Over the last few months, I have been getting paintings prepared for an upcoming show.  This show is taking place at a library on a local military complex.  I was considering my audience, which will be primarily military members, government employees, and their families, including a good number of kids.  The base library is a hot spot for school aged youth and teens when the school day ends.  Students head to the library after school to utilize resources, hit the books, and wrap up homework.  Typically, every seat in the computer lab is full.

We have only lived overseas for fourteen months and my kids have met a lot of great kids.  Honestly, I’ve been really surprised at the number of American kids we’ve met who have never lived in the United States.  OR if they have, it’s only been for a few years or they were too young to remember.  These are the kids I was thinking about when planning one last painting for this show.  I wanted to create a painting for the American kids who rarely experience living on American soil.  Just to give them a gift from “home.” My mind went wild, and I decided it had to be bright, kid-friendly, and curious.

I needed depth, so I asked my Facebook friends (who are also real friends, by the way) to send me their thoughts on the imagery represented by the Statue of Liberty, one of the most popular symbols of our great nation.  My friends played along beautifully (which was really nice, because I often bombard my Facebook friends with “art stuff” and I am sure it gets really old, really fast).

So, thank you Rita, Amy, Stacy, Linda, Maureen, Juan, Christine, Bobbi, Stacey, Misty, Robyn, Anne-Marie, Margaret, Becky, Amelia, Sharon, Shawn, Martha, Heidi, Helmtrud, and Kristin for contributing to my request.  Many of you shared similar words, and several of you had parents, grandparents or great-grandparents who passed through Ellis Island as immigrants.  All of your words were positive and powerful, which is exactly what I want to share with these kids. Your words brought this painting to life. And it went on the wall today…