The maturity of the brushstrokes. The vibrant colors that take you to the center, where the sun is shining. The way you can see flowers growing through this colorful rain.This is stunning and inspiring. It gets me in the gut and makes me sigh.
The artist? It's Marla Olmstead and she painted it when she was four years old.
Four years old. Did she have help? That is the controversy.
"60 Minutes" brought in a psychologist who called the child a normal kid, not a "prodigy" who was probably coached by her father.
A documentary, "My Kid Could Paint That" explored Marla's journey from her discovery by the art world and the swirl surrounding her after the response to the "60 Minutes" piece. And the filmmaker also began to have doubts after watching her paint a work from beginning to end.
But I choose to believe this work is indeed done by the little girl. A quote from her mother sums it up to me.
"When you measure something, you change it".
