Before I even had children of my own and I was a fresh out of college student teacher, I met the most amazing family, the Varnums. They lived in my parent's neighborhood in Kansas and I would house sit, pet sit, baby sit and later spend a lot of time with their Mr. Varnum's aging father who lived with them. I fell in love with this family right away. They had such a zeal for life and were great story tellers and conversationalists. A family of artistic intellects for sure. Their home amazed me. Not for it's brand new shiny cabinets or fabulous architecture. They had an older home with so much character. Yes, it was large and sat on a nice piece of land, but there was nothing pretentious or "show roomy" about it. Every nook and cranny had something unique, interesting and meaningful to their family. In fact, much of their artwork was their own children's drawings or paintings framed on their walls. I had never seen anyone do that before. I was used to well-polished and perfectly matching art I had seen in most of my friends' parents' homes. If I ever saw a child's artwork, it was on the fridge, not framed on a wall, for goodness sakes.
They opened up a whole new world for me, long before I had children of my own. I immediately started asking for Matt and Jessica (my 12 years younger brother and sister) to give me their artwork from school and promptly framed it for my own first little house when I got married. Then, my Mom followed suit and had all of my brother's AMAZING sketches created at the age of 10 or 12 professionally framed and displayed in their formal living room. That boy can draw and he refuses to use his talent as an adult. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly shame him for robbing the world of his talent! Maybe his soon-to-be bride will be able to sweet talk him into drawing again.
Jesse painted that fox on Monday and we had to immediately frame it.
Do you think he wonders if we really think he is an artist or if our compliments about his work were just lip service? He is an artist. Thankfully displaying our kids' art fits right into our eclectic decor.
Love it! Try it and see how special it makes your child feel! Plus, honestly it is so much more worth it than an expensive piece of art that matches all of your furniture. Priceless!
