For Emilie

I suppose most everyone in this country was affected in some way by the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook elementary last week. And I'm no exception. The first person to publicly speak about one of the victims was the father of Emilie Parker - a beautiful little blond-haired, blue-eyed girl who looked as if the traditional image we see of angels might have been modeled after her. Her father described her as an incredible artist. That was what grabbed me. When I was her age I was a little blond, blue-eyed budding artist myself, so it really "hit me where I live" so to speak. I knew at that moment I had to paint something for Emilie. 
My first thought was to paint something and send it to her parents anonymously, but I knew they would be inundated with cards and letters and gifts as it was (even if I knew how to get it to them - which I didn't). It also seemed intrusive somehow. If I'm being honest, I suppose I was also afraid they wouldn't like it and maybe it would insult them. (Artists always fear rejection.)
So, then I thought I might just put it on my facebook and hope that, somehow, it would find it's way to them. My fear, then, was people would believe that I was trying to capitalize on the tragedy. (It isn't possible to post to facebook anonymously.) This is something I would never do, but people who don't know me wouldn't know that.
I suppose I could've done one and just never shared it at all but that seemed wrong too. What is the point in honoring her with a painting that would never be seen by anyone? And my point is to honor her memory.  
Still, I knew I had to paint something for her. So I did. I had seen a picture of her wearing a pink sweater so I did it all in pinks. I added a big, twinkling pink heart because most little girls like hearts and because she so captured mine. 
This is my painting for Emilie - my fellow artist:

 

It's Giveaway Time!

To show my appreciation to all the fantastic fans of SFCount Designs on Facebook, I'm offering the chance to win my Folk Art Flowers iPad case! (This case is for the original iPad - not the iPad 2) It has never been used, although it was on display at the Sundance Film Festival gift lounge earlier this year.


To enter, just leave a comment (including your name) on this post between now and July 19th. You can also comment on my Facebook page on the discussion board under the "iPad Case" topic for another chance. Each entry will be given a number. At the end of the entry time, I will generate the winning number through http://www.random.org/ and announce the winner on my page.

Once again, thanks so much for your support and good luck!

A Scary Moment

Once when I was a child, my mother got a call that my oldest brother had been in an accident. The accident had happened just a couple of blocks away from our house and my mother didn't drive, so she rushed down there on foot. Of course, being as young as I was she couldn't leave me home alone, so she took me by the hand and off we went. In my memory of this, I can almost see my feet coming off the ground as we hurried to find out how my brother was. That memory was the inspiration for this mixed media design.By the way, my brother 's leg was broken and he had a few other scrapes and bruises, but no permanent damage. In fact, today he's a marathon runner. :-)