By DeAnn Welker
Jaclyn's not excited about this challenge at all. Presumably because she doesn't feel comfortable getting naked and photographing herself in a place where children might see her. Nicole and Ryan, on the other hand, are like kids in a candy store. Or, you know, in a children's museum. Ryan interviews about how amazing it would be for him to make it to the end and win $100,000. Then he pauses. "Or, I don't know, $1,000. I have $24 in my bank account. Um. And actually if my insurance kicked in, I might be negative right now. I'm not really sure." How can you not love this guy? Nicole talks about her twin sister and her dad, as we see her childhood artwork. She's cutting a series of frames (out of what looks like Styrofoam) that have rough edges getting to a perfect rectangle that gets to what her art was about as a kid. I'm sure we'll understand it later. Or, you know, we won't. Which is more likely.
Abdi talks about his relationship with his father, which is non-existent. He was raised by his mom since he was 1, so he's making a comic book of his mom as a superhero giving him art, to keep him on the right track. Miles tells Nicole her work is too surface. Then he works on his own, which is to remake a piece of a piece he already made, about nine months ago. It's a series of geometric designs. He says even though it isn't reminiscent of his childhood, he feels good about it and thinks it will work. And, because it's crazy Miles, it probably will. Peregrine notices Jaclyn's moving slowly on this, then Jaclyn says this is hard for her because she doesn't like to think about her childhood, since she was very lonely. She would go eat her lunch alone in a bathroom stall, so she knows she has to re-create that feeling of isolation. Hey, it's better than voyeurism.
Nicole's still working, and having a hard time cutting her pieces without a knife or exacto blade. Mark says he didn't have nice materials as a child, so used white-out, masking tape and pens instead of real art supplies. He decides to make a children's book about how he became an artist. That might be a little too on-the-nose. Then again, this is Mark, master of the obvious. Peregrine says her dad saved her sketchbooks from when she was a child, and she did a lot of sexual drawings. We see a series of weirdly anatomical line drawings. She was raised on an art commune, where there was a lot of experimentation and drugs. She says her piece is an idea of a child at an adults' party. She's making a My Little Pony covered in sex ads (uh, where did she get the sex ads at the Children's Museum?) and a cigarette out of a piece of chalk. Jaclyn's still at a loss, because her childhood years weren't the best. She starts to play and experiment to try to trigger memories. Ryan's coming up with memories that he didn't remember since he was little. He remembers being closer to his mom, and how she inspired him by telling him he could do those illustrations someday. He gets very choked up when he says he knows his mom still loves him but can't be close to him because she doesn't respect his life choices. "But she is the reason that I'm an artist, and she gave me all of the initial impetus to do all of the work that I do now." Okay, finally we have someone getting to something deep and important without being totally egotistical.
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