Thanksgiving 2012

I asked Victoria to produce something to illustrate the holiday, so I could post it.  She asked 'Like what?' I said, 'I don't know, a table, people, turkeys, whatever...'  So she produced the below.  She wondered what a turkey might look like, I assured her whatever she produced would be fine.  She hesitated only briefly -

One table, two chairs, one meal for which to be grateful.

 

There is a table and two chairs, probably because no one should be alone at Thanksgving (sic).  There is a turkey, sweet potatoes, and a pumpkin pie.  There are two glasses for drinks, for what is a meal without a toast.  I once again hesitated and almost asked her to 'try' again.  The stark simplicity of her rendering seemed rushed and not as 'thought out' as I would have had it be.

Again I had to stop myself.  All she does is for me to appreciate, rather than for me to 'correct'.  I must be grateful for what she can do rather than for me to insist she adapt to what I might think is 'right'.  My expectations of Victoria are consistently blown away, as they should be, my expectations are a gross underestimation.  She continues to develop at her own pace, assimilating that which is right for that moment in time.

Victoria works twice a week at a dining hall at a military installation.  She feared she would have to work Thanksgiving day as that is her regularly assigned shift. I assured her that could not possibly be the case, but she was (again!) right.  She was expected to work on Thanksgiving day.  I spoke to her supervisor and offered that if she could have off Thanksgiving Day she could swap with someone for a Christmas Day shift.  He understood and accepted the offer.  My next challenge would be to tell Victoria.  How to explain to her that she might have to work Christmas day?  Nothing for it, I just did.  'Victoria, in order for you to go to Thanksgiving you might have to work Christmas Day.  I hope this is OK with you because that is what I worked out with your supervisor.'  A brief silence, a heavy sigh and then words that blew me away. 'Ok, I'll work Christmas Day if that is what I have to do to go to Thanksgiving.'

There are a lot of things I think I might change - but if it all means I get to moments like that I will change nothing.  And I am grateful for every moment.  I hope you are too.

Robby, Kirstan, and Emerson

My baby brother, his bride, and their baby

 

Victoria drew my brother Robby (who is well over 6 feet tall) and his bride Kirstan (who is well below 6 feet tall) long before they welcomed wonderful Emerson Eloise aka Emme.

Uncle Robby and Aunt Kirstan - holding hands, of course.

Thanks to Victoria's rendition we can see uncle Robby IS in fact taller - AND making a smashing fashion statement.  Aunt Kirstan is a stunning petite who rules the roost and, as ever, they are holding hands.  Victoria completed the above drawing in the fall of 2010.  When Emerson arrived in the spring of 2012 I asked Victoria to fill out the family portrait.

Ok, ok, I confess I lost the first drawing of Emerson, it's here somewhere, I just can't tell where.  And as I looked at it I remember wondering if it was good enough to post.  The quality of the lines was off, the colors were faint, and the legs and arms were more like bubbles than, well, the sticks that Victoria's people usually have for appendages.  I probably lost it on purpose hoping Victoria would revisit the interpretation and make Emerson the way I figured she should be.



So I had her do another image, prepared for the image to be what I figured it should be.  Well, surprise!  The image is exactly the way VICTORIA wants it to be.  Emerson of Victoria's people is yellow haired and has very thick arms and legs, and a newly defined nose.  She is as perfect in Victoria's drawing, as she is in person.

Emme, perfect.

I truly regret losing that first drawing - it was Victoria's interpretation and clearly exactly what she meant her to look like.  Emerson is beautiful, dark haired and perfectly proportioned.


As ever, I still have much to learn from Victoria.

Victoria's Halloween

Happy Halloween Pumpkin!

Victoria loves Halloween - she is 25 - 250lbs and wonders if she can get away with going trick or treating.  I DO tell her she looks very young, a fact she exploits on occasions like, oh I don't know like say perhaps... trick or treating?  I don't encourage her, and don't walk her around, but if her buddy Daniel were in town she would be knocking on doors the whole month of October!  Victoria and Daniel - her very best friend in the whole world since she was 4 - have been fanatical about scary gory gross movies for as long as I can remember.  As soon as they were allowed to watch gory movies they did.  Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Kruger, The Shining, you name it they have watched it, and tried to get me to watch it as well.  I will not - can't stand 'em!  The movies that is.

Victoria loves to be seasonal, so as holidays approach she often takes cues for drawings from what surrounds her.  For Halloween she tries scary and since she loves those scary movies she once tried to draw Freddy, yes THAT Freddy - I don't know where THAT drawing went, but below you can see what one of people looks like as a vampire.  Victoria's people trying to be scary?  Not likely - but a sophisticated vampire, man about town?  Definitely!

