The Best Kind of Presents
I have such mixed emotions about presents. In general, I’m more of an “experiences” person versus a “presents” person. I love getting tickets to a Broadway show or a gift card to a bougie restaurant. My dream would be for someone to gift me a fully paid for and planned vacation to somewhere amazing. Experiences can be hard to buy for others though, and there is something special about unwrapping a gift thoughtfully chosen for you.
Gifts are definitely a love language of mine. I think that this probably ties in with being an artist. From a very young age, I loved making crafts or drawing pictures and handing them out to family and friends. I can’t think of a single Christmas in which I didn’t gift someone something that I made just for them. Those “somethings” have changed throughout the years. I remember a Christmas in the early 2000’s when I gifted my friends belts that I crocheted, which I thought was an amazing gift in 2004. I’ve made pottery, candles, and cards.
Out of all the gifts that I’ve ever given, my favorite was a drawing I gave to my Nana. I had taken a picture of my sister laying her head on my Nana’s shoulder with the light streaming in the window onto them. My Nana had lived with us for over a decade, essentially becoming a second mother to me. I was away at college at the time, and hated being away from her as she got older. She was pretty sick and doctors said she didn’t have much longer (although I think she lived a full year or two after this). I created a graphite drawing out of the picture, and Nana cherished it and hung it in her room. I loved seeing how happy it made her.
Art has a really cool way of being both a physical present, and an experience. Giving someone a hand-painted piece picked out specifically for them can be an emotional and thoughtful gesture. It can be especially thoughtful if you include a handwritten note about why this piece made you think of them. Original art doesn’t fit every price point, but prints, notecards, and other recreations can be just as thoughtful and cherished. This holiday season, I wanted to make original art more accessible to anyone, so I bought a bunch of wooden ornaments and created tiny landscapes and original paintings on them. I’m selling them for only $20 so anyone can gift a piece of original art. Art can be so powerful, and I want everyone to have the experience of receiving a piece picked out just for them.
You can view & shop the hand-painted ornaments in the Ornament Shop or prints in the Print Shop (both of which will close on December 14th, 2022). Original paintings are sold by collection. The collections I currently have for sale online are the Tuscan Countryside Collection, the Roaming Current Collection, and the Coastal Mist Collection. Anything bought after December 14th, 2022 will be shipped in the New Year.