Art Only a Mother Could Love - Toddlers and Process

My daughter and I love doing artistic projects together, she particularly enjoys painting. Everything! It's safe to say there is carnage when the paint brushes are out and it's best we do it when Daddy is not in, as the possibility of a new pink dining room is a highly likely outcome! 
I have read many books, written many lectures and marked many essays on how children learn through play, but there is nothing like experiencing it for myself, through the eyes of my daughter, to gain an understanding of how she is beginning to make sense of the world. 
The favourite activity of the moment is painting her feet and then stamping on the paper (and now very slippy mat protecting the floor!- I think the slipping is half the fun, though it does make me rather nervous!). The delight on her face as she stamps away is a real joy, occasionally there is one really defined footprint and I get excited, and try to whisk it away to send to a Grandparent, before I am quite clearly told "Nooooooo!". She is not finished, and there is a tone of "what are you thinking Mummy? I have clearly just begun" to her little voice.
The finished product is of no importance to her, she is far to busy in the process of making, to worry about what it will look like. Mixing the colours with her hands, covering her hands, feet, elbows, ears and hair (I'm not so keen on the hair!) in paint and squidging it between her fingers and the paper are far more important. As I try to declare that we are finished and it is time for a bath, again I am told "Noooooo!" with the same intonation as before.
She is right, she is not finished, the process will never be finished, there is always more to discover and to learn, more paint to squidge. Though I do make a conscious effort not to endgain, through seeing my daughter's complete disregard for a finished product, I have realised how much I focus on it, when making art with her, or in the choreographic process. 

With a little help from Mummy and the scissors, the pink paintings have turned into Easter Eggs, which will adorn cards that will grace the fridges and mantelpieces of proud Grandparents. I got my cards in the end, and this time, it did not come at the expense of process. A great reminder that as I parent and as a choreographer, I need to allow the time for play and discovery, I need to embrace the carnage and the chaos to remember that process has many stages, and without the first of experimentation, investigation and exploration (all the -tions!) the end result will not demonstrate the discovery of the process - which for me is where the wealth is.