Conversation with a six-year-old.
Issy: Who are the Beatles?
Me: Four guys who made music together
Issy: What are their names?
Me: John, Paul, George and Ringo
Issy: Are they still alive?
Me: Two are alive and two are dead
Issy: Is Paul dead?
Me: Everyone thought Paul was dead. It turned out he was just tricking.
John and George are dead
Issy: How did they die?
Me: John got shot and George got sick and couldn’t get better
Issy: The Beatles are GREAT!
This week is Children’s Week in Australia. It’s an annual event established around 17 years ago. I can’t say that I have ever paid much attention to it. Officially designated occasions come and go, often getting lost in a sort of designed by a committee nothingness. In this instance, the idea that the week ‘celebrates the right of children to enjoy childhood’ struck a chord. Isn’t that right a given? The thought that kids would have to fight for the right to a childhood is reason enough for this week to exist. Kids + play = happy = learning = good outcomes for all. It’s not hard to do the maths.
Smith studied the 20th century Avant Garde at design school. Meanwhile Baker steadily amassed a personal collection of paintings to rival Peggy Guggenheim. We are both fans of sorts, so let’s get one thing straight: The old ‘my child could have done that’ cliché has no place here, all those crazy paintings are fine by us.
However, while looking through a box full of artwork by our prolific young girls the other day, I couldn’t help but notice that some images recalled the signature styles of certain modern masters.
So for bit of fun, here is the artist paired with their soul buddy plucked straight from the overflow of our fridge door gallery.
Dubuffet
Rothko
Warhol
Matisse
Klee
Twombly
Stella
Schlemmer
An exhibition at the Museum of Sydney has engaging displays about our relationship food culture through the ages. My favourite bit is a wall inviting people to ‘share thoughts, fondest food memories or a favourite recipe’. Drawings of cupcakes and declarations of love for one recipe or another sit side by side. There are shout outs for mum and there is disappointment at not being able to replicate a taste as experienced in the note writer’s land of their youth. Rich memories, the ingredients for cooking up a tale. What’s your favourite food story?
bakersmith 