Hand Painted

This work of art came home from preschool in about 1970 with Dana when she was about three.  I suppose it could be called finger paint on computer paper--the old computer paper with holes along the sides and perforations between sheets.

Hoping to preserve it as much as possible, I took it to an elderly Japanese framer in Berkeley who took a look at the paper with perforations down the middle, held together with transparent tape and made excellent suggestions for tasteful framing and matting. As we were concluding the arrangements, he looked at me very seriously and said, "Next time, try to get her to do it on better paper."

When we moved to Edinburgh, we air freighted a box of clothing and a few pictures, including this one, to remind us of home. We didn't find a place to live right away, so the box went into storage in Glasgow. When we eventually went to Glasgow to pick up the box, we discovered that the contents were just thrown into the box without being properly wrapped or packed for shipping. The glass on all the pictures, including this one, was shattered, so I took it to John Mathieson in Frederick street, where the glass and the mat were replaced.

The colors have faded and are no longer quite as pleasing as they were almost forty years a ago, but it still hangs on our wall, only the third in all that time, but now it is in a windowless hallway where it doesn't get much direct light.

It still makes me smile.