Wednesday

 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. 

6 comments:

Yoli said...

Your knock off art is amazing. Really love it. Spartacus huh? Have you been watching "Spartacus Blood and Sand?" and she heard about it? Too cute of her to make her own sumo warrior outfit with sunglasses to match on the halter. Would love to see one day her little tramp (Chaplin)immitation. Her art is wonderful, she has been silently absorbing her mother's world. I can almost imagine her in 10 years. Magical child.

Maia said...

SPORTacus, actually, not Spartacus. Sportacus is the energetic superhero from the very hyper Icelandic kid's show Lazy Town. He is played by Icelandic gymnast and health enthusiast Magnus Scheving, and Q thinks he's just dreamy! Though to my mind his outfit does not much resemble this getup that Q has invented.

Maia said...

My mistake...I said that Magnus Scheving is a gymnast when he's actually an aerobat. Duh.

Kenza said...

I am speechless... Give her tons of kisses from me...

Cavatica said...

I love her Sportacus and I don't know who that is.

Michele said...

How can you not crack up with such a magical character in your life.