Teacher, We Want to Paint!
READING AGE 4+
The first time Tessa asked me for paid work, she did it while I was standing on a ladder with a paintbrush in my teeth. "I'm tired of making things for practice," she said. June kept her eyes on the canvas between us, quiet as she'd been for the six months she'd worked in my studio. I thought I understood the difference between them: Tessa restless and hungry, June patient and content. Then a client called to ask why my newest mural design was already being advertised under Tessa's name. The painting she'd used to sell it had begun as an exercise we'd made together, and the design belonged to all three of us in ways none of us had written down. My studio, my students, and the work I'd spent years building were suddenly tangled in one question: if I made room for them to become artists, could I still ask them to respect the lines that made that room possible?
Unfold
The city's contract arrived the next morning.
It was six pages long, full of insurance requirements, deadlines, and language about maintenance. The first draft listed me as the sole artist and described the others as assistants.
I called Celia before anyone signed.
"That doesn't match the agreement," I said.
"I know. I……
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