Artist Elspeth

This is the first in the EEC (Elspeth Evelyn Cockroft) Art Show.

Elspeth is four. To those of you who know her or keep up with her endless antics on Wazoo Farm, you might be surprised to know that Elspeth is the most concentrated artist of all our girls. She literally spends hours drawing, and she draws EVERYWHERE.

I do mean Elspeth draws everywhere. On the walls, on desks, on my computer, on herself, in gravel and woodchips when there is nothing else, even in the syrup at the bottom of her ice-cream bowl.

She creates totally bizarro compositions; sometimes she tells me what is going on in the pictures but sometimes she just shrugs as if that is unimportant. Once I asked, "What is that, Elspeth?" and she said right away, "It's ART, Mommy." So there you are. I am called a plebeian by my four-year old daughter.

Elspeth scribbles furiously through stacks and stacks of scratch paper and then shows us these wild color and shape combinations. She is almost compulsive in the way she works, and we have made sure she has drawing stations all over the house: by my desk, a whole counter downstairs, by her bed.

The other day, before we realized she needed paper and pencil by her bed, she covered the wall above her pillow with a totally wild pen sketch. Martin sighed and said, "If that girl does not become an artist, I will be really disappointed."

Right now, she is brushing her teeth and drawing a person with bubblefeet at the same time. Keep tuned for the three-eyed creature--it's my favorite.