Une Envie de Sel

 The other day, Q's daddy took her to the kid's art room at the contemporary art museum while I was working. She came home with these collages. Daddy says the only thing he did for her was to cut the shape of the heart on the left for her, at her request. Everything else she picked, cut, glued by herself.

 It's interesting because in style these collages remind me so much of the collages I used to make when I was much younger. This is the first time she's made anything in this style, and yet again it makes me shake my head in wonder at this extraordinary child. 

Of course...she is surrounded by art of various kinds, so I suppose she was bound to have a visual life.

 In her room, a Yoshitomo Nara "knockoff" that I made for my husband when we were first dating. One Christmas, I made him an entire little contemporary art museum filled with "knockoffs" of famous artists, each image starring his late and beloved dog, Max. He had them all framed, and they now hang in Q's room.

 Q's King of the Lizards poster protects her from the monsters in her dreams (she calls them the "scratchy monsters", which always sends a bit of a nail-biting chill down my spine- I can just hear their claws scratching at the pane of her window...).

 Q's own photos of her fierce protector.

 On a shelf, a disparate heard of pink animals I once painted for a cake topping.

 More of my knock-off Pop Art collection starring Max the dog.

 A gift from a friend overseas.

 Robots...she loves robots. In fact, if you ask her who she is today, her answers in order of preference are: 

1. Sportacus (her hero)

2. Little Robot

3. Octopus

 Artwork by Daddy and an old Denver street sign that hang over her closet.

 And then there's this, and again I am left without words. 

She calls this her Sportacus outfit. 

She invented it herself, and it is her default uniform around the house. 

It consists of Hello Kitty underpants, the belt from my parka (tied just so - she wants the bow just over her right hip at the back), and her palm tree sunglasses, always holstered on the right side of her "belt". 

My advice is, don't ask.

It is difficult for me to convey to the casual reader just what an extraordinary character our daughter is. She is part engineer, part comedian, part circus acrobat, part silent film star, part tomboy, and 150% Q. 

There just is no recipe for it.

Finally, I wish I could show you were Charlie Chaplin as the Little Tramp performance. I don't even know where she got it, because as far as I know she has never seen Charlie Chaplin. And yet, her homage is faithful down to the facial expression, the bowlegged strut and the cane. It's a mystery, and it sends us into rolling peals of laughter every time she does it. 

Unfortunately, she doesn't do these things on command - only when the mood strikes her. Plus, she is almost inevitably starkers when she does it, which makes it hard to publish photos. 

So you'll just have to take my word for it.