Our Open Studio Philosophy

Children are already capable, curious, and creative. Creativity is already within each child. Our role is to protect it and give it room to grow.

For children ages 2–6, art is a way to explore their world—including feelings and experiences they don’t yet have words for.

Informed by my background in art therapy, Open Studio gives that expression room to unfold. We introduce materials without giving children a drawing to copy or deciding what their work should become.

So much is absorbed through osmosis—the care in the environment, the freedom to experiment, and the feeling that their ideas are welcome.

One material. Intentionally offered in many different ways.

Each session explores watercolor, collage, or clay, thoughtfully arranged with different tools, surfaces, and invitations.

Watercolor · Explore, flow, discover.
Liquid watercolor, traditional pans, and water-soluble crayons invite children to explore color and movement. Colors spread, blend, and surprise—creating opportunities to make choices, meet the unexpected, and respond.

Collage · Rip, arrange, reconnect.
Tearing, cutting, layering, and gluing offer physical expression alongside deliberate choice. Children take things apart, rearrange fragments, and decide how to bring them together. They create their own connections and meaning.

Clay · Add, remove, transform.
Children squeeze, press, build up, pull away, and join pieces together. Through an art therapy lens, these actions offer possibilities for exploring change and agency: I can add something. I can take something away. I can reshape what’s here. The clay responds to their hands; the meaning belongs to them.

At this age, children create for the joy of creating. The meaning is in the process.

Sometimes your child may leave without a finished piece—or with something that doesn’t look Pinterest-worthy or ready for the wall.

Its worth isn’t determined by how it looks to us. Those marks, layers, and shapes may hold discoveries, feelings, and stories we cannot see. Their expression deserves our curiosity and respect.

We close by witnessing each other.

Our gentle gallery walk gives children the opportunity to share their work, tell a story, or simply let us look. Together, we notice how differently everyone approached the same material.

To have your ideas welcomed and your expression witnessed is to experience belonging.

There is room for your child’s inner world here.