Children's Parade

A procession of children captured in woodblock with watercolor on French paper, dated 1982. Daniel Kelly depicts the energy and disorder of a children's parade—small figures marching, skipping, and drifting out of formation in the way that real children do when asked to walk in line. The hand-colored watercolor additions bring individualized touches of color to each figure's clothing and accessories, preventing the uniformity that a purely printed edition would impose. Kelly's treatment balances the structured rhythm of a parade with the spontaneous chaos of childhood, finding humor and tenderness in the gap between ceremony and youthful exuberance.