Our Newest Art Acquisitions – and My Bad Mommy Moment

We had one little bare wall beside our laundry room door, so I decided to commission a couple of talented artists to create custom-designed paintings for the space. Yes, I’m talking about little Frannie and Maggie – and boy, were they cheap. A couple of chocolate chip muffins and they were ready to roll!

I knew I wanted an “abstract” style, so we pulled out Ian Falconer’s book “Olivia”, and turned to the part where Olivia’s looking at a Jackson Pollock piece — which she is sure she could recreate herself, and proceeds to do on her bedroom wall.

I set out the small canvases I had picked up at Michael’s (you can get them at the dollar store as well), paintbrushes, trays of paint, and of course some coverups, and the girls went to town.

Frannie went first, and wasn’t quite as uninhibited as her sister who followed. Of course, I didn’t help matters. At one point, I looked over to see her globbing paint on the sides of the canvas, and my immediate response was: “Oh, you’re not supposed to paint the sides!” You should have seen the crestfallen look on her face. Tears filled her eyes, and I knew I had broken her little heart. What a bad mommy! If she wants to paint the sides of the freakin’ canvas, who am I to say it’s wrong? (Believe me, I’m no artist!) I attempted to repair the emotional damage, and I think it worked, as she proceeded to happily glob paint on the other three sides.

Once the masterpieces were dry, I used a permanent marker to add their names and the year to their work, and then promptly hung them in their reserved space.

Next stop, the Metropolitan Museum of Art!