Art brings you joy. It
takes you to new and different worlds.
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| Almost finished. |
Today's client is two, and she knows what she wants. “An orange cow! A
barn!” Because I’m her grandmother, she’ll get them, even though I’ve never
painted a mural before.
This is a limited-palette painting. I have red, yellow, blue
and white latex eggshell-finish wall paints. All of them run on the warm side, and they can’t make a convincing green. It’s good that I’m painting over a green
base.
This morning, I’ll extend the trees behind the barn. I’ll pop and model the
foliage a little with some acrylic paint I bought at Michael's. Then
it’s back to plain wall painting for me. There’s still a lot to do, and I'm keenly conscious of the ticking clock.
My son-in-law believes primer is a sufficient covering for
the walls. I try to explain that wall paint is a lot like a pedicure: the color
is just a bonus. What you’re really gaining is a harder, durable, more
easily-cleaned surface. “What a waste of time and money!” he exclaims.
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| I used sidewalk chalk to make my sketch, such as it was. |
Still, when I got to a hard part, he took the roller from me, and even did a credible job. Then he went back to the mysteries of connecting their electrical service to National Grid.
My daughter is a mechanical engineer. She went to a
plumbing store in Albany to buy a fitting for their well pump. She had designed and installed the system herself. “If
you don’t know which one you need, you should hire a contractor,” the clerk sneered. Mostly, sexism of the kind our grandmothers endured is gone in America, but once in a while, it shows back up.
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| My granddaughter is still very short, so all the action is at the bottom of the picture. |
Thirty years ago, my husband and I also did the site work and systems for our first home, also a modular. Our children are far less excitable than we were. There's no blue cloud of swearing hanging in the air these days, even as they press against their final deadline.
I never painted a mural for my own kids. Like everyone else, I
was scrambling to hold together a house, family, and job. This is one
of the luxuries of grandparenting, and I’m enjoying it very much.
Last night, my granddaughter and I did a project
review. She thinks her mural might need a black bear up on the hill. Her look of
total absorption was the same as that of an adult contemplating a painting. It
didn’t matter that my painting was done mostly with a two-inch wall brush and I don’t know what I’m doing. Her
hillside farm transported her. That’s the whole point: painting should take us
to new and different worlds.
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| Can I fob off a mere oil painting on her brother? I doubt it. |
Meanwhile her three-year-old brother announced, “I want a
farm, too!” I have a painting of a crane I did last spring at the boatyard; I
hope I can fob him off with it.