Victoria's Vampire!

Famous vampires of the world beware, Victoria's vampire is here.  He is stylish purple pants and all, as vampires seem to be, and you can tell he's mean because his mouth is down turned and, of course, bloody.

 

My favorite by FAR however is the witch (wich?).  Yes, she is green, has purple hair, and what is supposed to be an over sized hat is hardly that, but she definitely has character.  She looks like she has her hands on her hips and even a smirk, yes that blue thing is her broom, which looks to be a LOT more likely to comfortably hold the weight of a person than those skinny jobs Harry Potter and his crew ride.  I'm just sayin'

 

And what self respecting witch doesn't have a cat and a bat?  Not this one!

  



  

One Cat - check.

One Bat - check.

 Halloween planning - check!



Some Things Fabulous

Team "Some Things Fabulous"

 

Next weekend I am walking the 60 miles with the Susan G. Komen organization to continue the work needed to find a cure for breast cancer.  This year two more friends were diagnosed with this scary, unpredictable, and still at time incurable disease.  My friend Donna and I are team "Some Things Fabulous" and in order to involve her in this effort I asked Victoria to draw me something that helped illustrate our team. 

In her infinite wisdom Victoria picked up on the fact that I wanted pink (ok, I told her).  She struggled with the spelling - with which I did not help - and wondered how one draws a ribbon, 'You know like THE ribbon, the pink one!' said she.  I told her to do what she thought would be right.

The result is the above fantastic bubble letter interpretation.  As you can see we use three words, Victoria used two, and the ribbon is in various shades and hues relevant to the cause.  In her drawing is the imperfect perfection that may be the answer we have not allowed ourselves to see.  Maybe we are looking for three words, where two will do.  Maybe we just need to let the ribbon unfold.

The cure for cancer may be similarly hidden just waiting for someone to look at it diferently.  Just recently I learned that studies dedicated to Down Syndrome actually ended up helping Alzheimers.   

For those three days it's just Donna, me, and about 3,000 other people!  There is no prize at the end, this is not a race, but the need for a cure is pressing.

Hearts

Victoria creates like any other artist.  Our floors have been littered with pages half covered in semi recognizable shapes, colors, forms.  Drafts, sketches, often cast off for reasons not totally clear, sometimes forgotten.  Some are what look like scraps of paper, some are in sketch books, some are simply in stacks, not good enough to present as a gift, not bad enough to discard. She creates and moves on.  I often catch myself, as I am cleaning up, looking at the pieces she creates and find little gems like these hearts.  She often can't tell you what she has created, but create she does!

For years I listened to a radio program called 'Music From the Heart's of Space', yeah - it was on NPR, Space music they called it.  I loved it.  I often tries to envision what Music from the Hearts of Space would look like.  These hearts happily seem to fit the category nicely. There is no predicting what will inspire Victoria, I don't even think SHE knows what inspires her. Her creations are, always bold, touching, and inspiring.  So here are Victoria hearts with my titles and interpretations -







The Flying Heart
Kinda like the bumble bees whose wings are not supposed to be able to make it fly,

these wings seem too thin, too flimsy, and yet there is it, flying!





Crayon heart, pink wings
The Crayon Heart has a difinite Picasso-esque feel.

And then there is the Satellite Heart.  Notable for the fact that Victoria has so boldly signed her name to it.  When Victoria writes her name it is often very fast, and often much too big for the designated space.  Despite years of effort, she misjudges space and often ends up writing her last name down the side of the page.  She is unaware of physical space norms as well - when talking to a person she will get uncomfortably close.  She may well sense the listener is at odds, but will probably not change her position.  On her Satellite Heart image her name in strong, bold block letters is in just the right place.



Satellite Heart

I believe Victoria's hearts represent her joy, abundance, and giving nature.  All our hearts should be this full of color and optimism.




The Cousins - 2 of 6

William, Lorna, Kelly and Davis

The elder of my two baby brothers is William who is married to Lorna, who is built like your standard everyday super model.  They have two boys who fall squarely in the category of too cool for most anything, but they don't know it.  Kelly and David are accomplished musicians, and handily master most anything that has to do with computers.  My brother William is a businessman, and commercial pilot who systematically comes up with entrepreneurial ideas he turns into successful enterprises.  I should try to keep up!

Uncle William and Aunt Lorna

Lorna is not really taller than William (who is 6'3" at least) but she is wearing heels, so her 5'7" frame stretched!  Not sure why they're not holding hands - Victoria makes up her own mind.  She is careful to make sure we know these are her Aunt and Uncle!

