Lola came home the other day bearing an invitation to the SPECIAL! GALLERY-STYLE! ART SHOW! at her school next week.
Gone are the days when your child's art would be Elmer's-glued to a big piece of black construction paper and taped to the walls in the first-grade hall for you to take home later FOR FREE. Gone are the days when they'd lure you to PTA with promises of open house art with butter cookies and fruit punch.
Nowadays, a for-profit company comes in to plan and run the show. They take your kid's masterpiece and put it in a frame you could buy for 4.99 at WalMart, display it on a big foamcore backboard, and charge you 30 BUCKS! for it.
They urge you to "See it. Share it. Celebrate."
And don't they know we celebrate every green cat and purple dog, every birthday poem and certificate of honor--that we are surrounded by our child's genius--on every wall, stuck on the fridge, and piled in the tops of our closets--that we can get it for free and frame it for pennies?!
So now they're going to SELL it to us, and we must buy it or risk crushing our darling's self-esteem?
It's an insidious shakedown.
9 comments:
second only to the pack of school pictures that are terrible but you feel so guilty if you don't buy them cause you know if you send them back they are going to throw them away.
Wish I'd thought of starting that company. I could've been so rich.
I LOVE the gator painting...it is SO awesome!!!
everybody knows the best frame you can have is the fridge....
...cool mask.
so what happens now? will they hold mama crock 'til you cough up the loot? will she be shredded if you don't...?
you are going to buy it, aren't you?
And there we have reason 4,594 why I'm never having kids. That's a racket! How do I get in on arranging "art shows" at kiddie schools? And do you have to be enrolled to show? I've got some works.
Mary, I'll sell you the original, signed by the artist, for $20.
Do any of the proceeds go to the school? What a scam.
Lo has made some beautiful art. I wonder where the inspiration for the orange & blue face came from?
Actually Jack made the mask. He's a closet Gator.
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