--- title: Artist Recreates Childhood Drawings in Surreal Series description: Dutch artist Telmo Pieper recreated his childhood line drawings in a surreal "Kiddie Arts" series canonical: https://time.com/2992072/kiddie-arts-childhood-drawings-artwork/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-16T14:45:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:33.243Z og:title: An Artist Turned His Childhood Drawings Into This Beautiful, Surrealist Series og:description: "Surrealistic feel with a realistic subject" og:url: https://time.com/2992072/kiddie-arts-childhood-drawings-artwork/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac7a4061c2dc4595/69869be855a859f3d3a81d09/grizzlybeerkiddieartseries-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Grizzly Bear og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: An Artist Turned His Childhood Drawings Into This Beautiful, Surrealist Series twitter:description: "Surrealistic feel with a realistic subject" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac7a4061c2dc4595/69869be855a859f3d3a81d09/grizzlybeerkiddieartseries-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # An Artist Turned His Childhood Drawings Into This Beautiful, Surrealist Series by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Jul 16, 2014 2:45 PM UTC  Grizzly Bear Grizzly BearTelmo Pieper from the TELMO MIEL duo by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Jul 16, 2014 2:45 PM UTC When Dutch artist Telmo Pieper came across a big box of his childhood drawings that his parents had put in storage, he was taken aback by his linear representations of snails and hawks, cars and sharks. “I was fascinated by how strange and great the line drawings were from when I was little,” Pieper says. “Surrealistic feel with a realistic subject — impossible to copy the style but possible to work it out further. So I did.” Pieper, who is now part of a street art duo called [TELMO MIEL](www.telmomiel.com), decided to revisit this early series almost 20 years later in [“Kiddie Arts,”](http://www.telmopieper.com/kiddie-arts) which juxtaposes Pieper’s artwork as a 4-year-old with more advanced reinterpretations. “Since the beginning I never stopped creating and drawing,” Pieper says. “The biggest difference is that I started with pencils and crayons and now my main technique is the spray can or the Wacom tablet.”  Whale Telmo Pieper from the TELMO MIEL duo  Grizzly Bear Telmo Pieper from the TELMO MIEL duo  Car Telmo Pieper from the TELMO MIEL duo  Eagle Telmo Pieper from the TELMO MIEL duo  Euro Mast Telmo Pieper from the TELMO MIEL duo  Fly Telmo Pieper from the TELMO MIEL duo ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2992072/kiddie-arts-childhood-drawings-artwork/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2992072/kiddie-arts-childhood-drawings-artwork/"},"headline":"An Artist Turned His Childhood Drawings Into This Beautiful, Surrealist Series","datePublished":"2014-07-16T14:45:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:33.243Z","description":"\"Surrealistic feel with a realistic subject\"","url":"https://time.com/2992072/kiddie-arts-childhood-drawings-artwork/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Living","Art"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac7a4061c2dc4595/69869be855a859f3d3a81d09/grizzlybeerkiddieartseries-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac7a4061c2dc4595/69869be855a859f3d3a81d09/grizzlybeerkiddieartseries-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Grizzly Bear","caption":"Grizzly Bear","creditText":"Telmo Pieper from the TELMO MIEL duo","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2992072/kiddie-arts-childhood-drawings-artwork/","name":"An Artist Turned His Childhood Drawings Into This Beautiful, Surrealist Series"}}]}] ```