Child art prodigy wows New York

[emad]

BBC News



A four-year-old girl is wowing the New York art world with paintings that are drawing comparisons with Jackson Pollock and Wassily Kandinsky.

Marla Olmstead, from Binghamton, in New York state, has been painting since just before she was two years old.

Using brushes, spatulas, her fingers and even ketchup bottles, she is creating canvases of six by six foot.

The prodigy has already sold about 25 paintings, raising $40,000 (£22,000) and a new exhibition opens on Friday.

Father Mark, speaking to BBC News Online while on a trip to New York city to do television interviews, said: "She does her own thing, she uses a lot of paint but is oblivious to the whole thing."


The paintings are given simple titles and signed 'Marla', sometimes with the 'r' reversed
More Marla:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3701484.stm

[BurtWorm]

1. That's art?! Come on!

A three-year-old could do that!

[skooooo]

3. I think it's beautiful....

she understand how to use colors.

[BurtWorm]

5. Seriously, this one is beautiful

[emad]

12. This one too:

[BurtWorm]

15. Awww!

:hi:

[burythehatchet]

7. the two paintings at the bottom of the page

are simply beautiful.

[burythehatchet]

4. Not a chance.

Her art is stunning in the eye of this beholder

:)

[BurtWorm]

9. (I was kidding.)

;)

[JohnKleeb]

10. I couldn't

[burythehatchet]

2. what a beautiful, beautiful story

this is what proves the presense of an Almighty to me.

[Phillycat]

6. Gorgeous art, what an amazing little girl!

6X6 canvasses! They're twice as tall as she is!

Wow. :loveya:

[amazona]

8. her father is "assisting" her

This is a hoax. I realize hoax has its place in the art world but I think it's been done a few times too often to have anything new to say to me. But a guy has to make a living, I just think it's a tad trashy to use one's 4 year old child to do so.

[Phillycat]

11. This is what the article says.

"I'm her assistant, I hand her the brushes. She doesn't appreciate that most artists have to wait longer to have an assistant," he joked.

That's not exactly the same as him painting it for her. Also, the BBC news isn't exactly known for reporting on hoaxes.

[amazona]

14. BBC news does report hoaxes

The British have a unique sense of humor in my experience.

[tridim]

16. I'm not sure if I buy it either

There is too much brush and color control for a 4 year old mind. If you look at finger paintings of typical 4 year olds, they almost always end up smearing all the colors together at the end and making what looks like a pile of mud. She's either a super-prodigy with a fully developed adult mind or her father is "assisting" her by painting the whole thing.

[aePrime]

13. I hope she's not using oils

Because kids are messy, and too much oil paint on the skin can make you sick. It gets absorbed.

[dolo amber]

17. I have about 5 of those on my fridge

Man, why didn't I think to cash in?? x(

[politicat]

18. She has absolutely AMAZING muscle control for a four year old.

Or an 8 year old for that matter. Fine control like that is not normal in a child her age. There's a reason that most children have rather shaky handwriting...

I want to see the video tape of her working.

However, I don't think I ever will because I don't think she's doing it.

Pcat

[SemiCharmedQuark]

19. I agree

From how she's holding the brush in the picture it doesn't seem to add up does it?

[politicat]

22. nope. EOM

[Ripley]

20. Oh, another child art star?

Yes, let's pay thousands for her keen sense of postmodern abstraction clearly based upon her inherent skills that no one else possesses.

And let's remember to insist that struggling adult artists should always give discounts to their buyers, to the point of not making a profit. :eyes:

[kimchi]

21. I'm not convinced it is a hoax.

My daughter is not yet two, she's been painting for a year, and she can create some pretty cool paintings. Sometimes I look at her and wonder if she has used a brush before--because she has good control and uses different techniques. I use paper bags, and use them to wrap gifts.

So a four year old--I definitely believe it. Remember, Mozart started composing quite early. All artistic talent is a gift; and some people find it earlier than others.

