The Crane Wife
So in my son’s 2nd grade class, any child who finishes up his assigned work faster than the others can get to doing a little personal project. It can be anything from reading to drawing to crafting. Anything. My son has pulled out some pretty fun stuff out of these down periods, but nothing quite as amazing as this.
It’s a drawing inspired by the song The Crane Wife (Part One) by The Decemberists. If you have never heard it, the song is based on a Japanese fairy (folk?) tale of a man who finds an injured crane in the dead of winter, nurses it back to health, only to find that it’s a shapeshifter which he marries.
It’s folded in the middle and all crumply, like any good eight year old’s drawing should be.
It’s important to note two things:
1) There was no parental guidance in this at all. He did it in school and I was just as surprised as anyone to see the end result.
2) We listen to The Decemberists a lot, at home.
I guess, in a way, this is my son’s first true piece of fan art. May his geekdom be long and fruitful.
There is a higher resolution image of the drawing at my Flickr area.
Wow. That’s pretty amazing. I don’t know your son, but he sounds pretty rad. Way to raise a smart, cultured and cool citizen of the world.
That’s a very impressive piece of interpretive art for any young student, much less a second grader. I hope my daughter, now 3, is able to be inspired someday by a song enough to draw something , or look at a piece of art and write a song about it. Kudos to you for obviously doing a good job raising your son to be a thoughtful person.
How is that CD? It’s been on my wish list since it came out. I loved Picaresque.
It was a cold night / And the snow lay low
I pulled my coat tight / Against the falling down
And the sun was all / And the sun was all down
And the sun was all / And the sun was all down
I am a poor man / I haven’t wealth nor fame
I have my two hands / And a house to my name
And the winter’s so / And the winter’s so long
And the winter’s so / And the winter’s so long
And all the stars were crashing ’round
As I laid eyes on what I’d found
Megan: Thanks… we’re trying real hard to turn him into someone as well-rounded as possible.
Whitehorse5: If you liked Picaresque, chances are you’ll love Crane Wife. It’s really their most polished effort. There are a couple of songs there that will surprise you (like The Perfect Crime 2 and When The War Came) yet they manage to grow on you. There are some absolutely amazing songs on the record. You can’t pass it up.
And yeah, TN pretty much got the part of the song which inspired him. I love the “stars crashing ’round” on the drawing.
Hi Mike.
Love the picture and it’s similer to my situation! My son’s teacher asked her class to write a report about thier favorite bands and my son has decided to do his on The Decemberists! his favorite song is “Summersong” and he asks to hear it every time we’re in the car or near a CD player! I can’t wait to see how his report turns out!