My Pearl finding Granddaughter

Dying is a joy when you can see the beauty of the world through a child's eyes.  I have had the joy of her six years of life to spend an incredible amount of time with her.  We would watch utubes and she always had a fascination with art.  So Papa would draw and tell stories.  Although my mother was a commercial artist, I have limited talent and my drawings and stories made her laugh at me.  My wife who is an artist, however spent hours with this child teaching her the use of colors and techniques.  She is now with an art teacher who teaches her after school, and she had her work displayed at the high school.  Some have used the word prodigy, but my wife still finds some of her techniques primitive and age appropriate, but when she blends oils and acrylics....her art teachers are astounded.  People are wanting to buy her art work.  I was astounded when I saw this six year old's latest work.  Such beauty and talent I pray will not be beaten down by life, and her beauty shall touch others.....let me share the same.

2seaoat wrote:Dying is a joy when you can see the beauty of the world through a child's eyes.  I have had the joy of her six years of life to spend an incredible amount of time with her.  We would watch utubes and she always had a fascination with art.  So Papa would draw and tell stories.  Although my mother was a commercial artist, I have limited talent and my drawings and stories made her laugh at me.  My wife who is an artist, however spent hours with this child teaching her the use of colors and techniques.  She is now with an art teacher who teaches her after school, and she had her work displayed at the high school.  Some have used the word prodigy, but my wife still finds some of her techniques primitive and age appropriate, but when she blends oils and acrylics....her art teachers are astounded.  People are wanting to buy her art work.  I was astounded when I saw this six year old's latest work.  Such beauty and talent I pray will not be beaten down by life, and her beauty shall touch others.....let me share the same.

That is talent .....and she is beautiful.

It is stunning what I am seeing. If you remember for her fourth birthday we took her to the Chicago Art Museum, and I posted a picture outside next to the lions. Well during that visit she clearly indicated that she loved the work of Georgia O'Keefe. She did nothing but talk about her clouds painting which covers an entire east wall of the museum. However, at the same time she got to view some of Van Gogh's most memorable paintings. My wife finds her blends and ability to mix the colors with fluidity most like Van Gogh's techniques, but I am blown away as her art teacher has told her mother that she slops on paint and make amazing things which she has NEVER seen in any artist close to her age. We thought the trip to the Art Museum was to appease her telling papa.....I don't want to play basketball......I am an artist. My wife and I are spooked out tonight. We both know Art. It may be just blind luck, like when I pick a sports team and they actually win, or artistic genius may be innate. Picasso always spoke of trying to find that child like approach to art where his genius was born.

My daughter is getting phone calls from all over after this latest posting on social media. My wife who has been the cautious art teacher cannot explain her advanced use of lighting and blends......she is speechless. I do not understand how our human brain works, and as I fade I still can identify beauty......it is something that captures your soul. She still is a child, and one who is angry at papa who was too tired for a second golf cart ride to look for more pearls......a child with talent which is completely mysterious to me and both my wife and I are stumped right now....speechless.....so I share her beauty hoping her unique vision to capture beauty becomes contagious.

She has natural ability....not unlike a piano player savant. You started her in the right direction...she will continue. Her work is more than impressive!

None of my buisness but that has never stopped me.... lighten  up on  the macho stuff and play with the little ones. Their memories of time spent with you are the most important thing now.

I may have told you before about my granddaughter. Her paternal grandfather became very sick when she was about a year old...he had already developed a deep bond with her. As a father , he had two boys and as a child he grew up without siblings and virtually no family.
He said many times the only thing that got him through was his granddaughter.  

When the other two granddaughters came along he was in high heaven but still had that special bond with the oldest one. He picked them up from preschool everyday at 1pm. From school they went to the park, to the shoreline, or bike riding. It was something everyday. This was followed by a pizza or ice cream cone or anything the girls wanted before taking them home at 4:30. This continued to elementary school as well. He was called grand by the girls and everyone in Gulf Breeze knew him as Grand.

When grand got sick again the oldest was 10. Grand died in his sleep. I heard the 911 call and went to  their house immediately ( 1 block from me) it was too late. He had been dead for awhile. The girls were devastated.

The night before his funeral my oldest granddaughter asked her dad if she could speak at the funeral. He was not sure she could handle it..but agreed.

My granddaughter spoke for 10-15 minutes. She started out with..."I want to make sure everyone knows what my grandfather meant to me and my sisters. I want you to know all about him and why we will miss our Grand". The service was standing room only in the church and overflowed outside. She brought everyone to tears sharing her story about Grand. It was beautiful.

