Thanks, Barbara, for telling me to watch “My Kid Could Paint That”. The emphasis in saying it outloud is on Kid, as if in mocking modern art. I don’t like getting involved in things that don’t have a clear ending. This one certainly didn’t have a clear ending. After the film I had to watch a special feature made a few months after the finishing of the film which further muddled things for me. I need to have an opinion. My only firm opinion is that the filmmaker did and honest and painful job of making the documentary and suffered emotionally for it. The indecision I feel about attributing Marla’s art to her alone makes me want to watch the film again with running commentary by an artist but I’m afraid I still won’t know truth. The question and answer period toward the end of the special feature had one person asking the question I had. This was :Why does the picture Marla was filmed creating looks different in style and composition from many of the others? One artist said artists just have different moods and intentions. This didn’t satisfy me. The whole experience reminded me a little of reading Into The Wild by Krakauer. We feel a need to judge firmly and finally in that book whether Alexander Supertramp was stupid, suicidal or a tragic hero. The real story was in identifying with his experience without judging. I can’t quite identify with Marla’s art but I think I’ll go out and buy a bunch of tubes of paint and get started. Maybe not just my kids but I, myself, could paint that.
January 20, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Sorry to cause you angst. I just wanted someone else that I trust to watch it and see what they thought. I was torn. On the one hand, I don’t think Marla’s mother was lying–and Marla herself was adorable. But I just didn’t see any evidence that Marla did the paintings herself. I thought the dad was not as trustworthy as the mom. I’m guessing she didn’t know how much help he was giving Marla. The two parents worked opposite shifts, so I think that she could be unaware of what was going on when she wasn’t there.
It was just sad on several levels–not the least of which was all the attention she was getting (and that her little brother was NOT getting). I bet there’s an adult tell-all just waiting to be written in about 20 years. I would be interested to know what other people thought who have seen the documentary. I ended up watching it twice, and ended up with the same conclusion–I did not believe Marla was completely responsible for the large majority of those paintings.