One look at the vibrant primary colors and intricate marker strokes and you immediately know that these are the work of a master color by number artist. Nick lives for his art, and a book about mammals, but that is another story. The flavor of the month, or several months, is the color by number picture. These would be a great little distraction, if he actually did ALL of the coloring. On one hand they help him review numbers and colors which he quickly identifies with laser precision, on the other hand he requires adult assistance, a lot of it.
Sometimes you can get away with just outlining what needs to be colored, other times he expects to take turns; you color a section and he colors a section. Then there are those who will remain nameless, who color the entire piece while he either watches or goes about his business. It is like he has subcontracted out some of his work.
Then there is the intricate filing system and procedure that each piece goes through before it can be call an "original" Nick. First "he" writes his name on it and then he puts it up on the refrigerator with a series of magnets for 3 seconds before he promptly removes the picture and places it on the master pile of finished work on the top of the fridge and the process starts all over again.
He is also very particular about the tools he uses to complete his "works." One would think that any felt tip marker would suffice, but nothing could be further from the truth. Only a select assortment of markers are allowed and when those go dry they have to be secretly spirited away to the garbage without the temperamental master's knowledge. Most artists enjoy the creativity of art, not Nick. He generally creates the same print repeatedly thus being able to perfect a single piece before moving on to the next, at least that is what I like to tell myself.
With Nick it is always art for arts sake.
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Have you ever colored by numbers?
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Comments (2)
When I was Selectively Mute, I found colour by number very cathartic.
My Sky definitely wants to subcontract his work!! Ask Nick about referrals. At six, color-by-number still leads ot outside the line scrawls. Amazing for a child who can read and write. No artist lives here.
What Sky wants to subcontract is his written homework...
Fran