Tea Party Break
Children speak a truth that strikes at the core, don’t they? My daughter, age 4, asks me the other day, “Mama, is painting real?”
I paused. I had a flood of answers flow into me so fast my words didn’t form. Things like, “Trompe L’oeil is the trick of the eye…”, and Magritte’s “The Treachery of the Images” painting of a pipe that says (in French) “this is not a pipe.” Then my brain moved past (a very French) art history. I thought of how I use my paintings to capture what I see, what I experience of a place and a moment, and then share it with others. I thought of the physical qualities of art making. The stretching of canvas until my hands cramp, the mixing of paint, the tactile feel of the brush bouncing back from the stroke.
“Yes, darling. Painting is very real. Art is real.”
And then we had tea. Pinky fingers up!