A Child Artist, Autumn

 
 
 

Vocabulary

winter	spring (3)	for the better
late (3)	summer	express (2)
wood	stain (2)	see/saw/seen
mess	around (2)	mess around
wow	incredible	turn around
quite	format (2)	think/thought/thought
focus	canvas (2)	come up with
wall (3)	intention	mean/meant/meant
go for it	garage (2)	take lessons
gallery	prodigy	let my heart go
agent	within (2)	representative (2)
expose	show (2)	opportunity
auction	heart (2)	wonderful
strong	whatever	take/took/taken
gift (3)	strongly	feel/felt/felt
excited	as though	give/gave/given
allow	be able to	give/gave/given (2)
own	autumn	teach/taught/taught
glory	change (2)	glorification
inspire	whether	imagination
	weather

 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Autumn, Painter: “My name is autumn I’m 11 years old and I’m an artist.

When I was in my late fives, I started painting. I went out to the garage one day, and I saw my father staining some wood. And I asked if I could mess around. He turned around and he said, “Wow that’s incredible!” And I didn’t quite understand what he was so excited about.”

Katherine, Autumn’s Mother: “And we thought you know let’s get her some canvases and see what she comes up with.

And I think in the beginning, our intention was to have art for our walls; and it was never meant to go anywhere.

Autumn, Painter: “What I love about painting is that you can do whatever in your imagination. And you can express yourself. I’ve never taken lessons: it’s all come from me. I just go for it. I let my heart go.”

Katherine, Autumn’s Mother: “Within the last year, Autumn has been working with an agent who is one of the top art representatives of artists in the world. And he has really exposed her to the opportunity to have gallery showings and auctions. And that has been a wonderful experience for Autumn.”

Autumn, Painter: “When somebody takes home a painting, I feel as though they’re taking a part of my imagination.

There have been people who have called autumn a prodigy. My husband and I feel very strongly that we don’t really feel as though this is so much a question of prodigy, as it is every child, many children have gifts.

We have just given her the format to be able to to express that. And by allowing her to have this opportunity it gives me an opportunity as a mother to be able to teach her that this gift is not just for her own glorification.”

Autumn, Painter: “I want to change the world for the better. And I want to change the world by inspiring others. I want to inspire kids for — whatever you love you can do it — whether it’s basketball, with their sports, whether it’s ballet, whether it is, whether it’s piano or whether it’s painting, you can do it — just focus on how much you love it more than how good you are.”

 

 

Questions

1. Autumn started painting when she was 10 years old. True or false?

2. Are Autumn’s father and mother artists who introduced her to painting?

3. In the beginning, her parents wanted her to become the next Leonardo, Michelangelo or Picasso. Is this right or wrong?

4. Did Autumn attend an art academy and study abstract painting?

5. Does she work totally independently? Has she become famous and well-known?

6. Autumn and her parents believe that she is a prodigy, a gifted and talented child. Is this correct or incorrect?

7. Is Autumn’s goal to become rich and famous?

 
 

A. I paint pictures. Or, I used to paint pictures in school. Yes or no?

B. Do you know anyone who paints? Is she or he an amateur or professional?

C. Anyone can learn to become a great painter (or footballer, swimmer, writer, acrobat, singer, computer expert, scientist, engineer). What do you think?

D. What should (young) people do?

E. What might happen in the future?