The New York herald., 1922-12-03
One Sculptor Of II
Began His Career
at 6 and Others
Show Great Tai
ent With Brush
BY STANLEY WALKER.

~ at Coney lslano. Several years
ago she fell and hurt her back, so that
she has TO wear a brace to hold he,
head and neck straight. She is under
sized. Her home, at 3046 West First
street, Coney Island. is not preten-
tious one by any means. and her par
ents are not wealthy.
Jessie spends most OF her time, in
school and out. drawing pictures OF
women. pretty ladies'" she calls
them. Some OF them are tall and
wiliowy and have puckered up little
mouths. Others are short and dumpy
and wear ostrich feathers and carry
lorgnettes. Jessie draws them all i'm
partially, but sometimes, because she
cannot afford to buy big sheets OF
drawing paper, she draws part Of one
OF her pretty ladies on one sheet and
tho rest Of the pretty lady on another
sheet. 1t is only by putting the sheets
together that the whole woman may
be observed.
For example, the other day. Jessie
ran up to her teacher and handed her
the picture of a rather severe but at
tractive woman from the waist up.
The picture was labeled "The upper
part OF Mrs. Fairfax Jones entering
the Apollo Theater." After the teacher
had admired the picture Jessie handed
her another one labeled 'The lower
part OF Mrs. Fairfax Jones entering
the Apollo Theater." But IL you ask
Jessie for more particulars about Mrs.
Fairfax Jones and about the location
of the Apollo Theater she cannot tell
you. For she has been off Coney ISL
and only few times in her life, and
her conception of theaters. pretty
women to whom she gives high sound
ing names. and all the other charac-
rers and objects OF world that lis
strange to her have been gained from
pictures in magazines she has hap
pened to see. These little suggestions
--an occa sional magazine cover or
photograph, phrase overheard in
conversation, some anecdote told by
her -teacher--have been taken by the
eight year Coney Island cripple
and placed in the strange, luxurious
world that she carries in her imagina-
ton.
But Jessie herself is not important.
She has little talent. perhaps pot as
much as her teacher believes. She has
some imagination, but perhaps not
enough to take her very far. But no
matter what becomes of this little
cripple when she becomes older, she
has something that is very important;
she has the quaint twist that only
children and a few grown ups of a
whimsical turn possess and she has
the enthusiasm to bend over a paper
for hours at a time putting down her
ideas of what pretty ladies" should
look like. And IL is because OF this,
because she is an example Of few
dozen children in New York who may
become artists some day that Jessie is
important.
Daisy Ashfords of Pen
And Brush Have Hard Time
OF the thousands or children who
btudy drawing as a part Of their
New York. most are distinguished by
a lack of interest in their work and by
a notable lack of ability. Those who
show genuine enthusiasm perhaps
number u few hundreds. And those
who combine enthusiasm and possible
talent, it is safe to say. are so few
that they may be numbered within a
few dozens at most.
II is in the few who belong to this
last class that art instructors place
their hopes. And especially rare 1t is
to find that quality that art instruc-
tors always hope for and too seldom
INSTRUMENTATION.
But sometimes they find magma
ton, and child with imagination can
produce curious bits of work. To
those who have gone to any of the
annual exhibitions held by the Society
OF Independent Artists at the Waldorf
Astoria and viewed with mixed emo
tions the things that may be seen
there, the thought must have come
that surrey here is the ultimate In
bizarre conception and outlandish exc
cution. Not so. When it comes TO
putting over a freak impression in a
freak manner the child artist, whose
mind is somehow beset by strange half
notions ana distorted shapes, can beat
the grown UP artist every time.
Now and then, searching through
the pile upon pile OF work that comes
from the children in the elementary
schools. the instructors come upon
Iittie things that Daisy Ashford, the
child writer, might have done IL she
had decided to turn her naive self to
drawing instead of literature. Some
Of them show the precocious child, who
usually tries TO give the impression OF
n polish and finish that he does not
really possess; others--and these
though precious few they. are, are the
most interesting--are content simply
TO be children and 10 draw or paint
their own ideas.
The Daisy Ashfords of the pen and
brush have hard time OF IL in New
York. They fare better in Germany
where there are schools designed espe-
ciaIly for their purposes, and in Bos-
ton the child artists hold exhibitions
two or three times year. at which
work or unusual cnarm IS placed or
view.
The director OF drawing in the public
schools OF New York is Frank II. Col.
Inns. who has an office in the Board OF
Education annex in East Sixty-seventf
street. He has charge OF a stan ol
supervisors who visit the schools. di.
n.