One day a charismatic, elfin character named Painter Pan comes sliding down a rainbow to visit Susan, who is unhappy with the picture she is painting. He is exactly five inches tall. His cape of beautiful rainbow hues is draped over his arm. With his painting tips and warm, comfortable smile, Painter Pan helps Susan with her painting. When he leaves, she waves goodbye, knowing that Painter Pan is found in every rainbow, bringing joy and happiness to children and adults everywhere.
Peggy Cobb (age 108) created this story in the 1940s and has told it to generations of children ever since. This is how she describes the creation of Painter Pan.
Many years ago, Painter Pan landed on planet Earth in a town called Lynd, Minnesota. And he has been cavorting around the world ever since. The month was June. My niece Susan was three-and-a-half years old. We were at my parents' home in Minnesota. I had just finished my first year as art supervisor of the Edina schools in Minneapolis.
On this particular afternoon, Susan and I were in the upstairs sunroom, resting and talking of one thing and another. It had rained that afternoon and a gorgeous rainbow was in the sky. We sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Playmates" ("slide down my rain barrel"). We had read a Superman comic. And we had recited the little poem, Smile, framed in gold hanging on the wall of the den downstairs.
How to reach children AND parents, with simple painting tips, was (and still is) on my mind.
As the colors of the rainbow started to fade, an idea flashed through my mind. It came to me as suddenly as the explosion one sees when fireworks burst in the skies on a 4th of July night.
An impish, laughing, loveable little character came sliding down the rainbow, and at the moment the colors disappeared there stood Painter Pan on the windowsill. He was exactly five inches tall. His cape of beautiful rainbow hues was draped carefully over his arm. His smile reached my heart. From that moment on HIS heart has been beating. As he stood there, I knew that his mission on earth was to create happiness. I knew then, as I know now, that Painter Pan will live on as long as there are rainbows in our skies.
