The Studio

I was sitting at my desk last night, but turned around with my feet up on the backboard of the bed.  My six year old daughter came in excited and jumped on my legs.  She was wearing a pair of earrings that we made together.  The pair she had on tonight were fashionable plastic color stars reusing the string from another pair.  She recently modified the design by wounding up the string around the post because she didn't like dangling ones.  The first pair she ever made was a piece of clay stuck onto the end of empty clip ons.  They didn't last long.  The next were a pair of extra buttons held on by dental floss.

She wanted to tell me about the art studio her mother was going to set up for her in the basement.  She loves doing projects and this way we wouldn't have to worry about the mess.  She told me it had the added benefit of helping to conquer her fear of the basement.  I’m sure the second idea was not her own but like all kids, she has a wonderful ability to make our hopes her own.

With great animation she told me about the papers and paints that would make up this studio and maybe a tent over the whole thing.  I leaned forward and looked right at her and asked if she wanted to know a secret.  She paused and with a serious look she nodded.  I told her I always wanted to be an artist and asked if it would be ok if I could have a studio next to hers. 

Because this was a secret she bounced on my legs as she moved closer.  Yeaaah!! she said.  Then in hushed but excited tones she said she always wanted to be an artist too.  It was like two foreigners from the same country finding each other in a far away land.

We preceded to build up our studios describing in detail the folders we would use, how we could create sculptures, the different paints and pencils, and how we would display things all over the walls.

The Father-Daughter studio continued to take form.  She could sense my genuine excitement as I continued to imagine all the amazing things we would create side by side.  I have always been extremely proud of the pictures and crafts she has done, but now I had elevated her to some world renowned artist in a high ceiling loft in NYC snubbing pretentious collectors from Milan, Berlin, and Tokyo.

I was momentarily distracted from my runaway fantasy as I could see she wanted to tell me something.  Great bring it on, how can we make this magical world even better?  She said her dream was to make one kind of picture.  She wanted all her art to be pictures... pictures of puppies.

I looked at her and smiled... puppies… huh... hmmm... ok then, puppies it is.  I now look forward to the creation of an amazing world of puppies.   God bless her.