[politicat]

34. It's the muscle control, Kimchi....

Biologically, muscle control that fine is almost impossible...

By the way, how are you and your little one? Is she up to weight yet?

Pcat

[kimchi]

37. Thanks for asking.

She is still thin, but within acceptable limits. Right now everything is "no no no" and "mom mom mom".

I was looking at the paintings, and I assume, by muscle control you mean the fine lines? I see what you mean about making them even; maybe she actually uses a paint pen? Because with a pen or pencil any kid can draw doodles, circles, and spirals. Or perhaps just two years of painting every day has given her that control. Seriously. I've seen my kid go from random scribbles to coloring mostly inside the lines already.

I'm willing to give the child and father the benefit of the doubt; because there are child geniuses of every kind. Of course, I'll have a better idea of what the heck I'm talking about in 2 years...

[politicat]

38. Ah, what a wonderful age! Glad she's doing well....

Like I said, I want to see video of her at work. It shouldn't be too worrisome a thing to release ... unless there's fraud going on. On edit... it's consistent muscle control, that's what I'm skeptical about. Though paint pens are a possibility,... if she's patient enough to let hte paint dry before putting them on....

It would be nice if she's really doing the work. Unfortunately, as others have mentioned upthread, too many people are willing to exploit their children for financial gain.

We may have one of the prettiest babies in the family, but we're not dragging her around to talent agencies, even though she's got the markers for a baby model. (Good temperament, well adjusted, photogenic and alert....) I can't imagine what would motivate someone to do such a thing..,

And if Lil Kimchi starts producing her own Rembrandts, I promise we won't get nearly as snarky about she and thee....

Pcat

[kimchi]

41. Well there is where I can agree with you.

Perhaps her assistant takes one canvas away to dry while starting another; or "suggests" a certain color palette. That wouldn't surprise me in the least.

Yeah, people who exploit their children are the lowest of the low. Money is more than likely the motivation for such.

I doubt Lil Kimchi will be producing Rembrandts, but her daddy is very talented artistically, so I'm hoping she got his attributes. (He painted a cool castle mural on her bedroom wall.) Cause I absolutely suck at drawing, painting, sewing or anything vaguely artistic--so I scrapbook; because I CAN cut and paste okay.

I don't see anything wrong with a baby cooing in a commercial once or twice. I do have a problem if they have a "career" path that the parent chooses for them. Baby Politicat sounds like a doll. I hope she continues to be well adjusted. Mine is a great kid--but they all go through the terrible twos-which is sorta like schizophrenia if you ask me. All in all, she's the best part of my life, though.

[NorthernSpy]

23. random splotches are not "art"!

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes:


Pleasantly-colored blobs are just pleasantly-colored blobs. The emperor swaggers on, still unclad.

The art of our culture has been degraded beyond all recognition. Someone ought to do something about that.


Mary

[Phillycat]

24. Is it possible you just don't know much about abstract art?

[NorthernSpy]

29. is it possible that there ain't much to know about it in the first place?

Random splotches are random splotches.

Incoherent babbling is not literature.

Twelve-tone bleeps and snorts are not music.

Random splotches are not art.


Emmanuel Asare, Britain's foremost art critic, has explained it so very clearly:

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_427725.html?menu=news.quirkies



Mary

[WindRavenX]

35. Who are you to define what art is or is not?

Art is whatever we wish it to be. Art has no true definition- if it brings a person pleasure at looking at it, then it is art to that person.

[NorthernSpy]

42. art is a human-created thing, and I am a human

Art is whatever we wish it to be.


So... who in the world wished for art to be blotted out by trashy mixed-media installations and million-dollar paint blobs?


Art has no true definition- if it brings a person pleasure at looking at it, then it is art to that person.


No true definition, you say -- and then immediately insist upon offering one.

The sight of a nicely split cord of wood has brought me undeniable pleasure: the pleasure of knowing that I needn't freeze to death. Thing is, I wasn't making art at the time; I was making kindling.

