Following on from his previous performance as The Sudocrem Kid, young SWP decides to continue in his forte of “performance art”:

However, in a break from previous tradition, the felt pens weren’t used to produce what SWP no doubt thinks of as “an art installation” but is generally considered by his parents to me more along the lines of:

who gave him a pen? come on, who was it? The little bugger’s drawn on the walls again!

No, in this case the art was self-contained. That is the artist treated his own body as a canvas on which to paint his work. And indeed — with felt pen — did so.

They say the camera never lies, but in this case it’s conveniently omitting a significant part of the story.

Basically, what happened was:

• SWP got a felt pen and ran off upstairs with it
• I removed other child from my back (I’d been lying on the floor), got to my feet and followed him
• By the time I caught up with him (30 seconds later?) he was at the top of the stairs, in front of the full length mirror, with his top pulled up to his chest and felt pen scrawlings all over his stomach, which he’s looking at in the mirror

Sigh. Well, at least it washes off him easier than it washes off the walls. And I can’t help but admire the ingenuity of using the mirror to watch what he was drawing…