“Every child is an artist. The problem is how
to remain an artist once we grow up.” - Pablo Picasso

My three-and-a-half year old daughter Grace loves to draw. She loves to paint. She loves to glue small things onto paper. And she loves to do lots of it. She’s quite the artist. It’s my job to find a place to display each masterpiece when it’s done. In fact, the ritual of displaying the artwork is more important to the artist than the colour of construction paper, paint, or crayon used in its creation. Each piece must be prominently displayed. And the look of pride on the young artist’s face is priceless and worth all the fridge real-estate you can muster. However, after a while this can pose a bit of a problem. Not every piece can win that coveted spot on the fridge. You think they don’t notice when you rotate out the old stuff, but they get wise to you after a while. We’ve expanded to cupboard doors, and any surface that can withstand masking tape.

Somewhat by accident, I discovered a fun way to avoid having to stick pictures to the ceiling and floor and still allow the artist to display her wares proudly. Last weekend when my wife was away on business Grace, armed with a stack of white computer paper and some highlighters, went into a zone and created about 30 masterpieces in a half hour. Out came the fridge magnets and tape.After she went to bed, I decided to scan a handful of these gems and post them to our Flickr account so my wife could see them. Then, considering my line of work, I decided to give it run in our software, Touchpoint Gallery. I thought it would be fun to see her art on the walls of a virtual art gallery. It was cool to see something other than photos there, so I set it as the default screen saver and went on to something else.

The next day Grace walked past the computer on her way to tackle a bag of cotton balls and some glue. Her reaction was priceless. Her face lit up and she yelled, “Daddy! My bugs!” The Touchpoint Gallery screen saver had kicked in. Well, that was a show stopper. There were her masterpieces proudly displayed on the walls of a virtual art gallery. She thought it was the coolest thing. Even though she doesn’t really know what an art gallery is (okay, maybe better parents would have taken her to the Guggenheim by now) she does know that mommy and daddy put the really special pictures in frames and hang them on the wall. No fridge action for the Matisse print.

If you’d like to give this a try, here’s how. Just so you know, the real thing can be run full screen and is a lot clearer than the video clip.

1. Scan your kid’s artwork: The first thing you need to do is get your kid’s artwork into digital form. This can mean scanning or possibly taking a quick shot with your digital camera (glued macaroni doesn’t scan particularly well). If you end up using your camera try to find an area with lots of natural light so you don’t have to use a flash. A tripod or a well placed stack of books to set the camera on can be invaluable here. If you need to use a flash, shoot slightly off-angle to avoid the flare being visible on your paper, foil, or cotton ball subject.

2. Download Touchpoint Gallery: Click here to download and install Touchpoint Gallery for free. You will be redirected to a download page. Click ‘Try Free’ then come back here for more instructions. Click here if you need help downloading and installing. If you’re really stuck, leave a comment below and we’ll get back to you.

3. Use Touchpoint Gallery to display the artwork: Here’s where the fun begins. Put the scanned artwork into your MyPictures folder. Run Touchpoint Gallery by double clicking the desktop icon. Click ‘okay’ when the first screen comes up. Then you should see the Main Screen as shown below:

Click on ‘Create or Edit Gallery’ to get to this screen:

Click ‘NEW’. You will then see this screen:

Using your child’s name, follow the settings shown above. Then click ‘okay’. Another screen will appear. Click ‘okay’ there as well. That will bring you back to the Main Screen:

Click ‘View Gallery’ and enjoy the show. If you have other images in your My Pictures folder that you don’t want to have appear, consult the user guide to see how to get pictures in from different sources including any other folder on your computer, or your Flickr account. None of it is tough, and we’re here to help if you need it.

If virtual art galleries don’t do it for your kids, you can try some of the other Templates available in our library.

So give it a try, and enjoy. It’s a lot of fun and your kids will love it. When you try this, we want to hear your story. Leave your comments below!

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