when worlds collide, deux

(I love it when celebrity gossip intersects with art)

October 27, 2006 -- JAY-Z might not be going for a big ring, but where Beyoncé the well- known girlfriend is concerned, he is definitely going for big bread. Considering this gorgeous creature already has a dozen of everything, she just got gifted with a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting. Being no artist is as hot as a dead artist, this little dabbling cost non-husband Jay-Z a couple of mil. A solitaire would have been cheaper.

Why, you say? Well...

LAUNCH: I read somewhere that you have a desire to be an art teacher and that you love painting...

BEYONCE: Painting is something that's very private to me. It's something that I would never show anyone. I mean, I would never say never, but I just do it for myself as therapy. I had no idea what I was doing, and I still don't know if I know what I'm doing. It looks pretty good, some of them. But it's fun and it's relaxing, and I feel free; I love colors and I love painting. I have a poem on my album where I say that I believe that harmonies are colors and every time I paint it sharpens my harmony, and I really believe that: They come together.

LAUNCH: So what do you do with your paintings?

BEYONCE: They're in storage. They're private. I think that if I start showing them to people then I'll really start trying to make them really good, and it'll take the whole joy out of it. I have said that if I wasn't singing that I would want to be an art teacher or something--not literally an art teacher, but I would love to do something creative with kids, like a dance class, or a drama class, just something artistic with kids.

LAUNCH: So there's a connection between your painting and the desire to teach kids?

BEYONCE: One of the things that kept me out of trouble, aside from my parents, was I was always a creative child and my parents encouraged it and I was always doing something creative. Whether it was writing songs or writing poems or making clothes or dancing, putting on shows, whatever, it was something creative. I just think that's so wonderful for kids. It gives you so much confidence and you just feel so good about yourself and you can accomplish so much. And creativity can't be judged. So it's just great for self-esteem for kids and I love teaching, and I think that I'm a natural-born leader and teaching is so fun for me, so I would like to teach something creative so kids have a place to escape.