Dinosaur Park, 1989, kindergarten
Like a lot of kids, I had a phase where I was obsessed with dinosaurs. Oregon’s Prehistoric Gardens made a huge impression on me as a child, and it is still one of my favorite places to visit. After visiting the Prehistoric Gardens I envisioned building a similar dinosaur park of my own in the backyard. The paper dinosaurs on the fence were to work out the placement and scale of the intended fully dimensional models.
Oregon's Prehistoric Gardens
It’s a bit difficult to tell what’s happening in this picture, but its part of the plan for a backyard dinosaur park. The stack of coffee cans in the background is a stand-in for the proportions of a dinosaur statue, and the white shape in the foreground is a paper footprint standing in for a real dinosaur footprint.
This photo, taken the summer before I started the first grade, marks an important transition in my creative projects. Rather than planning impossible to build full-sized replicas of dinosaurs I started working on scale models of dinosaurs as well as boats and planes. My preoccupation with model building, which carried me though elementary school, really started with these wooden dinosaur and airplane models.
Dinosaur Models, 1989, first grade
