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.