksgiving. Every place can be a source of amazing images to the nonjudgmental eyes of youth.

Art can be enjoyed by anyone willing to participate in a game with the artist: what is that squiggle in the corner? Why is that sky green? What are those little people in the background really doing? Learn to be amazed; very amazed.