Art Day—Mother's Coming Edition

I haven't had time to sit down and paint very much lately, so I was happy when Peahen posted something fun on Facebook. She agreed to make a small gift for the first five people who responded to her post who also agreed to make gifts for someone else. I signed up as quickly as I could, but do you think I could get five of my own Facebook friends to make something? Of course not, but it's OK, I decided. Not everyone is crafty. So, I altered my post and allowed five people to sign up for something made by me with no obligations to reciprocate.

I cook, knit, paint, make earrings and sew purses. Well, I used to sew purses, but that was a fleeting hobby. So, I wrote down the names of my five friends who signed up and thought about what to make for them. The FB post clearly states the gift may not be something the recipient likes, but I wanted it to be nice. Painting is the thing I'm most interested in at the moment, so I bought small black mattes and painted according to their size, choosing images I was confident in. I created these three images plus a black and white abstract image that I gave away before I took this photo. The mattes come in plastic sleeves, and I realized you can matte just about anything, wrap it in plastic, and suddenly your work looks fifty times better than if you saw the watercolor paper just laying naked on the table.

I shipped some of these off to far-away friends, and I added some extra stuff—earrings made with African beads and a knitted bookmark from a pattern Peahen provided. I love Peahen—she's such a wealth of creative energy and information.

So, what does all of this have to do with my mother coming for a visit? Well, let me tell you. She arrives today and will be with us for about a week. She lives in Georgia, and I only see her at Christmas, so spending time with her mid-year will be nice. We're going to do fun things that I think she'll enjoy, like visiting Amish country and touring an Amish farm, touring a separatist village from the 1800s that is about 15 minutes away, taking a cooking class, sitting by the pool and sipping iced tea—mine might be spiked. If she's of a mind to, I might encourage my mother to sit down with a paint brush and some paper and go to town. If we come up with anything presentable, I'll post it next week. If not, these images painted for Facebook friends will have to do for two weeks of Art Day.