Edited to add: Sometimes I feel sorry for Answer Boy (and the rest of us) for the barrage of questions we endure. But Question Boy has his work cut out for him, too. This morning, he tried valiantly to insist that he’s older than his older brother. Answer Boy, exasperated, finally said, “Did you notice when you were a tiny tiny baby that I was already alive? That’s another point.”
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I don’t know how it works in families with children very close in age, but here we have Question Boy and Answer Boy. Their questions and answers don’t always sync up, of course, but they do try.

Question: How does the light work?
Answer: There’s a switch in the wall, connected to wires. And when you press the switch, it makes the wires connect, and that makes a circuit which makes energy which goes to the light and it turns on!

Question: How does the house work?
Answer: What do you mean, how does the house work?! It has walls and a roof!

Question: How does the garden work?
Answer: You need dirt, and sun and rain. And seeds. Or you can start with plants. But seeds will grow into plants, and that makes a garden.

Question: How does a duck work?
Answer: It starts with an egg, and an egg has a little baby duck inside. Or maybe you start with the mama duck?

And with that, stumped by the question that has stumped great thinkers through the ages, Answer Boy gave up and just ate his breakfast.

Go check out the exhibit at the de Saisset Museum, Eye on the Sixties. Tony and I went to the opening Friday night, and rather than having to hunt for his dad’s sculpture, as we thought we might, were happy to meet up with it right in the front lobby, glowing in the light.

We’d never seen this one in person, and it was fun to see it in context with some other beautiful and unfamiliar acrylic and resin pieces, as well as some more famous pieces, like Claes Oldenburg’s creepy moving Ice Bag, and some great paintings and drawings as well. We introduced ourselves to a couple of Tony’s dad’s old friends, including Bruce Beasley (who pointed out how ill-suited most museums are to exhibiting sculpture: not much natural light, no cranes to lift heavy pieces…) and we chatted with the Andersons, who are quite charming and unassuming guardians of a multi-million dollar collection. But my favorite quote of the night was from Ronald Davis (that’s his piece, Spoke, at the top of the de Saisset Web site) who chimes in on the whole tangled question of abstract art vs. realism quite simply:

“The painting’s just gotta look better than the wallpaper.”

Indeed.

image copyright The Estate of James Grant.