It goes: its all fun to read and if the results are good then you can be happy and excited and suitably awed, if the news is bad – its a load of hokum…. The Past: Watch your feelings, for although they could run away with you, they’ll also imbue you with superb artistic inspiration…. Then it came to my future ‘reading’ and I got: It’s all very well to be a creative genius but you’ll remain undiscovered unless you advertise your talents now.

This is evidenced by: attacking the back of the canvas to get at the scratchy noises poking a head around the wet paint to see what mommy is doing (getting paint on our cheeks) chewing brush ends trying to attack the moving scratchy thing walking in the shiny stuff and putting little orange and Naples yellow pawprints all over the table. doing most of these at once I hate putting her in the bedroom but it is necessary, she does not seem to learn or realize that she will get bopped with paint brushes (despite the evidence) or hauled out by the scruff and scrubbed on the cheeks and paws with yucky smelling stuff then rinsed ruthlessly…. In other cases she is abnormally bright, she actually worked out the torch trick and went for the hand controlling the torch (and every time since).

A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist —a master —and that is what Auguste Rodin was —can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is… and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be…. and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body.