Keep Them All
Sunday, March 22, 2026
KEEP THEM ALL
Ok, maybe you wouldn’t agree here. However, I feel validated in my decision when I read about Peter Chan, the video game artist. When he was younger, he was obsessed with drawing. But as most kids do including my own, they get frustrated and in that state, they crumble up a lot of their work.
Peter’s dad convinced him to just make a pile of the art he thought was “bad,” instead of crumpling them and throwing them in the waste basket. When dad died Peter found himself going through all of his things. He then found a folder labeled “Peter.” and it was all his thrown away drawings. Dad would sneak in Peters room and save some.
I keep all the art work done here at home or at school of the kids. All of it! Why? I’m mad. I’m insane. All true. But mostly, I want them to decide what to do with it. The work is all theirs. Also, I don’t know what the art will do for them or which one will be the artistic unlock. So I keep it all. To examine. To see how they develop. To always have a way to go back in time and sit in their youth. In their innocence.
The extra step is taken to display their art work around the house. On the mantle. In a frame on the wall. On the fridge. On the bay window. In their rooms or in a place I often stare off at. To inspire me and, them. The Wright brothers often credited their belief in their ability to make things because their mother would openly display their creations in the home. Some of them not even fully completed. I want my kids to be proud to create something. To stand by it. To take it down and tweak it or remake it if they wish. So, I keep them all and I hope I made an argument for you to do the same.