Artist celebrated with a gallery of birthday greetings
A woman who has made herself believe that all who know her have somehow forgotten the impending arrival of her birthday is a pitiful sight. Oh, the sadness. Oh, the melancholy.
As her big day neared, my wife’s thinly-veiled self-pity became more or less a running joke for the kids and me.
“Any boo-hoos today?” daughter Charlotte would write.
“No, just a general ‘whoa is me’ vibe and a few muffled ‘whaa whaas,’” I’d reply. This went on for weeks.
To imagine that a family like ours is even capable of all-out forgetting any birthday is ridiculous in its own right. Had Kristin married a man so out of tune or raised children so utterly oblivious as to let slip the fact that she was about to turn 60 years old, it would have been her own darn fault.
In reality a celebration had been set in motion months before when Charlotte, our family’s chief planner and logistical genius, called me with the big idea.
“How about we do an art show with Mom as the theme?” she said. “We’ll put out the call to friends and family to each create something inspired by Kristin. Then we’ll put them all on display!”
The concept alone was a slam-dunk, but the idea of keeping it a secret and unleashing a full-fledged “gallery exhibit” as a surprise was like pulling off a win in the national championship.
By the time we rolled up in front of Charlotte and Andrew’s place for the unveiling, there were more than a dozen master works inside, each inspired by and dedicated to our own collective muse — whether she be mother, wife, aunt, in-law, grandma or friend.
The artworks ranged from an all-black “rainbow” painted by grandson Max to an acrylic recreation of a page from a favorite book that Kristin read to our son Ben when he was a child. Charlotte painted a favorite photo of her 3-year-old self clowning around with her mom, and I offered up a 20-page cartoon-only biography of my favorite inspiration. (Today’s art is from one of those pages.)
The creativity was astounding — drawings, paintings, paw-print stampings (thank you, Frankie), a homemade T-shirt and even a life-size rendition of Kristin as a college student in the form of an inflatable doll with a Rolling Stones tank top and curly brown wig.
Son-in-law Andrew took home Best in Show with a giant “wire woman” he’d crafted out of copper tubing as an ode to Kristin’s favorite pastime of roaming through the woods looking for wiremen, a quirky local tradition. That one left her breathless.
The biggest surprise of all walked through the door, hot off a delayed flight with a portrait of Kristin in her hand and the desert sand of Utah still clinging to her shoes — our baby, Sylvia! That one brought Kristin to tears.
While the lot of us had toiled to some degree, for each it was a labor of love, and one that came easily given the inspiration of our favorite muse. Happy Birthday, Kristin. You are loved beyond measure.
Kristin and John Lorson would love to hear from you. Write Drawing Laughter, P.O. Box 170, Fredericksburg, OH 44627, or email John at jlorson@alonovus.com.
