being proud of your daughters' accomplishments

This afternoon, my younger girl came in and put a display of her art work in the glass case of the library where I work.  She did a beautiful job with burgundy fabric behind the pieces and it really made them pop.  Most of the pieces are framed, but a few of her newer ones are just matted at this point and not framed.  She has three scratchboard pieces, a very realistic watercolor painting of a zebra finch, several stick bugs and moths she made by hand that look very realistic. and three new jellyfish which I just love.  The bugs are all so intricate that at first when people see them, they think they are just real bugs that have been preserved - not so.  They are constucted with matteboard, color pencils, watercolor paints, tiny bits of feathers and glue.  At times she had to put them together with tweezers because they wee too intricate to do with her hands.

When my boss comes in tomorrow, it will knock her socks off.  I want to find out when the next free month is and make arrangements for my older daughter to put her art work in the case for a month as well.  It might be more of a challange with Emily because a lot of her art pieces are larger than Tasia's, so we might not be able to put as many in.  Emily will be moving to Orcas Island soon, but I can always fill the case as long as she gives me the pieces to go in it.

Tasia was smart enough to leave some of her business cards on the bottom of the case, so if anyone is interested in any of the pieces, they will know how to contact her.  I didn't do that when I put my month's worth of art in that case (I don't own any business cards).  But people recognized my name and would come in and ask me about the process I had used, so that was fun.

My daughters and I spent a lot of time cutting paper, coloring, painting, etc. from the time they were wee ones.  So I would like to think I played a part in encouraging their interest in and love of art.  I didn't get serious about wanting to make my own art until after my kids were pretty well grown.  Until then, my creativity had gone into Rainbow Brite costumes and bats and snails costumes. 

I work only part time right now, so I have the luxury of time to devote to making lovely things.  I love trying new things - alcohol inks, encaustic wax.