I don’t think I make Helena do visual art, but I do like art. So she has books about art, and we visit art galleries whenever I get the chance. We play this game I invented to make her look at the art – where if she finds a horse anywhere in the gallery I’ll take her out for a treat. We did it with friends of hers recently at the highbrow Wellington City Gallery, I thought the odds were stacked in my favour. Though there was a painting called “John Wayne” (or some other famous cowboy actor). We spent ages trying to make a blob into a horse then suddenly one of the kids saw a horse scraped out of the paint in the corner of the painting, I’m sure everybody in the gallery heard them shout out, but we only found it due to playing such close attention. So I brought and we shared a chocolate bar.

Recently we have been to several art galleries.

Christchurch City gallery, (my favourite), they do good kids stuff, in this one you make the picture by combing the fur.

We also brought Helena some new pastels in Christchurch and one of the  things she wanted to get home for was to use her new pastels.

We both like Andy Goldsworthy and recently at Isel Park, where it felt like spring, we did this together and it was fun and beautiful.

Art should be fun.

What I don’t like is when Helena asks me what I think? Sometimes I think she is genuinely asking me and respond but then if it’s not me saying it’s fabulous she gets upset. Sometimes I sound like a list of instructons even to me. I try to think about what I want when I ask about stuff I make but I actually don’t ask! I will say something about bits I’m not sure of, or if I’m having trouble and I don’t reject advice even if I think it’s dumb advice but I always just do what I want. Neither do I feel the need for a pat on the back. I have had the conversation with Helena that I am now too scared to respond. I try the whole you worked hard on that thing but maybe I left it too late for that approach as she was already down the path of wanting my approval and keeps asking, maybe I shouldn’t have put the stuff of hers I liked up on the wall? Helena likes that I don’t like using soft pastels, pastels are all hers. We went to an art gallery years ago and Helena showed the woman there the art she’d just done and the woman was awesome, she was equally as enthusiastic over the person climbing a ladder as the one that in my head was a scribble. I tried to remove my opinion after that. I just dont want her to stop doing art when she gets to the age where the idea in her head no longer matches what her skill can do,she already looses control when shes frustrated.

I’m probably overthinking it. I won’t make her to art.