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I'm not sure who here has seen the documentary My Kid Could Paint That, but for those who haven't here's the basic premise:
Marla Olmstead, an abstract painter, was called a child prodigy at the age of four. Around this time she started showing her work in local galleries and selling her paintings for as much as $15,000. National attention soon followed.
However, a 60 Minutes piece that ran in 2005 questioned whether or not Marla actually painted the paintings. Her dad was known to have done a bit of painting when he was younger and rumors began to swirl that he was either directly helping her paint or he was coaching her. More fuel was added to the fire when it was realized that any time Marla was shown painting on video, she was never expressing the sort of masterful flourishes that made up her best work.
Mark Olmstead with Marla:
People began calling for a start-to-finish video showing Marla completing a painting. When one was finally delivered, many said that the painting was not of the same quality as those that had been previously sold.
You can judge for yourself. Here are a few of Marla's Pre-60 Minutes Paintings:
And here was the painting delivered start-to-finish for 60 Minutes:
In 2007, a documentary was released called My Kid Could Paint That, which opened this story up to a much wider audience. The filmmaker, Amir Bar-Lev, said the film was originally planned before the controversy and was simply supposed to be a documentary about a child prodigy. But over time, he also began to have this doubts that Marla was actually doing all the painting.
Trailer:
These days, Marla mostly stays out of the spotlight. She continues to paint, but mostly for herself. Her website hasn't been updated in a few years and she reportedly has turned down requests to show her work. She says she doesn't really remember all the chaos and happenings of her younger years, when she was an in-demand artist. This makes sense, considering how young she was, but it also means that she could believe that she did those paintings herself when in reality she just doesn't remember that someone helped her.
Marla in 2013:
Marla Olmstead, an abstract painter, was called a child prodigy at the age of four. Around this time she started showing her work in local galleries and selling her paintings for as much as $15,000. National attention soon followed.
However, a 60 Minutes piece that ran in 2005 questioned whether or not Marla actually painted the paintings. Her dad was known to have done a bit of painting when he was younger and rumors began to swirl that he was either directly helping her paint or he was coaching her. More fuel was added to the fire when it was realized that any time Marla was shown painting on video, she was never expressing the sort of masterful flourishes that made up her best work.
Mark Olmstead with Marla:
People began calling for a start-to-finish video showing Marla completing a painting. When one was finally delivered, many said that the painting was not of the same quality as those that had been previously sold.
You can judge for yourself. Here are a few of Marla's Pre-60 Minutes Paintings:
And here was the painting delivered start-to-finish for 60 Minutes:
In 2007, a documentary was released called My Kid Could Paint That, which opened this story up to a much wider audience. The filmmaker, Amir Bar-Lev, said the film was originally planned before the controversy and was simply supposed to be a documentary about a child prodigy. But over time, he also began to have this doubts that Marla was actually doing all the painting.
Trailer:
These days, Marla mostly stays out of the spotlight. She continues to paint, but mostly for herself. Her website hasn't been updated in a few years and she reportedly has turned down requests to show her work. She says she doesn't really remember all the chaos and happenings of her younger years, when she was an in-demand artist. This makes sense, considering how young she was, but it also means that she could believe that she did those paintings herself when in reality she just doesn't remember that someone helped her.
Marla in 2013:
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