I have two sons and as is always, poles apart. While the older one poses pertinent problems with design and gives very interesting insight for improvement of my projects, the younger one is sharp enough to ape his brother just to get some brownie points from me. I have my own doubts about his interest in art. I cant say it doesn’t exist because he has a pretty steady hand himself, I am afraid he is not gifted with patience that is required to create something.
I have a confession to make. Once my heart is set on some project, I go a bit crazy and clumsy. All my supplies are usually strewn around in my room and the kids are always playing around them.
Now comes the interesting bit – My younger one learnt very soon what payback meant when I got mad at him for some prank or the other. I have lost count of the number of paintings he has made marks on just to get back at me. My elder one never dared such actions owing to horrible consequences.
This morning was different. I was up painting from mid night to early morning and so I snoozed off at 5 am. At 8 am my elder one woke me up excited, saying “amma I have a surprise for you”, and he rushed me to my workstation. “I gave you a tick mark on the new fish painting since you didn’t show it to me yesterday,” he said. There it was a sizeable black tick mark on the unfinished margin of my current Madhubani fish. At first shock consumed me. “What have you done keds, why?” I asked, anxious. With his doe eyes he said, “I liked it a lot, it was new and I thought I should give you an appreciation.”
I was touched, I didn’t know how to react. I hope to God my younger one doesn’t get any further ideas from this one!
This crafter colleague of mine suggested that I convert it into a sign and get him to participate in my works each time. This is the first piece of art which has my sign on it. That’s the story of my first sign.