Pay It Forward Blogfest

The Pay It Forward Blogfest from Matthew MacNish at The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment and Alex J. Cavanaugh is designed to get participants to spread the word about three blogs that are special for them. Hopefully, you will visit the ones suggested by blogfest participants.

Here are my three:

Sunny Room Studio because it's magical to visit there. Daisy Hickman writes beautiful messages and posts gorgeous photographs she has taken. A visit to her studio makes you feel good about the world. Please take a look.

In Time because there's always a story posted. Michael Di Gesu writes amazing Y A stories that will capture your imagination.

Straight from Hel because of the informative articles. I always learn something interesting or important when I visit Helen Ginger's blog site.

I hope you'll visit these blogs as well as those of Matthew MacNish and Alex Cavenaugh. Also, as many others from the blog fest participants as you can. That's well over 200 at this point.

Mothers, Fathers Please Keep Your Children's Art Work

"A Vision Beyond" MMSikes

This week I'm a guest at Sunny Room Studio. Daisy Hickman's beautiful site is pure poetry and an incredible place to visit. I feel privileged to be there.

When she invited me, I thought I would write about my experiences with creating a Gathering Book--actually many Gathering Books. But then I came across a forgotten portrait I'd painted of our children. That started me to think about how much I loved these portraits and how much they mean to me. They were painted during a time of rushing about, driving children here and there--a time that I did not appreciate then. They were among the first real paintings I ever did. These paintings are my treasures now, and I found I had to write about them instead of the Gathering Books project.

Over the years my painting style has changed. It is different now from when I painted "A Vision Beyond" that was part of my Tropical Fantasies series of work from a few years ago. I don't have any paintings--although I created them--from my childhood. Perhaps that's why I love children's art work, and why I love working with children as they create it. I hope their parents will keep their work and treasure it. Art is special at every age in life.