love and art

We just celebrated our 17th anniversary on August 19th. Seventeen years sounds so very married doesn't it? We are quite proud of our marriage - not only the quantity of time but more importantly the quality of our union.

The grandparents weren't in town so we celebrated with the kids in tow. We went to a wonderful fine arts fair near Lake Tahoe that is held every year on our anniversary weekend. So we've been a few times and always enjoy it. This is the first time we brought the kids. The most special part was opening our kids eyes to the beauty of ALL kinds of art. I think they really enjoyed seeing the variety of things artists create. We all said it made us want to go home and "create something!"

One of my favorite memories was when Eric (10 yo) commented on a simple oil painting of 3 green apples. He said "This picture makes me laugh - in a good way." After I stared at the painting I too couldn't help but smile at those 3 apples. Mark and I looked at each other and knew we had to buy that painting. Every time I look at it I am reminded of how my pre-teen son saw beauty and happiness in this painting.

Since we've been married for awhile we don't always buy gifts for each other. Not because we don't think the day is important, but because we don't feel the need to buy things "just because we're suppose to." We always buy heartfelt cards for each other but sometimes we just don't have the money to exchange gifts. This year we decided we'd look for a piece of art together. We both want to fill our home with special pieces of art that mean something to us not just a bunch of framed prints from Target.

We bought a beautiful hand-colored photograph of a serene beach scene. We actually saw this piece 5 years ago at this same fair! Well this year we bought it. We got to talking with the artist and told her it was our 17th anniversary. We jokingly asked her if she could give us the "17th" print of this piece. She said she hadn't sold the 17th print and she would skip ahead and give us the 17th - perfect!

I can't believe how happy I feel about choosing art for our home. Art is so individual and produces so many emotions. I'm so happy our children felt a little of this excitement and will hopefully buy art "that speaks to them."