Did you know my mom is an artist? First one I ever met. Our university art professor brother David gestated during her California hard-edge-acrylic-class days. One of my first art memories is coming home from elementary school, Mom standing on dinning room table, painting a huge peach monochromatic flower. She gave me a Dixie cup of paint and a brush, and showed me a spot I could help fill in.
One Christmas when Deb and I were pre-teens, Mom crayon-created Future Portraits of us. They are made on the rough side of masonite board, with a boxed frame nailed on the back.
She told me that she knew I would grow up and make the world beautiful. I think I have always tried to do that, improve my surroundings. Make it better somehow.
I have kept the portrait, hung it somewhere in my home every time we've moved. It is now in the sewing studio/oldest daughter's room. I don't think I've told Mom how much her high expectations and her confidence in me helped. She saw potential, communicated it to me. I have held on to that as a goal and self-identifying description.
Wishing I had made Future Portraits of my kids. Have I told them enough about the goodness I see in them? Do they know how highly I think of them?
In my list of quilts to make are portraits of each of them. Six, plus one for Super Spouse. Emmalyn's is started. Goal is Christmas when she comes home to visit between semesters. They are bigger than life-size, so far. Focus is their eyes. I'll blog result later, but not work-in-progress!
1 comment:
What a beautiful idea! What a treasure of an experience you had with your mother. What a wonderful mother to see the potential in her daughter and TELL her. This is definitely a factor in your greatness, Jennilyn. Let us all learn a lesson to tell our family and friends the greatness in them and the potential they have.
You do make the world a beautiful place.
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