First Artwork

One day last week, Ivan returned from daycare with his pants completely drenched in red paint.

What happened, I wondered.

They painted, Andy said.

Someone's grandma, who's an artist, hung out with the kids the entire day. And they painted.

Andy said that Ivan's painting looked a bit different than other kids. They had all mushed and mixed their colors together. Ivan's had big, defined, separate, thick lines and blobs of yellow and red. (And some green, which Ms. Yvonne did to get him started.)

She also said that apparently if kids can make such distinct lines that they means they'll be quicker to learn to read, or something along those lines. Andy wasn't necessarily convinced.

I'm just excited that he painted. I hope he liked it. I've been looking forward to us doing that over the summer because painting is really an outdoors activity due to its inherent messy factor.

This week the artwork arrived home. Along with a group photo of the classroom and two shots of Ivan the Painter, sitting on the floor dressed in big plastic oversized bib/apron.

The photos are a bit fuzzy. I never fail to be astounded at people's inability to take clear, simple photos inspite ofserious advancements in photo technology. Ivan himself can take better photos on his toy camera. But that's OK. At least there are photos.

Now, I'm looking for a frame to frame this first masterpiece and hang it along with the two fuzzy photos.

When I was little, a few years older than Ivan but still in kindergarden, I vividly remember one time when we painted. I chose to paint two separate paintings. Both were of a flower. A flower I made up. I wanted to use up every color available to us. I remember this was my objective, very vividly even after 30 plus years. The teachers thought the paintings were weird. They thought it was strange that I made the stalks red and used black as one of the many colors for the petals. They chose not to hang up my paintings in some open exhibition space they prepared. I was devasted. I thought my idea of using every color was brilliant. The teachers didn't see it that way, but my parents did. They framed the two paintings. They hung in my childhood bedroom and were later brought over to the US. They still hang in their house. And to this day, I think they look rather avantgarde and cool.