What’s Sustaining Us: The Freedom to Create
At Bellforge’s annual Fairy Walk, young artists transformed a grove of cardboard trees through curiosity, collaboration, and the freedom to create without a “right” way.
This week, we’re celebrating some of the youngest artists in our community.
Earlier this year at Bellforge’s annual Fairy Walk, children gathered around a grove of 3D cardboard trees made from repurposed cardboard. There wasn’t a sample to copy, a “right” way to paint, or a finished outcome to achieve. Instead, they were invited to do something that comes naturally: make marks, explore color, use their whole bodies, be bold, create together, and be led by their imaginations.
Some painted broad fields of color. Others added a single brushstroke before wandering off to their next adventure. New layers covered old ones. One child would step away just as another stepped in.
Photo: A collaborative art series by Bellforge’s youngest artists. 3D Repurposed & hand-painted cardboard trees from May 2026.
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."
- Pablo Picasso
By the end of the day, the Bellforge grounds had been transformed by a collection of whimsical trees carrying hundreds of visible decisions, each brushstroke left behind by a different child. No single tree belonged to any one artist. They belonged to all of them.
We weren’t after perfect technical skill or a polished final result. We were eager to offer our youngest artists the freedom to experiment, to respond to someone else’s marks, to change direction, and to leave something of yourself behind for the next child to build upon.
This creative eagerness and confidence tend to grow best in environments where exploration is welcomed, mistakes aren’t corrected, different styles are nurtured, and every contribution is treated as worthwhile.
The artwork from the day mattered, of course. But what stayed with us — and what has been sustaining us — is everything the children practiced while creating it: curiosity, imagination, trust, collaboration, experimentation, and the confidence that comes from knowing there isn’t just one right way.