So I say to you....save your energy for the grandkids.

It is amazing how grandchildren understand their grandparents. The bond is very strong. I enjoy the time I spend with all four because I teach them and they are learning my sense of humor. I walk into a room and they all scream out.....Papa.....tell us a story. I will sit down with utube and show them the world and scare them a bit, teach them a bit, but most importantly allow their imaginations to run and fill in my stories. I always tell them it is their turn to tell a story, and I watch their imaginations blossom. The human brain is remarkable. Nothing is worse than treating a four year old like a child.....they are incredible human beings who are like sponges.

The problem is that I am getting tired. I am not winning this battle and I am rapidly running out of rope. However, grandchildren give you the reason to take that extra walk. I see the sadness in my oldest granddaughter's eyes as she watched my wife and I working on the handicap ramp and deck. She asked why we need a ramp. I explained that Papa does not need it right now, but he will shortly be too tired to walk up the stairs and I will probably need a wheelchair.......I told her she better not push me down the ramp.....she had a twinkle in her eye.....my daughter used to threaten me that she will leave me at the long house and push my wheel chair down the stairs.......she would watch the old people at a local nursing home which was the "long house" and saw people in wheel chairs.....kids know more than you could guess, and they are such little human beings with the full spectrum of emotion and intelligence.

I got lucky with the oldest and the pearl. I hope and can enjoy them the next few months, but we cannot take another Illinois winter, and I am working to lease a place in the Fort Meyer area and will be away from them for three months.....this will be hard, but it is dependent on my insurance allowing me to get my shots in Tampa.....three months without the grandkids.....way too tough, so the kids are talking about spending a week with us during those three months.....should be fun.

2seaoat wrote:It is amazing how grandchildren understand their grandparents.  The bond is very strong.  I enjoy the time I spend with all four because I teach them and they are learning my sense of humor.  I walk into a room and they all scream out.....Papa.....tell us a story.  I will sit down with utube and show them the world and scare them a bit, teach them a bit, but most importantly allow their imaginations to run and fill in my stories.   I always tell them it is their turn to tell a story, and I watch their imaginations blossom.   The human brain is remarkable.   Nothing is worse than treating a four year old like a child.....they are incredible human beings who are like sponges.

The problem is that I am getting tired.  I am not winning this battle and I am rapidly running out of rope.  However, grandchildren give you the reason to take that extra walk.  I see the sadness in my oldest granddaughter's eyes as she watched my wife and I working on the handicap ramp and deck.  She asked why we need a ramp.  I explained that Papa does not need it right now, but he will shortly be too tired to walk up the stairs and I will probably need a wheelchair.......I told her she better not push me down the ramp.....she had a twinkle in her eye.....my daughter used to threaten me that she will leave me at the long house and push my wheel chair down the stairs.......she would watch the old people at a local nursing home which was the "long house" and saw people in wheel chairs.....kids know more than you could guess, and they are such little human beings with the full spectrum of emotion and intelligence.

I got lucky with the oldest and the pearl.  I hope and can enjoy them the next few months, but we cannot take another Illinois winter, and I am working to lease a place in the Fort Meyer area and will be away from them for three months.....this will be hard, but it is dependent on my insurance allowing me to get my shots in Tampa.....three months without the grandkids.....way too tough, so the kids are talking about spending a week with us during those three months.....should be fun.

They will love being with you in Florida. Please slow down with the strenuous activities.

A beautiful and talented child. What a sweet, sweet blessing. This is what life is about. Enjoy.

They will love being with you in Florida. Please slow down with the strenuous activities.



It seems like yesterday that my grandfather was showing me off to his friends as we Walked to Acipco to get an ice cream cone, and for him to have his barber give me a haircut. I was probably four and I remember it like it was yesterday. He was an engineer and would take me to the rail yard in Birmingham and let me get into one of the old steam engine trains. I remember the smells and sounds....again like it was yesterday. Now I am fading and slowing down will not give me more time because the die is cast. Keeping my activity levels up and pushing the envelope is all I have ever known, and I can be gone in weeks or years, as the doctors always say....it is variable, but the time with a grandchild.....it is priceless.

2seaoat wrote:It is amazing how grandchildren understand their grandparents.  The bond is very strong.  I enjoy the time I spend with all four because I teach them and they are learning my sense of humor.  I walk into a room and they all scream out.....Papa.....tell us a story.  I will sit down with utube and show them the world and scare them a bit, teach them a bit, but most importantly allow their imaginations to run and fill in my stories.   I always tell them it is their turn to tell a story, and I watch their imaginations blossom.   The human brain is remarkable.   Nothing is worse than treating a four year old like a child.....they are incredible human beings who are like sponges.

