Marla Olmstead, Child Genius.

Interesting discussion about Marla here:
http://www.artnewsblog.com/2005/01/4-year-old-marla-olmstead.htm

I saw a few TV interviews with Marla and her parents and it seems that her work becomes a lot less sofisticated when her father(a painter himself) isn't there to help her paint. I think this girl is totally talented but I have a feeling that her dad is totally pushing his aesthetic on her tiny little hands.

And how is this girl a "genius-child". Some rich folks just let her spatter paint and paid a lot of money for a high-class website. Absolutely stupid.

Maybe so, but almost all child geniuses have parents pushing hard. The young tennis prodigy wouldn't be so if the mom and dad hadn't paid for those lessons, so what's so different about this particular case?

Please, whenever something truly good comes around in life it sickens me that people....like the people who blogged before me, have nothing but negative things to say. Find something good in your life you can focus on, so you can leave this little girl alone.

Katie, I think you'll find that there would be a lot less cynicism if there was just one of these so-called genius kids (that 9 times out of 10 happen to be American, hmmm, wonder why, U.S. media?) actually painted some figurative art which would prove with no room for doubt their wunderkind status. Abstract can be faked, or to be fair 'appropriated' far more easily that say, lifedrawing. Any artist knows this.

Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying the child isn't advanced or wonderful and so-on. I'm saying that maybe people are reacting to the way the word 'genius' is abused these days (even Alex seems confused). The same way as 'hero' is misused (hint: a survivor is NOT a hero, onlt the person who risked their life to save them) Your comment comes off as incredibly naive.

Confusion is my general state of mind these days, mat ...