Kelly, um William's Kelly - of course! 

Kelly is now much taller than his statuesque mom.  Self effacing, but quietly confident he performs as a musician very comfortably and VERY well.  He is one of the three Kelly's in our family.  We try not to have Boy Kelly (aka William's Kelly), Aunt Kelly, Alex's Kelly (you know HER!).  But Old Kelly, Little Kelly and Girl Kelly didn't fell right either.

Davis - the only

Davis wears glasses, and for this image had short hair.  He has had hair to rival the Breck girl's (yes I am dating myself), it was gorgeous.  He has since had a haircut.  And yes, there is only ONE Davis! ;)

The Cousins - 1 of 6

Danny & Yari

Luis & Jessie (and baby!)

Victoria is all about family and remembers her cousins' names and birth dates with an accuracy that is startling, and frankly embarrassing.  I might forget my children's birthdays if they did not drop the less that subtle hints.

Victoria is my parents' 5th grand child and second granddaughter.  She has, as a result of my tasking in the fall of 2010, drawn an image of each of her cousins, which will follow in the next few posts.

Victoria's cousins Danny and Luis, sons of my sister Hilary, are Puertorrican.  They are gorgeous, dark haired, dark eyed ... I was going to say boys, but that is not fair.  They are both married and Luis and his wife Jessie are expecting their first baby in September.  OK, OK, they are gorgeous, dark haired, dark eyed men. (sigh!)  You might infer the skin color is not accurate, but then again, neither is the diameter of their forearms.

Danny

Danny is married to Yari, but I do not yet have a Victoria image of Yari.  She has a few others she is tasked with, as will become evident as this post progresses.  Yari = Task #1

Luis and Jessie

Jessica has huge blue eyes and gorgeous strawberry blond/auburn colored hair.  She and Luis (who does appear to liking his lips) were married in the summer of 2010.  This image is from the fall of 2010, well before baby #1 was on the way.  And there is the hand holding again, easiest way to tell they are a couple.  Baby = Task #2

Jessie - the portrait

Sometimes Victoria likes to reach out to people that are special to her.  She specifically relates to young women in her approximate age group, and through her drawings demonstrates her affection and admiration.  Hence the above portrait of Jessie (wife of Luis).  I don't recall the occasion but Victoria wanted to make sure she had something for Jessie and the above was produced.  Please note - Jessie does not wear puffy dresses, and I can't say I have ever seen her with her hair on the top of her head like a fountain.  Somehow, however, this image captures her great style, Victoria-style! 

Victoria's Letters, bubble letters that is!

Whenever Victoria wants to label something she does what she calls 'Bubble Letters'.  Her spelling is evolving, and she is pretty good with words she uses routinely.  Every now and then she'll miss or skip a letter.  There are the occasional transpositions, but by and large she gets it right.

Her greeting cards are particularly touching.  Although she LOVES buying greeting cards, and often finds the perfect card, the cards she makes are the ones that carry the most feeling.

She has carefully signed the inside, lest I mistake the giver.



Happy Birthday to me! Never too many of these!

Our family has large Thanksgiving celebrations, and often a commemorative t-shirt is produced.  Victoria has wanted to participate in the design process for several years, this year she contributed more than ever.  The activity took place in Bluffton, S. C. a small town east of I-95 and south of Beaufort SC.

Victoria did the letters for the T-shirt



Her original suggestion was
Hattlers Gone Wild
Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving celebrations have also taken place on Hilton Head Island, SC.  The 2011 celebration might have been, but my parents moved... to Bluffton.

Victoria, always wiling to help is not above trying to talk some sense into her parents.  SO when I asked her to make a label for a cooler for a party she gave me a hard time.  "Mommy, no one should drink beer!"  And I agree with her sometimes.  All the same she loves a party, karaoke, and dancing.  And when she got old enough she decided she might be OK with a beer every now and then too!

Not sure what the blue item is, but the unmistakable message is the contents of the cooler
BEER!

And then there's the funky stuff...

When she gets going there is no stopping her.  Victoria gets an idea and off she goes.  No telling where the ideas come from, and sometimes the colors are the markers she happens to have on hand.  So here are a couple of charmers.  Not sure who they are, or even if they are really people, but who can deny their charm, graphic qualities, and color.  There is always color!

