The most thoughtless way to criticize a painting, especially an abstract one—either expressionist or minimalist—is to say “my kid could do that,” which is always uttered by someone who never painted or has any curiosity to try. It is uttered with such confidence. A person who says this thinks they made a point but betrayed their ignorance.

Try painting something using brushes but leaving no brush mark behind (like Ad Reinhardt) or leave and explosion of marks so messy that it defies its very own senselessness and transports the viewer into an unknown landscape of pure epiphany (like Joan Mitchell).

Representational painters, who might dismiss or resent the auspices given to abstraction, at least have an intuitive sense of how complex, if not difficult, the nuances might be.

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My youngest child recently left the daycare I have been going to for the past eight years, ever since my oldest went when he was only 7 months old. My wife and I had stacked out vacation and sick leave back to back to come up with as much time as possible before resigning, sadly, to what so many American families must.
That, and we spent upwards to $300,000 for both childen from 0-5.

I was always drawn to the walls covered with kid’s art, the decisions they make are wild. they draw and paint with the kind of abandon only Cy Twombly has seemed to preserve, or late Picasso.

This is now way to call into question the careful machinations ofprofessional adult artists painting, only to remind ourselves that art lives inside us. We are all born with it.