Paint a Picture of Yourself

Last week C came home from preschool at told me: "Once there was an artist and nobody liked his paintings. His name was Van Gogh."
He went on to describe the paintings "Starry Night" and "Wheatfield with Crows." He told me how Van Gogh killed himself and that he also cut off his ear.
That night after dinner I got out a few art books and together we looked at some of Van Gogh's other paintings. His comment was: "These are nice Mommy, why didn't people like them?"
The school does a whole lesson plan on artists that culminates in a trip to the MFA in the spring so I was interested to hear who they had talked about today; Gauguin maybe, or Degas.
"What did you talk about in circle time today," I asked him on the way home this afternoon.
His reply?
"Don't stick stuff up your nose, cause you might have to have an operation to get it out."

song: Paint a Picture of Yourself (Michael) • artist: Harry Chapin