Picasso's Little Junior, Part 2 (3 Parts)
Text by Ian Webb
Alexandra Nechita was born in 1985 in Romania. At an early age, the family moved to the United States.
Like most children, Alexandra’s parents bought her jump ropes, dolls, chalk for hopscotch and crayons. Alexandra loved coloring, just LOVED it. She loved to color and paint any chance she had.
Peculiarly, Alexandra’s mom noticed that most of her daughter’s characters and animals had VERY crooked faces with more than one mouth, three or four eyes and other features that were either upside down or crooked. At the time, Alexandra was only a preschooler.
As an experiment, her parents took away her art supplies and nudged her into playing with her 'other' toys, like the 'other' kids. Wow, big mistake. Alexandra did not act out, but it was as if someone had taken the life out of her! So they gave her back her life support.
Once in school, a teacher noticed Alexandra's beautiful but rare and primitive gifts. The teacher recommended to her parents to get her some academic art lessons. This time, it wasn't so much of a mistake as a guide as to where she should go.
You already know that this little girl was a genius and phenomenally talented. You know she became famous. But that's not what her teacher thought!
The class was to draw an anatomically correct representation of a horse, from a statue. Alexandra had begun to give it a crooked face like Piccaso's and her teacher frowned upon the work. She made her turn the paper over and start over. Alexandra left that school in a good nick of time.
Little by little, people in the neighborhood and community began hearing of a girl with an odd but amazing talent. Could a child be a mature and accomplished cubist painter and not even know what that was? Would a child know who or what started the movement?
Alexandra didn't know anything about the causes of cubism, yet her maturity of feelings was complex. She was a little prodigy/genius who looked like pretty much any other kid, except her canvases were pulling in tens of thousands of dollars!
To start with, there were pictures and short videos of her in the news. Then a spot on Good Morning America. Then her first art book, full of her latest paintings with short stories explaining each.
Pictures with deep subject matter. Vivid strong colors like those used by Matisse or Chagall. But cubistic in a familiar Picasso-esque style.
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Editor's note: Alexandra Nechita's work can be found in Outside the Lines, Longstreet Press, 1996. Please feel free to either comment or share on social media.