I See London, I See France

Prepare yourselves for a moment of oversharing.

I once made a butt painting. No, this wasn’t the type where I gazed at a nude model and painted out the curvature of their rear end. Instead, it was of the stamp variety in which I slathered by derriere in paint and sat on a piece of paper. It all started when at some young prepubescent age my cousins and I decided we wanted to play a prank on our Grandma. You see my Grandma is a very talented artist and on one particular visit she warned us to stay out of her studio. Well as you probably guessed this rule went in one ear and out the other and late one night after she had gone to sleep we made our break in. We quickly gathered our supplies, did our dirty deed, and rinsed the paint from our bottoms all while falling into hushed snorts of laughter. We went to bed that night planning to never speak word of our transgressions. My little sister Brianna had other plans. First thing in the morning Brianna promptly announced to our Grandma that we had in fact broke in to her studio and our artistic creations were of the butt variety. While our surrounding Aunts and Uncles broke out in hoots of laughter, my Grandma’s face hardened. She was livid. We apologized profusely, but our sins were never pardoned. This past Christmas we completed serving our sentence of silence. Tired of the elephant in the room, we matted and framed our artwork and surprised our Grandma. As you can see, the veil was lifted and my Grandma finally saw the humor in our act.

This past weekend my sister Brianna and I paid another visit to our Grandparents following our trip to Forks, Washington. While we didn’t make any studio break-ins on this visit, we made ourselves right at home amongst her cozy furnishings and playful kitty named Tiger.

While my Grandparents lived in Sitka, Alaska for most of my early childhood, they now live in Sequim, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula. There house is a stunning collection of beautiful artwork and combined with sweeping views of the ocean. Couldn’t you easily see yourself at home here?

And with a view like this?

Growing up, one of my favorite places to visit in Sequim was the Dungeness Spit. Here a 5.5 mile stretch of slender beach strays from coastline and provides for hours of beach combing. We of course couldn’t miss out on this favorite childhood pastime and so we searched the miles of endless rocky shore for treasures.

While we could have easily spent the rest of the week catching up with our Grandparents and taking in the stunning scenery of the Olympic Peninsula, work was calling and we had to return home. While I didn’t make any butt paintings during this last visit to my Grandma’s she did return the favor and gave me a beautiful painting she recently created. While not quite as colorful as my creative genius, I do think it is rather stunning. Surely I got all my talent from her.