Study this painting above for a minute, if you have the time. Think about it, and what you see in it. What do you think it says about the artist, and his worldview? Go below the jump; I have something funny to tell you about it.

The artist is me, age 3. This watercolor is hanging on my parents’ wall. I finger-painted it for my dad, who pinned it to the wall in his office at the time (this was 1970). He worked for the public health service at the time, and his supervisor was so disturbed by the painting that he suggested my parents make an appointment with a child psychiatrist. So they did. My mother said when the doctor asked me why I used all these dark colors in the painting, I told him, “Umm, because I ran out of all the bright ones.” That was pretty much the end of the evaluation.