Summer 2011

This colorful dude hung in my office on a cork board lighting up the room for a year or so.  Then the tack fell off, he landed on my desk and sort of lay there, up against the back of my desk unit for months.  At some point some liquid spilled (water, coffee, tears, who knows), drops clearly landing and leaving that great water color quality.  Today I saw him leaning there, smiling (always smiling) and realized I HAVE to share him!

Blockhead -  Fall 2011

And then there is Blockhead, which is what I call him/her.  He looks kinda angry, but his eye sockets are colorful perspective.  I don't think he is unfinished, Victoria just chose to make him a colorful face kinda person, as opposed to a colorful clothes kinda person.  Maybe she is a girl and she has a ruffle at the end of her very straight line dress.  The sleeves DO seem to have a puffy top.  Interpretations welcome!

More People!!!

Ours is a large, loud, and tight family.  We actually don't see each other often and when we all get together (four generations at this point) there are somewhere between 35 ad 40 of us.  Yes, I lose count and as such am happy to be blamed for Victoria's math skills or lack thereof. 

My parent's are to blame for all of this, they are each one of two siblings in their families.  I, however, am second of seven.  Victoria is grandchild #5, granddaughter #2, and #1 in our hearts and minds.  When my son Alex was born (#1 grandchild) he called my father 'pop-pop' and my mother 'granmonna.'  It stuck and hence the identifiers below, although Victoria says she tried to write 'grandmommy' on the drawing. 

I always love the shoes on anyone wearing pants, they are a perfect fit for the design, although the crotch is often at the hem of the shirt, I don't think I have ever seen a belt, just don't need 'em.  My mother's dress is in keeping with her attire, the hearts a great adornment.  And of course you can tell their a couple, cause they're holding hands!  They have been married over 55 years, lots of hand holding over the years!

Pop-pop and Granmonna

What is not obvious from the drawing is that my parents are 6'2" and 6' respectively.  It's all in the hands/eyes of the beholder.

Introduction

Victoria's Work

 

A few months ago I posted a couple of Victoria' pieces on my Facebook page.  I have always been a fan, of her work, and her being, which  I suppose is natural as Victoria is my daughter.  When I posted the work I threatened to begin a blog where more of her work could be posted for all to enjoy and interpret.

Although well intentioned I managed to not follow through on my action.  Day before yesterday I caught up, in person, with a friend I had not seen in 37 years - but with whom I had recently re-connected on Facebook.  After some conversation on family and life she asked when I was going to get started with posting more of Victoria's work.  I was dumbstruck.  I didn't think anyone was paying attention.  I should have known better.  I am indebted to Elena for spurring me into action.

Victoria is today - 24 June 2012 - a 25 year old in whom I recognized developmental delays at the age of one month.  She was supported by Special Education programs her entire academic career and made life long friends in those programs.

Victoria can read at a 7-8th grade level, has marginal math skills, loves to listen to music and has always enjoyed drawing for distraction, relaxation, and self expression.  The below is one of her many intricate line drawings.  I learn more from Victoria in a day than I could learn from a room full pf PhDs in a year.  I often learn things about myself I don't like, but I hope I learn all the same.  I am excited about sharing her work.

PS - Thanks Elena!

Victoria's People

This is the first of "Victoria's People."  She has always had a great eye for color and composition.  Her efforts are simply intuitive, she just 'does'.  Her circumstance (autism and developmental delay) might be what has allowed her to be so consistent.  Her 'people' are immediately recognizable.   Her approach to creating characters and using lines is definitely worth sharing.  So here goes -

Addy

The above is an image of her sister Addy who is now 16 and might be mortified by how she is portrayed by her (then) 23 year old sister.  There is, however, almost a smirk on the lips and the shoulders askew as if with a 'tude, which Addy definitely has!

Mommy and Daddy

(aka Andrea and Brian)

The above is me with my husband Brian.  The composition of the people is consistent and the use of colors is impressive.  She uses small obvious details like connected hands to made sure everyone can see we are a couple - we are holding hands.  

Alex and Kelly

Above Alex(28) (once a Navy SEAL) and his wife Kelly(28).  Alex is not wearing a beret, it's just the way Victoria captured his very straight and homogeneous hair.  Victoria adores Kelly which just might be why Kelly is taller than Alex and is looking down at him.

So here is the best!

Victoria

 Victoria(24) as she sees herself.  She is heavier, and has VERY curly hair.  This image is surprising in that the shirt has no emblem of adornment.  That said Victoria has been careful to include her ever present pony bead necklace.  One year she made one at camp and wore it for the next two years!  Yes it was kinda gross, but it really wasn't ugly.  It finally fell off.  Of course she collected the beads and restrung them, that's just the sort of thing Victoria will do.