An Inspiration

I didn't post on the blog on Sunday because it was a very busy day for me. It was my brother's birthday so we had to pop over to my mum's house to take his presents, then later on I had to work so the day passed in a blur of activity.

In the morning I was sitting on my bed doing some work on my laptop when Emily came into the bedroom looking very sad. She told me that Tony Hart had died, and she went on to say that he was amazing. I'd heard the news of his death on the news earlier in the morning and my reaction had been much the same as Emily's. As a child I had watched Vision On an amazing combination of art and performance, I loved the art part of the show especially the gallery of viewers art work. Tony Hart was original, inspiring and clearly very talented, he made art fun and he made it accessible to everyone, in so many ways he fired our imaginations.

When Emily was a child Tony Hart was there to inspire her too be creative too. He had moved on with series that were entirely based on art and animation such as Take Hart, Hartbeat and Smart Hart. All of my children love art and Tony Hart played a part in inspiring them to try many different aspects of art. Laura was always very good at three dimension work and Sam loved those very large pictures made of household objects that you have to look down on, he used to create them on the lounge floor. They still love art, all can draw and paint well and all have their own style. I wonder how many children have been influenced to enjoy art because of Tony Hart - what an incredible legacy. I can't write about Tony Hart without mentioning his annoying little sidekick Morph, a plasticine stop motion animation who appeared with Tony. Morph lived in an artists pencil box and he appeared in short clips of little more than a minute, he was fun and it was just one more way of introducing children to different aspects of art and creativity.

Tony Hart made a huge contribution to children's television, and he will be sadly missed by the many people who have enjoyed and been inspired by his work.