Today is
my dad's 60th birthday. We wanted to do something special for him...something to make him feel celebrated and appreciated. Being a family of modest means, who are scattered across 3 provinces, meant that a lavish party, a vacation in the sun or any of the other big ticket items that we would love to give him are a little beyond us right now, either geographically or financially. He isn't a "things" person at all. It's like pulling teeth just to get him to put a couple of items on a Christmas list for our annual exchange, so just buying him stuff wouldn't feel at all meaningful. What to do? It had to be something unique, something personal, something that fairly oozes care and effort on his behalf, something that we could accomplish together, although we are 100's of kilometres apart, something full of love...
Deeply Rooted
12 cm x 12 cm squares of watercolour paper on a 16" x 40", 2" depth canvas. 8 different contributors, ranging in age from 9 to 50-something-ish. Materials from ink to pastel, watercolour to pencil crayon to stuff found in the backyard...oh, and love. Can you feel it? I swear I can feel it when I look at it, like a palpable warmth mixed right in with the paint and glue. I hope my Dad can feel it too.
Posts
oh E!
ReplyDeletegulp. i love it! what an amazing gift.
really, the love is palpable.
hugs! & let us know his reaction. with quotes if possible.
This is amazing. What a great idea! I'm sure this blew him away. Did he choke back a couple tears? I would have loved to watch all the contributors' faces as Dad opened this one. I can just picture the happy anticipation. What a wonderful you put together, oh magical art condutor. I want to get in closer! Yeah, tell Dad's reaction, please. Deb
ReplyDeleteE, this is magical, and it does ooze love. Like Deb, I wanted to zoom in for a closer look. It's lovely, and each piece stands alone, but together, it is a powerful piece. Loooove it!
ReplyDeleteThanks guys. :)
ReplyDeleteFirst reaction is in, I got a rather stunned phone call. He said he wants to be buried with it. LOL I think that's a thumbs up? I wish we could have been there in person to see him open it, but maybe it would have been too much anyway? This way he can digest a bit on his own. One of my sisters, who lives the nearest snuck into his office to hang it last night. So when he went to work this morning, it was just there above his desk.
If you click the pic, it will go bigger. I had taken about a zillion pics of it before I sent it off, wanting to be SURE I had some good ones for my blog...didn't notice that the camera lens was smudged or fogged or something. *groan* This was the best of the bunch and I cleaned it up in photo shop too, but I don't have the close up shots I wanted.
I LOVE THIS. LOVE. I love the tree theme too. I guess you did the third from the left on the top and the fourth from the left on the bottom?
ReplyDelete@Dawn, you called it! Those are two of mine. :)
ReplyDelete@Craig Thank you muchly!
Aw, that's lovely. Tears sprung to my eyes, so I can only imagine how your dad must have felt. Such a great idea!
ReplyDeleteWhat a truly special and spectacular gift. So meaningful!!!
ReplyDelete