Isn’t She Wonderful?

The artist, Benjamin West, explains how his career as a successful and important painter began. When he was still a boy, his mother went out on an errand and left him in charge of his little sister, Sally. It was then that young Benjamin discovered several bottles of his mother’s colored ink. He opened the bottles and proceeded to create Sally’s portrait.

Before long, a big mess had developed, with ink spilled everywhere. And when Ben heard his mother arriving back home, fearing the worst, he hid himself in a dark corner under the stairs. Ben’s mother looked at the awful mess and said nothing. Then, with Sally’s portrait in hand she looked for Ben. When she found him in his hiding place, she glanced at the portrait and said, “Why it’s Sally!” And then she kissed Ben. “And ever since that day,” said Benjamin West, “my mother’s encouraging kiss in the dark made me a painter.”

Social scientists tell us that one of the…