If art is every damn thing, then it is nothing at all. I don't want art to be nothing.

As it turns out, not everything is art. We're lucky that way.


Mary

[WindRavenX]

44. Wow, I'm glad you're not in charge of handing out grants

So... who in the world wished for art to be blotted out by trashy mixed-media installations and million-dollar paint blobs?
No one wished for anything. Again, to you, you may not like it. That's fine. If someone else likes it, and they like it, in his or her eyes, THAT is art. That doesn't MEAN you have to think it is. Art is COMPLETELY subjective; and thank god for that.

If art is every damn thing, then it is nothing at all. I don't want art to be nothing.
No, if art is everything, it IS everything. The world is a living work of art, from DNA to the clouds. Life is art.

[Ripley]

46. Nope, you can't sell clouds on eBay as Art.

Many things are artful, artistic and arty. And the clear definition of Fine Art changes over time, thus new distinctions such as Modern Art, Performance Art etc. come about.

Art is however a recognized human pursuit with specific criteria, unlike DNA. Of course people in the art world and philosophical world will always debate the nuances. Most of it is about context. Warhol's soup can was art because he was the first to take a graphic design of a mass produced entity and place it in an artistic format.

Now if you're talking good art and bad art, well yeah, that becomes subjective to an extent. On a personal level everyone decides what they think is good or bad, but if someone is lacking the knowledge of art history and the artist's intentions, that decision may be made poorly.

[NorthernSpy]

48. How come? I could save us all a pile of money...

Y'all could still have your eyesores. They'd just be unfunded, more budget-friendly eyesores.

No one wished for anything. Again, to you, you may not like it. That's fine. If someone else likes it, and they like it, in his or her eyes, THAT is art. That doesn't MEAN you have to think it is. Art is COMPLETELY subjective; and thank god for that.

Oh, lord... what else is "completely subjective"?

How about pizza? Is pizza completely subjective? Does a fetid casserole of spinach, bootsoles, and arsenic qualify as pizza just on my say so?

Y'know, these expressionistas really might instead be good sports about it and leave us our art and the plain-English sense of the word to go with it. They ought to have their own word, which they may strip of meaning as they please.

How about blobbery? I will give them that word for their very own: Blobbery.

No, if art is everything, it IS everything. The world is a living work of art, from DNA to the clouds. Life is art.

Oh, that stuff is not art. That kind of thing is what is collectively known as the universe. Art is a human endeavor, and as such is a tiny part of the universe.

It's a fine universe in its own right. Calling it "art" does not lend it any extra dignity.


Mary

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

25. If that's really her painting it is quite impressive indeed

children are the purest of all artists - no preconceived notions or inhibitions to get in the wa.

[jpgray]

28. Art is preconceived notions and inhibition

Anyone tells you otherwise, well, they probably want to sell you some art. For example those that are praising this have a preconceived notion about what good abstract art is, and they have the inhibition that DUers might think they are stupid or classless if they say the kid's work is just kid stuff. :D

The problem with art that breaks every rule is that no one has to have talent to create outside the rules. A child banging on a piano could claim to have composed a serialist masterwork or a brilliant jazz piece in the vein of Cecil Taylor, but I prefer to see it as a child banging on a piano.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

30. I see what you're saying I think. A master like Picasso learned the great

techniques and rules before breaking them - right?

[jpgray]

32. Same with Cecil Taylor, or Schoenberg

But maybe it's just that I have no eye for abstract art, and I need that frame of reference to more traditional work to anchor my appreciation of the artist's abstract stuff. Sort of my own personal color-blindness. :)

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

33. If you're interested Kandinsky wrote an essay called "On the Problem of

Form" which I found to be a very interesting piece.

[tjdee]

26. So when did her father start pimping her work?

I always wonder about these 2,3,4 year olds doing professional work (acting/painting/whatever). At what point does a father stop putting her work on the refrigerator and start seeking out art dealers and agents? When does he go "gee, we could make some money selling these"?

