4. Art of the Future

4 Art of the Future It was Professor Armpit! "Bonjour!" he announced as he glided into the room. "I was just in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd stop by to say bonjour." "Bonjour!" we all said. "You're always welcome in my art room, Professor," said Ms. Hannah. "The

children were really inspired by our visit to the museum. Would you like to take a look at the art our talented students are creating?" "Certainly!" "Uh-oh," Ryan whispered to me. "You're in trouble, dude." Professor Armpit walked around the room, stopping at each desk to look at what each kid made. He went to Andrea's desk first, of course. "Hmmmmm," he said as he looked at Andrea's dumb picture of flowers. Grown-ups always say "hmmmmm" when they don't know what to say. "Very interesting," Professor Armpit finally said to Andrea. Then he went to Emily's desk. "Very interesting," he said. Then he went to Michael's desk. "Very interesting," he said. Then he went to Neil's desk. "Very interesting," he said.

Professor Armpit said everybody's art was very interesting.* Finally, he came over to me. He looked at my desk. "No art, young man?" he asked. I pointed up at the wall next to me. Professor Armpit looked at my tube of paint taped to the wall. Then he walked back and forth so he could look at it from different angles. He stared at it for like a million hundred minutes. "Hmmmmm..." he said.

You never know what "hmmmmm" means. "Hmmmmm" could be good or "hmmmmm" could be bad. "What do you call this, young man?" Professor Armpit finally asked. Call it? How should I know? I didn't even know that art had names. Everybody was looking at me. Nobody

said anything. You could have heard a pin drop. That is, if anybody brought pins with them to school. But that would make no sense at all. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. I had to think fast. "Uh... I call it Future Art," I finally said. "Hmmmmm..." said Professor Armpit. "Future Art?" "Yeah," I told him. "It's not art yet, because the paint is still in the tube. But it could be art someday... in the future." Professor Armpit stuck his face really close to the tube of paint I taped to the wall. He stared at it for a long time. "Art of the future?" he finally said. And then he shouted, "IT'S GENIUS!"