MOSES LAKE — The 200-plus artists whose work will go up this week at the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center draw their inspiration from many giants in the field: Picasso, Mondrian, Kahlo. What they have in common is that they’re all 3-5 years old. 

“We're doing Piet Mondrian art, which is color blocking,” said Lynn Frey, early learning director for the Moses Lake School District. “They did Pablo Picasso, like a different kind of look at a self-portrait. They did Jackson Pollock … They used their handprints and then color-blocking for that one.” 

Each classroom was given an artist to focus on, and the students used that for inspiration, Frey said. 

“I think you have to give these students an experience with the different mediums, so they can explore it,” she said. “You show them examples of the artwork and then choose a way that you're going to go about representing that artist. … It’s been pretty successful, the idea that this is something they created when we mount them and put their name on it, and they can be proud of what they made.” 

This is at least the fourth year the museum has hosted a preschool art exhibit, according to Museum Director Dollie Boyd. 

“It's honestly one of my favorite times of the year because I love seeing how their little brains interpret the instructions that they were given,” Boyd said. “They're just so happy to see their stuff up in the museum and to bring their parents and show it to them.” 

Frey said the change is part of an approach teachers have been working on to focus on the process versus the product, meaning that how the art is created is more important than the final artwork. To facilitate that, the Early Learning Preschool has partnered with an artist who works individually with students on art expression. This lets them get more creative than if they’re just told to make something. 

“It used to be that we would just make all these cute little Christmas (ornaments) and things,” Frey said. “Every single solitary one of them is super cute, and they look exactly the same. But having that opportunity in the classroom … we always have paint out when it's choice time, whether it's watercolors or tempera and then crayons and Play-Doh, cutting and gluing with random colors and shapes, (asking them) them ‘What do you want to make with that, and what do you see?’ and being okay with what they come up with.” 

That friendly approach to art can help keep the children’s minds fresh and open when it comes to art, Frey said. 

“That whole creative process is just awesome,” she said. “That's something that kind of gets lost along the way until they have the opportunity again in middle school and high school to take art classes.” 

“We kind of lose that as we get older,” Boyd said. “Children are not burdened by self-consciousness. You tell them to make a piece of art, and they go, ‘OK.’ You say that to an adult, and they go, ‘But I can't draw!’ Children don't have that problem. They just do it for the joy and the fun of it.” 

The show will open Friday in the museum’s Ramon Cerna Community Gallery, and an opening reception will be held Saturday from noon to 1 p.m. so the artists can bring their families to see their masterpieces. The exhibit will run through March 7. 

“Come down and check it out, even if you don't have a preschooler in the show,” Boyd said. “Just take (the art) in and see how their little minds will go off in these really great creative directions.” 

    A family wanders through the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center looking at a previous preschool art exhibit. This year’s exhibit opens Friday with a reception Saturday.
  

    Museum staffers lay out snacks at the opening reception of a previous preschool art exhibit at the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center. Refreshments will be available at this year’s reception Saturday.
  

    A preschool painting that will go on display at the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center Friday. Each classroom studied the styles and techniques of a different artist.
  

    This preschool artist drew inspiration from Andy Warhol.
  

    Frida Kahlo was one of the artists Moses Lake preschoolers studied for their art exhibition opening this weekend.