Art was a hobby and consistent form of expression at the L street house and beyond, since what feels to me like day one.

                                At the entrance to the house on the north wall Mom had accumulated a piece of framed art work from everyone. The above picture, is a crop of another picture taken during Christmas of 1990 I believe. It as of now is the best shot I have of this mini art exhibit in the house. I think there are a couple images cut off because of the bookshelf that juts out and blocks the view, but I will try and go over what I can.

                                Next to the mail there were two bronze images. Those were undoubtedly made by either Steve and Cindy or Bob and Cindy if I recall. The easy to see one I can remember being of a fish, the darker back one I cannot recall what the image is of. They are as I said made of bronze and I believe were school art projects, of course this is me trying to recall what Mom told me from days gone by.

                                If so it checks out. Mom’s first husband was an art teacher in town and the idea the group that is responsible for those pieces probably did do them with their father. I want to say Cindy was responsible for the fish since I remember that one better, but that might just be because it is easier to see.

                                Next to that is a marker on recycled paper masterpiece made by a two or three year old me. After I give you those ages the fact I remember a lot about this piece should tell you something. From around two to four I enjoyed drawing a lot. I remember vividly drawing my square headed people. I even remember thinking of them as “square-headed”.

                                In the front hall piece here if you squint you can see on of them doing something on the top right quadrant of the image. In fact I am pretty sure he is playing in a play structure. The image itself as a whole I probably an interpretation of playing outside at the apartments Cindy and Rich moved into when they got married. Not only does what I can recognize in the piece help with that theory, I also remember making the work itself and that might help convince others.

                                Because that image was made one day after Melanie and I had been playing out in the playground at those apartments. Cindy had us both inside and had some sort of either real, or makeshift easels up and had as drawing with markers on them, like a little front room art studio in the apartment. The idea is not very farfetched then that I just drew what we just did. I only have like a years’ worth of memories to draw on at this point, so what we just did is as equally as important as when we threw the tomatoes, which may not have even happened yet.

                                Because of the project level and pride I held in that particular work of madness it was sent home with me. Now at that age I was very enamored with the fact that all my siblings had some amazing work of art on that wall. Mom and I got to talk and the discussion led to me wanting to submit my afternoons masterpiece to the exhibit to stand along side the works of my older kin. Mom obliged, framed it and then for years, along side the nicely crafted bronze work and other pieces stood my toddler made marker mess.

                                To the right of that is a very nice framed drawing of a tree. Which I know someone drew, Mom framed and was on the wall. Embarrassingly as of posting this I don’t know who made that one at all. Someday I will hopefully have the information on that piece, but for now it’s a mystery that has to be hunted down.

                                Above it is Mom’s addition to the wall. Thread and needled, it has some saying about Music and God, which matches who she was. Mom spent a large portion of her life at church being enlisted as the musical leader/director of her Mormon ward. Around the quote is embroidered sheet music.

                                For anyone unfamiliar with this kind of work, it ends up essentially looking like computer pixel art in real life. Each stitched is a point, or pixel of the whole, and they all stack together to make a detailed image. Maybe having items like this around the house made accepting the limitations coming the same decade the picture was taken, with computer art easier. Maybe, probably not but it’s fun sometimes to speculate.

                                Above my contribution was a painting of Reise’s of two biplanes. If I knew more about that era of flight I could probably tell you the planes type and country of origin, but that is knowledge Reise has and I do not at the moment. As a lot of things Reise made when I was little, I thought this piece was really cool. Even in so much as if you look to the left of the image you see a small crooked image there. Well, that is a small drawing of the same kind of biplane that I made, framed with brown construction paper and put on the wall next to his.

                                And that is just a fact I have to live with. Reise above all else is probably my initial source for wanting to draw. Mom was more likely the enabler along side him, but when I was that little it was always all these amazing things Reise was drawing and making that captured my developing mind.