Jun
20
My Kid Could Paint That
Written by Kate. Filed Under review, television, thoughts
Last night my friend Laura and I had a girls night, our husbands were having a boys night at the Coors Light Maxim Golf Experience. I made Laura some amazing Linguine & Chicken Thighs and she brought over a movie- My Kid Could Paint That.
I had heard of it before from Rosie O’Donnell’s blog. The movie hits close to home for Rosie because of all the paintings that her kids do. It’s almost similar to the movie because she often tapes them all painting in their painting room, it’s amazing.
I was mesmerized with the movie. It’s a documentary about Marla Olmstead, an adorable and shy 4 year old. She started painting when she was 2, and they always loved her work, but really all parents love their children’s work. A friend of the families owned a coffee shop and offered to put her work up in the shop, just to see what might happen. As it turns out a gallery owner saw the painting and loved it, after finding out that it was done by a 4 year old the story just grew and grew. And that was just the beginning. She has art shows and her paintings sold for anywhere between $250 (the first one) - to $25,000. Issues arise when people start questioning whether she had any help from her father, an amature painter himself. The documentary does an amazing job of making you really think about it. In the beginning you are so amazed with Marla’s painting, that you believe she does it all herself. Further into the movie after they tape her painting and compare it to other works she has completed you wonder whether she did in fact have help from her father. The painting that she was filmed painting (called Ocean) looks a lot different from the other paintings that she completed (for example Building & Zane Dancing [Zane being her younger brother]) the others are tight patterns and are very symmetrical, the one she painted on film was not. In the end of the movie you are left to decide for yourself.
I honestly feel that it doesn’t matter if she had help, the pieces are still amazing, but if she had help they should have said from the beginning that it was father-daughter work, and not that she did it all herself. The parents were adamant in the movie that she did it all herself and the only help she got was with setting up the canvases, that she did all the painting by herself. The father seemed a bit odd in the movie, and I think it may have been possible that he was helping out. Laura found Marla’s manager to be really weird, and I agreed. He never seemed to give the right answer when people were asking questions and after a documentary about Marla ran on CNN he was filmed screaming at a camera who was asking him questions. Quite a creepy guy also.
I really want to believe that she made these herself and I would highly recommend seeing this movie, so you will know what I’m talking about because this may seem like a lot of mumble jumble. And please let me know what you thought of it!
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7 Responses to “My Kid Could Paint That”
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Why didn’t they just film her painting a few, so they could see if she really is that good or not? Or did they?
I love Ocean!
They did that and she painted the ocean one.
Check out her website.
Well then what’s the problem! She is naturally talented but her dad probably helped her with a few to hurry her up so she could make more money. That’s my very uneducated on the topic theory!
I think you mean so her DAD could make more money!
My friend saw this film and said it was fantastic. A few days after seeing it, the little girl and her aunt went into his parent’s store,where he was working. He freaked out and called me. We both agreed that screaming “i saw your film!” might freak her out.
The latest blog stylings of Lauren: Testaments
Well there are laws against him getting the money.. the documentary was probably his big money maker.
Funny, until I scrolled far enough into the picture I’d thought you’d taken a picture of last night’s supper.
I figure (helping hand or not), should you wish to spend $20,000 it’s all in perspective of what you like and not so much who painted it.
Just because the “group of seven” paintings go for record $$$ amounts in sales doesn’t mean I particularly like their works or would ever display them. It’s more a matter of taste and what appeals to one may be totally absurb to another.
If she did paint these herself, I give her kudos for making more money than the average 20 year old has made in their first year of employment.