My daughter is beautiful. Should I be dragging her around to different agents and go-sees and auditions like the Olsen twins' parents did (and they weren't nearly as stunning as my wittle snookiewookie, LOL!!)?

I am all for showing talent if you've got it, but....maybe I've got sour grapes.
Of course, these kids (and their parents) end up rich and I can't afford to order out for pizza. So, who's the dummy, LOL.

[kick-ass-bob]

27. I would copycat this thread,

but it would be locked so fast its not worth it.

:silly:

[chaska]

31. "Every child is born an artist....

"Every child is born an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once (s)he grows up." -- Pablo Picasso

[Quahog]

36. At the very least, dad's coaching her a LOT

No kid paints in layers like that. There's dry time between those layers, and the colors have to be well thought out or else all you'd have at the end of the exercise is a lot of greyish-brown. And I question the smooth, fine lines in two of the examples, they seem much too contrived for a child that age.

[artboy]

39. Love it!!!

:bounce:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

40. I wonder what happens when she's asked to paint

a picture of herself, or of a tree.

These are certainly lovely paintings, I don't deny that. But I have to say, (and I don't think my parental pride is getting in the way here), my 6 year old has painted some truly lovely abstract things since age 2. He has a terrific sense of texture as well as color.

Ask him to draw a tree and even now he has a hard time making right and left brain connect. His fine motor skills need daily exercise, and have a long way to go before he'll be able to write legibly. Still, he's a very creative child, and I try to encourage him to use every outlet at hand to express himself.

That Picasso quote is too true in the case of artistic genius. The trick is to keep the right side of the brain flowing while allowing the left side to steer the artistic endeavor...whatever the genre.

[Book Lover]

43. NYT did a thing on her on the 28th

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/nyregion/28artist.html



<snip>

Marla uses bright acrylic paints, which she brushes, splatters and scrapes on large canvases to create art that commands attention. She sometimes works on one piece for days at a time. When she decides she is finished, she gives her paintings titles like "Dinosaur," or something reminiscent of a bedtime monster. Then she leaves the grown-ups to see images and meaning.

<snip>

In the beginning, her parents said, people bought her work without knowing her age. Then customers bought it because of her age. Some say she is a prodigy. Some say she is just playing. Her parents are sensitive to criticism that has not been voiced yet - at least not to them. They do not push her to paint or tell her how to do it, they said, and they do not spend a penny of her growing bank account. If she decides she wants to stop, she will stop.

Marla's father, Mark Olmstead, a manager of a Frito-Lay manufacturing plant, was the first artist in the house. "You know how some parents put their kids in front of a TV to keep them occupied?" said Mr. Olmstead, an amateur painter. "Well, I let her paint, so I could paint."

She first picked up a brush when she was 1, painting on an easel. Then her dad would put her on top of the dining room table and let her paint on canvases. "Soon after, I was letting her paint and I was watching," Mr. Olmstead said.
-----

Now me, I'm a book artist/artisan, so what do I know about the art of painting? All I can say is that I want to see her paint with my own eyes.

[northzax]

45. sure, she may make them, and sure they may be beautiful (to some)

but the question of whether art must have meaning to be great is an interesting one. If you accept the thesis that post-modernism abstract art is a way for artists to break free of the constraints of classical art and tell a story in a new way, then I don't see how this qualifies. What new thing about modern life does a 4 year old have to tell us?

The pictures may be pretty to look at, but do they sayanything? what is their contextual meaning? does she have something to say? orisis just pretty to look at?

[Ripley]

47. However, they shouldn't be discounted

just because they are pretty pictures. Not all art has to have deep meaning...it can be just about the process.

However, what irritates me about stories like these is that the child is catapulted into art magazines/galleries and huge amounts of money will be paid because she is an art celebrity. Yes, the artworld sucks because it does push artists as commodities and there have always been art stars. But at a time like this when the economy is hurting all artists except those who cater to the fabulously wealthy, this small child's "talent" is absurd and a slap in the face to adults who produce art.