Artwork that cries out

On our refrigerator, there's an 8.5 X 11 piece of paper with a crayon drawing that could only have been rendered by the Master. Ian showed it to me the day that he made it in school, and he said, "This is a picture of me on the bus."

I knew that that couldn't be good, because the only clearly identifiable human figure in the drawing is an unmistakable black frown-face in the lower left corner of the page. When you look more closely, you see that it's hovering necklessly over a dome-torso, and the pattern on that upper body is a classic black-and-green horizontal stripe design reminiscent of Ian's rather preschool-preppy wardrobe. Eventually you notice a rectangular bus-window next to the sad face, and a box not much larger than the grimacing subject that must be the bus itself... But it's the abject frown that captures you.

Ian went on to explain that he is sad, because he didn't get a chance to say goodbye to Mommy before getting on the bus. Sure enough, Mommy is in the picture - a tall, Picassoesque yellow stick figure, clearly holding out her arms. It turns out that she's actually on the phone. As soon as the artist provided that detail, I understood the whole story.

Mommy confirmed that she was so busy talking on the phone that morning, when Ian got on the bus, that she didn't get to say goodbye to him. In fact, that morning Ian realized the bus was waiting and ran for the bus while the telephony buzzed on unawares in the background....

It really is a heart-wrenching picture, but the artist leaves us with hope. In addition to his "signature" - giantic IAN taking up the upper third of the work, there's also a big red heart next to the frowning student and the telecommunicative mother. And the heart is as big as the two human figures combined, taking up the center of the page.

Even amidst disappointment and mild distress, love pervades the landscape.