Art

My dad was an artist.  I never had the interest until now.  I am now interested in all things art.  I can't really draw but I can color fairly well and I love to mess with fabric colors and threads and fibers and such.

I think the term "art" is subjective -- it means many things to many people.

My mother in law always said that when she retired she wanted to paint.  She always said she liked to draw as a girl and hoped to be able to spend some of her leisure years pursuing that interest.

And she did.  All of her children have several of her paintings in their homes and we enjoy them on a daily basis.  On her passing, I asked if I could fall heir to her art supplies and such since I have a growing interest in the pursuit and so does my husband.  We came home with several boxes of supplies and books.

I was going through the boxes of books yesterday and I came across a rather fragile, thin manilla mailing envelope addressed to my MIL at her childhood home.  The return address was torn off.  It was postmarked "Dallas", 1936 -- she would have been 15 at the time.

The contents of the envelope were several pencil drawings in the style of the time, all people and all on manilla paper -- some of which were hole punched with reinforcements which led me to believe that she kept these in a binder of some sort.

I feel deep down like she had submitted these for publication to a magazine.  There were no notes or names or identification of any sort.  If they were her artwork, she didn't sign them.  They are lovely drawings.  I am afraid they didn't photograph well but I will share a couple anyway.

They are very fine line pencil drawings and I was standing in the way of the light but you get the idea.  I wonder if maybe she requested drawings from another artist?  I guess there are many ways she could have come upon these drawings but they are really nice.

Art is in the eye of the beholder, right?  I love paintings and drawing and I really love photography.  But, because I am not good at any of those I lean toward fabric art.  I quilt, I do cross stitch and, from the looks of my stash, I collect fabric!

In going through some of the boxes from the move, I ran across a couple of small cross stitch projects.  They are very small and very, very simple.  The kind of thing you can get done in an hour.  But I do love to do these sorts of things once in a while.

The first one was a gift to me from my daughter -- a souvenir of their trip to Boston.  It is the Old North Church.  It was such fun to do.  The second was a gift from my husband during a trip to San Antonio.  I was quite ill on that trip and didn't get to do any sightseeing so my husband brought me a little pick me up from the Alamo.  This kit is almost five years old and it keeps getting put aside.  It is my next finish for sure.

I have done many pieces that are much more complex but I like the small ones too.  I purchased a bookmark kit from the gift shop at Westminster Abbey and I loved making it so much, I made a second one for a friend.  When I run across it I will share a photo. Things are still sort of in chaos around here but it is getting better day by day and eventually I will know where all my things are -- maybe.

I will be sure to share a photo of the little Alamo when I finish it.  I think I am going to have both pieces framed in large frames and I have the perfect place for them -- more on that later.

So, off I go to see what "new" treasures I can find as I sift through boxes of all my earthly possessions chunked together.

I will never move again, I don't think.