The legacy of creating art...the differences it takes in each generation

So this week was driving here driving there...typical mom life when your kids are engaged in activities that they are passionate about.... I actually got a picture of G2 doing a lesson, she is breaking out from the Klezmer to do an American folk tune 'Cotton Eye Joe' and she actually got to take her first guitar lesson where we learned she has already outgrown her guitar (yet another excursion next week to get a new guitar that fits her...OY)



Here is the song that inspired G2 to learn 'Cotton Eye Joe' a rocknroll version but fun and foot stompin all the same

G1 draws and enjoys art but her art takes the form of extremely elaborate stories in her head....her imagination is so multi-faceted and that is part of why she is usually dressed in various cosplay outfits........we got an old typewriter for her to write stories on and that is how she expresses herself...no worries though she knows reality vs fiction when I quizzed her about it one day she said 'mom I am just pretending' kids are so wise sometimes moms just need to zip it

And here is what I received in the mail this week-what caught me off guard and made me pause in all my other projects for a day- a box of art and papers that were stored in my mother's garage and she decided to send them to me....they are works of art mainly from my Grandfather who loved to sketch, paint and dabble in graphic arts as well as glass engraving....my Grandfather died when I was oh 13 years old and I have many sketches and drawings that I love--but I had never seen any of these until they arrived here at the house

I don't know what this is the beginning of but I think it is my favorite piece


I LOVE these and am going to try to fit them into some designs in the future...


These are not really original works of art so much as some sort of paint by numbers on a thick cloth....I love them though even with the damage to them they are bright and colorful and now hanging on my Creative Lair's inspiration wall


These were about 30 or so loose pages of individual butterflies and moths...all labeled as to what each one is.....very bright colors they look like they will leap off the page




This is a painting on what looks like a scrap of silk, I am assuming (assumption here) that it was something my father picked up in Vietnam--my guess but who really knows?


These are paintings by my Grandfather again, they look like California coastline....I was born in San Jose and I have several paintings of areas up and down the coast

Don't know anything about this other than the bird is a wax resist on dyed cotton

So here is my family's legacy of creating art. Art has always existed in my family, someone was painting, building, sketching, writing, engraving, sculpting.....sewing....my house was covered in both fine art and folk art...we had art books everywhere and I can vividly remember devouring books on Michelangelo among others in detail. I thought everyone lived like this--I slept in a bed frame that was over 100 years old--we had many pieces of furniture and items that had been in some part of our family for generations. Our family has gone separate ways now for one reason or another that I will not go into detail because it is painful to myself as well as to the rest of my family my children will not have this history, this part of who we/they are.....BUT BUT the legacy of creating and being passionate about creating is ingrained in their genetics...they are already doing what they love, being who they are and THAT is the legacy they have grown up with....I think my Grandfather would have been proud---his wife, my Grandmother is still living, the girl's Great-Grandmother she has heard G2 play and loved it-I could physically see the connection they suddenly had when she played a Greek tune just for her (she was born in Greece)...she has also seen how beautiful and spirited G1 is and how similar they are in tenacity...I hope my girls can look back at their legacy and always have some sort of art in their lives in some form or another....what is your legacy? What will your kids remember? When times are tough think about that rather than the worries of the moment...