By the Numbers

Etched in my heart is the memory of my mom, standing in the living room with a light over her shoulder, working on her latest paint-by-number. She wore an old paint-splattered white dress shirt.

I didn't think much about it at the time, but in hindsight, I realize this was her way of decompressing after doing all the mom-stuff with a house full of kids. She did two religious paint-by-numbers, one of Mary, the other of Jesus. She hung Jesus up in the living room, and we swore his eyes followed us around the room. She also did a series of bird paintings that she would rotate in and out of our decor.

I was reminded of this last week with the passing of Dan Robbins, who came up the with concept of paint-by-numbers. At the time, he was employed by the Palmer Paint Company of Detroit, and the idea was to help sell his company's product. He and his partner, Max Klein, went on to fame and minor fortune -- at its peak popularity in 1955, 20 million paint-by-number kits were sold.

Mr. Robbins came up with idea from Leonardo da Vinci, who used numbered background patterns to teach his students and apprentices. An artist himself, Mr. Robbins also employed artists to paint pictures, then deconstructed them into a set of numbers. The paint-by-number kit would include brushes, a cardboard canvas that was numbered, and paint pots labeled with the corresponding numbers, so you knew which color was which.

At the time of his death, Mr. Robbins was living in Sylvania, Ohio. He was 93, which is quite a good run. (I was going to make a crack here about his days being numbered, but I decided it would be in bad taste.)

So, mazel tov, Dan Robbins. And thanks for giving my mom an outlet for her creative urges all those years ago.