The problem is that I am getting tired.  I am not winning this battle and I am rapidly running out of rope.  However, grandchildren give you the reason to take that extra walk.  I see the sadness in my oldest granddaughter's eyes as she watched my wife and I working on the handicap ramp and deck.  She asked why we need a ramp.  I explained that Papa does not need it right now, but he will shortly be too tired to walk up the stairs and I will probably need a wheelchair.......I told her she better not push me down the ramp.....she had a twinkle in her eye.....my daughter used to threaten me that she will leave me at the long house and push my wheel chair down the stairs.......she would watch the old people at a local nursing home which was the "long house" and saw people in wheel chairs.....kids know more than you could guess, and they are such little human beings with the full spectrum of emotion and intelligence.

I got lucky with the oldest and the pearl.  I hope and can enjoy them the next few months, but we cannot take another Illinois winter, and I am working to lease a place in the Fort Meyer area and will be away from them for three months.....this will be hard, but it is dependent on my insurance allowing me to get my shots in Tampa.....three months without the grandkids.....way too tough, so the kids are talking about spending a week with us during those three months.....should be fun.

I have a friend in Ft. Myers who left Pensacola with a debilitating illness and an incomplete diagnosis. He had to be hospitalized in Tampa for the majority of 2014. I had seriously worried that he wouldn't make it...but he has, and the doctors in Tampa have brought him through.

If the insurance approves my shots at Moffit Cancer center in Tampa, I will spend three months this winter with friends in the Fort Meyer/Marco Island area. I cannot take Illinois winters and being house bound. Cabin fever I get. However, being away from these precious gifts called grandchildren will be difficult.....We are taking the wait and see attitude. We will make the call with Doc to see if he can help coordinate the insurance, but any mistake is a 20k dollar mistake, so we have to go through the red tape. My first sando shot was at Moffit, so I am in their system, but these shots are so damn expensive in America compared to Canada.....it should be a central issue in the presidential race, but instead we hear debates about marriage certificates.

My daughter has been overwhelmed by her daughter's classmates parents who want to find out more information on the part time art teacher who has been working with my granddaughter once a week for two years. Her girl scout group of parents all want to enroll with this woman. My wife has been very pleased with the techniques she is teaching. I am convinced we are often guided in life by just one teacher who ignites our interest in a subject matter. With me it was Professor Anderson who was a genius in international relations and his analysis of the world just captured my full attention, or my eighth grade science teacher who just ignited my love of science. Not every teacher can ignite the fire in a child for self discovery of talent, but when they do, it is a beautiful thing.

Her paintings were put in the High School art show last year, and they were good, but clearly age appropriate with clumsy techniques, but since starting first grade her art work is stunning the teachers at school and even the part time art teacher. She spent the summer working with her dad designing things. She designed a shopping cart and her father let her build it for her sister's birthday in August. It was made of wood, and had wheels and she built and painted the same......her father was impressed, her sister gave her the biggest hug getting the cart, and they play shopping as they go to the grocery store they build with shelves with pretend goods. Fun to watch their imaginations, but her spatial conceptualization is getting freaky.

2seaoat wrote:My daughter has been overwhelmed by her daughter's classmates parents who want to find out more information on the part time art teacher who has been working with my granddaughter once a week for two years.  Her girl scout group of parents all want to enroll with this woman.  My wife has been very pleased with the techniques she is teaching.  I am convinced we are often guided in life by just one teacher who ignites our interest in a subject matter.  With me it was Professor Anderson who was a genius in international relations and his analysis of the world just captured my full attention, or my eighth grade science teacher who just ignited my love of science.   Not every teacher can ignite the fire in a child for self discovery of talent, but when they do, it is a beautiful thing.  

Her paintings were put in the High School art show last year, and they were good, but clearly age appropriate with clumsy techniques, but since starting first grade her art work is stunning the teachers at school and even the part time art teacher.  She spent the summer working with her dad designing things.  She designed a shopping cart and her father let her build it for her sister's birthday in August.  It was made of wood, and had wheels and she built and painted the same......her father was impressed, her sister gave her the biggest hug getting the cart, and they play shopping as they go to the grocery store they build with shelves with pretend goods.  Fun to watch their imaginations, but her spatial conceptualization is getting freaky.

She has natural talent...she can only expound on her abilities with guidance from your wife...for a little while. She sees art...you can not teach that.