A Masterpiece

One thing I just love about working in the book store is watching parents bring their children in and help them learn about reading and loving books.   The store has a small room--about the size of a house closet--set aside for children's books.  It houses books for toddlers up to young adult age.  Some kids come in with their parents and, while the parents wander around the store looking for books for themselves, the kids are in the children's room seeing if there is anything they want. 

I love it when a kid comes out excitedly clutching a treasure he or she has found.

Today a mother and daughter came in.  The girl looked like she might have been 5.  She had obviously been in the store before because she commented that there was new art on the walls.  

Logos is a place where local artists can display their art work for a month.  The displays change every month and this month's artist, Marguerite Schaffron, is particularly prolific because there is more stuff on the walls than I remember in months past.  Schaffron is a "multi media" artist and so her work is quite eclectic.  I don't know "art" from a hole in the ground.   I know what I like and don't like, but I wouldn't have a clue whether something was "good art" or not.  But I was intrigued by some of her pieces.  For example, there was something about this one that I really liked.

Nothing I would ever buy, even if I had somewhere to put it, but I liked the mixture of the real hat and real fan with some real cloth combined with a painting.

Likewise, I liked what she has done with shirt collars and ties.

She also had a whole collection of framed CDs which had been painted and looked surprisingly nice.

But as this little girl passed by my desk on her way to the book room, she looked up at the huge painting n the wall and said "Wow--look at that masterpiece!"  It was so cute.  This is the "masterpiece."

(I don't know what the artist had in mind, but when I look at it, I see a cute little dog's face.)

The little girl went on to pick out three books and brought them to the desk.  I told her how much it would be -- $6 something -- and the mother pulled out a bunch of $1 bills and a $5 and told the girl to take $6.  The girl thought about it and pulled out the five dollar bill and then tried to remember how much else to take.  The mother used it as a teaching moment and let the girl figure it out.   She finally settled on a $1 bill.  The mother counted out the change and gave it to the girl to give to me.

I was so impressed by this whole encounter, how much the little girl appreciated the art, how the mother helped her choose books she wanted to read and then let the girl handle the transaction herself.  As they left the book store, I thought what a lucky little girl she was to have a mother who cared enough to teach her about art and books and mathematics!