Arjun is twelve. He has been at Bridge School since he was six. The first thing he asked for, on his second day, was more paper.
He sees the world the way a painter does — in shapes and colours that the rest of us walk past without noticing. The chipped paint on a brothel wall is, for him, six different greens. The light at four in the afternoon is, for him, completely different from the light at five.
“When he draws the courtyard, you can tell where the morning sun falls. He has been watching that light his entire life.”
Arjun
We have been quietly collecting his work for two years. Two of our donors who teach at the College of Art have looked at the portfolio. They both said the same thing, in slightly different words: this child needs to be at art school by the time he is sixteen.
So that is what we are working on. He does not know yet. He just keeps drawing.
Shared with permission. Names retained at the request of the storyteller.
