Later, when high-resolution images of six of the children's paintings were sent by e-mail to Ackerman of the Children's Museum, he said Alice's painting was the one that he would show to other adults to see what they thought the painter was trying to depict.
"The difference is, a painter is trying to depict something," he said. "A child is just exploring."
He added: "Sometimes, when a child creates something, if it happens to hit the sweet spot of what we think modern art or abstract art is, then the adult steps back and says, `Wow, look at what the child has created,' when in fact, the child who's created something that looks sophisticated to us may just be doing the same thing as every other 4-year-old."
The experiment -- having 4-year-olds paint, and then having Ackerman review the results -- touched on more than innate talent, he said. "What's interesting about young children and art is they not only have to have the eye of a visual thinker, but the manual dexterity," he said.
Marla Olmstead, the 4-year-old with the gallery show, long ago passed the stage of experimentation. But, as with Matthew's criminal, what an artist of 4 says a painting represents may be an afterthought, some child development specialists say.
"The value of actually being a child is you are for the most part residing in a world where you are not aware of what you can't be doing just yet, so children, by their nature, are unguarded, uncensored," said Dr. Regina Lara, medical director of the child psychiatric outpatient department at the Mount Sinai Medical Center.
So, will Marla still be painting at, say, 6? Or will she outgrow her career?
"If painting is a huge part of her world, she may continue to embrace it or she may let go of it," said Hudson-Knapp, the art teacher. "If you're familiar with the vocabulary from the time you're 1, by the time you're 4, you're familiar with the medium. You're comfortable with it, so when you have an idea you want to express, you know how to do it."
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