A woman purchased a small painting from me and remarked it was to give her daughter for Christmas. She told me her daughter was away at college and for years they had visited the St. James Art Show together.
Each year the child would pick out a design from my Face Painting Board and sit very still while her very personal work of art was placed on her cheek. The Mother was going to give her an item to hang on a dorm room wall so that glancing up, a college student would smile and remember those treasured moments they shared on the October Streets of the St. James Court Art Show.
Sitting here in my studio, I do not even recall what that Mother looked like but I do recall my own Mother trying to keep children orderly in a face painting line.
It was quality family time with snippets of conversation mingling with the sounds of my “Nutcracker” tape recording floating in the air. Music made a nice background for painting long hours.
Thinking two young girls who were elbowing each other in front of the booth were sisters, my Mother admonished them about how they should like each other.
One girl looked at up my mother and questioned, “Like her? I don’t even know her!”
All adults within earshot, including my Mother, had a good laugh at the humor in the painting line.
My memories are different than the young college student but I smile just as much when I think of The Art Shows and the people who walked through our booths.