My Cousins

I have two wonderful cousins from my dad's side of the family. They live in Ohio and are both so amazingly talented. Barbara and Judy are both about my age. They both have had previous lives and careers. They have husbands, children, dogs and cats. We didn't see each other very often growing up -  they were in Ohio and we were in the Chicago area. It was a much longer drive back in the day than it is now. You get the idea. I'm thrilled that we have reconnected as adults! What I want to talk about is how creative they are.

Barbara is a painter and works with enameling. I think she is amazing at both. She kindly gave me three small paintings she created and I've now had them framed and they hang on the wall in my living room. A while back she sent me one of her enamels that has a moon and stars on one side and a tree on the other. It sits on the window sill directly in front of my desk. I turn it from one side to the other depending on the season, the weather or just how I'm feeling on any given day.

Judy does amazing work with her community educating people to treat the environment with respect and to tread carefully. She also paints rocks. How cool is that considering Ron and I are both geologists. She has painted dragons and trees, toads and all manor of creatures. But for me, she painted curly sheep. They sit happily on the window sill in front of my desk out in the studio. Mostly they just sit happily in one place but occasionally they go walk-a-bout and end up all over my studio. I'm sure some of my friends, or perhaps family members, encourage them to wander, but they always come back.

It's so wonderful to have family members to trade with. They send me what they create and send them what I create.