Interpreting my Daughter's Paintings (2017)

29 February 2020 [link youtube]


France, meeting my daughter (& ex-wife) for the first time in years (in 2017). This was PRESUMED to be my "reunion" with my daughter… but now we've been separated for more than 12 months again, with yet more legal shenanigans to ensue.


Youtube Automatic Transcription

oh yeah she went crazy over the the
kiddie pool yes yeah yeah so what she was so happy for like 30 minutes solid she was just like jumping up and down like that was that was that was more than 30 minutes it was more yeah she was jumping up and down and singing I bought an inflatable kiddie pool and inflated it and we filled up with water in the backyard we rented a temporary apartment through Airbnb which was great she's just so happy like like like other kids on the beach like that's writing so much no I have to say this she's not only she's the happiest kid I've ever interacted with in any form and you had the Contras because there were other kids around long time we would go to the park we go to the beach we went to the beach almost every day not absolutely every day but we went swimming in the ocean almost every day with her and that you know there were no other kids remotely as happy and I think like other parents at the beach might just think our dog like my daughter was happy for a couple minutes like you know if you just see a kid for a couple minutes in she's act like okay that's that no it was like 12 hours solid she would be that happy and you know we switched from different activities I mean some activities you're just lying down on the bed well we did play video games with her you know or we're sitting and watching TV sometimes she's literally jumping up and down while on a trampoline she liked trampolines a lot went out to use the trampoline pretty often yeah well we're jumping up and down on the bed or but you know where she's happy and singing and while we were walking I carried her on my on my neck pretty much everywhere so you know she'd be singing and making up song yeah this looks like one I ate a long time ago [Music] I couldn't yet waterfall when you first saw the waterfall you asked if it was made of apple juice every time that we every time that she was dropped off with us she asked if we had another present for her we got her a ton of these Peppa Pig toys but this drawing which you know is impossible to interpret she absolutely insisted this was only a couple days after we got there we had a couple great days together over there a couple good days and she insisted that this depicts a broken heart so and she was so passionate of the time she made this that she you know insisted that her grandmother write the interpretation on it in in pencil so that's her grandmother's handwriting program of the roads okay sasha is thinking about seeing eyes'll and melissa again soon sasha is not my daughter's name but for some reason my ex-wife first my daughter as Sasha I don't know I I mean I have my own nicknames for her but they're related to her actual name anyway we're not we're not Russia so yeah I mean obviously you can't it's it the picture itself is impossible to interpret otherwise but that was anyway and my daughter you know presented that to us and explained to us that it's had this emotional significance that you know she was really crying because I somebody I assume her grandmother sat down and explained to her that we were only there for a few days and then would be we'd be going back to China yeah right right right so this was originally interpreted to me as depicting the airplane that was going to take us away and so I think it's looking at the front like I think that's like the nosecone of the airplane and the front really you know the airplane is flying straight towards you I'm against this four-year-old quality you know it's not exactly a blueprint but yeah that was sure that was oh sure sure sure sure sure no I'm not I'm not complaining about the artistic merit of it but did she she sat down with me and she gave she actually gave a much more complex interpretation of it did she ever talk to you about the picture she gave me a really complex philosophical interpretation of the picture yeah what you can well you know like I mean when we talk to her sometimes when she's tired like we just now we're talking to what she was pretty tired but you know when she's when she's sharp she could says some really complex stuff for a four-year-old I mean it's really important so she's not like that all the time but I you know I said to our repeated the interpretation over here I said oh so this this is showing the airplane and she was like no it's not showing the airplane like the point is and she like laid out this participant it was like whoa okay no no but she had a like a much more sophisticated impression of that but yeah this one I was told was simply a broken heart I don't that's a broken heart inside a house that's what it looks like means there's a roof and for anyway yes so there was a lot of there was a lot of emotional content to that stuff I mean you know what we're not saying here I mean 98% of the time was play and she really enjoyed playing with us and I mean we already posted image of the cakes we baked two cakes with her we went to the beach when swimming in the ocean we had all these different dimensions yeah and you know I mean day in day out it was a long sequence of her playing with new toys and playing with us and talking and you know sometimes watching TV together watching mr. Rogers watching watching Peppa Pig and you know this kind of thing but no I mean you know I just say I don't want to misrepresent it as if the whole the whole thing was a set of profound reflections on her identity and separation anxiety or something but yeah that was that was part of the the tragicomedy of the situation