Art and Crazy

My 7 year-old daughter has this habit of explaining how she drew something:

“You start by drawing a circle, then the ears, erase a bit of the top of the circle to make space for the hair…”

All such descriptions will always end with the word: “Simple!”.

After yet another (un-asked for) description of how she drew something, again ending up with that smug “Simple!”, I couldn’t resist responding:

“Obviously, it must have been simple. Otherwise, how would you have been able to draw it?”

Without batting an eyelid, she snapped back:

“It’s simple for me. It would be hard for you.”

~~

One time, as I tried to tempt her to watch something on National Geographic instead of her usual cartoons, I said:

“The host will challenge people to do crazy things. You interested?”

Her response was instantaneous… and honest:

“Yes. I am always there for anything crazy.”

~~

There’s this professional artist in our apartment who took art classes for the kids. Unfortunately, just when we enrolled my daughter and bought the canvases, paints and brushes, the lady stopped the class. So we ended up with all these unused canvases lieing around.

Over a long weekend, my daughter decided to give canvas painting a shot. The first attempt wasn’t too bad, and I told her she could do another one the next day. Immediately, she asked:

“Can I sign it, like all great artists do?”

Typical, I thought, she’s just done her first canvas piece, and already considers herself in the league of Michelangelo, Rembrandt and van Gogh. I dismissed her with an are-you-kidding-me look.

The next day, she did a much (much) better piece of the goddess Parvathi. And on the bottom right, she’d signed her name!

I guess my daughter believes in what Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper once said:

“It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.”