Picasso's Little Junior, Part 3 (3 Parts)

Text by Ian Webb

   As a 15-year-old, I had pretty much always been a happy child: outgoing, eager to learn and very enthusiastic artistically. For a youth, I was already trying to break down barriers of ignorance and backwardness.

  I guess you could say that Alexandra Nechita's art book, Outside the Lines, helped me to break down the barrier that makes people think that you must be so old or so young to carry out your dreams. I LOVED HER ART. 

   Seventeen was a big bad year for me. But I still turned out to be a pretty good artist and human being. It took time, but I did get to a much better place. Something unforeseen though... With Picasso, Chagall, Dali, many others, including Alexandra, I could see more of the soul and the depth of what life can throw at us, in those works of art.

  The fact that life hurls pain at us is not always bad in itself. Alexandra attests to that herself.  

  While still in grammar school, she got a very nasty ear infection and also a severe form of pneumonia. She had to have a nurse repeatedly beat and pound on her chest to break up the mucus and phlegm in her lungs.

   But to combat the blues, she says that she would watch old reruns of the British comedian Benny Hill! Great tactic!   So please, please...do not give up on your dreams.

  And don't lose the lesson that pain in life can turn back into pleasure again. And check out your library sometime to read Alexandra Nechita’s book, Outside the Lines.