In the Eyes of the Beholder

I painted a Sonoran desert mural in my 3 1/2 year old grandson John's room.  He wanted to 'help.'  I outlined a small lizard on a painted rock above his bed and gave him the red paint he requested.  He started out very carefully painting the curling tail then took a big blob of crimson and scribbled the paint brush all over the rest of it.  I quickly said I was pretty sure his mom had lunch ready and he happily trounced out of the room.  I scrubbed off the mess and cursed the fact that the pencil outline also came off.  Rapidly redrawing, I soon had a nicely painted red lizard.
John came up after lunch and looked at the lizard and just beamed at 'his' handiwork and proudly showed it off to his mom. "Look what I painted!"  The scrubbed aura of reddish patina surrounding the lizard adds to it's charm.
Every night artist John kisses it goodnight.
©7/2012  Jana B Patrick