Well, maybe all those letters on the wall are influencing the kids after all. This week Henry suddenly declared that the living room was a Story Room. He set to work outlining and cutting out 18-inch-high letters, and then instructed me on how to tape them to the wall to make words. Now, being only 5, there are a limited number of words he knows.

Here we have "THe" and "WE."

BIG, AND, Jam.

Oh, yes, and of course: "diD."

He does know some other words, like Henry, Eli, and love (from all those birthday cards where he has to write “Love, Henry” on the bottom), but an artist can only crank out so many giant letters before he starts to lose his steam. Or before he discovers a laundry basket of clean clothes and decides to get dressed.

A portrait of the artist as a young man.