Mrs. Miller and her College Friends

“I don’t do PEOPLE!”… This is typically what I say when fielding inquiries about child portraits, etc., but there was something about the request for the drawing above that would change my mind.  Mrs. Miller is the mother of my dear friend, Carter, whom I went to Wake Forest with.  You may remember that I helped create her wedding program with my drawing of St. Stephen’s, the church where she was married in Richmond, Virginia.  I loved my drawing “shrunk” down to 3 inches tall and turned a beautiful shade of blue!  I recently found a lovely note that Mrs. Miller wrote to me after the wedding, thanking me for that drawing.

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church - Richmond, Virginia

Just this past summer, Carter asked me to create a drawing for her mom in honor of her 60th birthday.  They threw a huge birthday bash at their home in Virginia Beach, and the drawing was actually of the house.  While I have not yet written the post for that drawing (shocking, I know)… This is it:

Barefootin' - Virginia Beach, Virginia

I have lots of fond memories in this house, and I will write more about those later.  For now, I will just note how fitting it is that there are PEOPLE in this drawing!  Carter talked me into that, and please note that the figures are abstracted and ghosted at best, but she convinced me that this was what she wanted, and so, I did not feel so bad about my [no-so-good] efforts.  Incidentally, the people are Carter, her husband, her sisters, her children, her brother-in-law, and her parents.  I want so badly to talk about the other details, but I must save that for a separate post!  The point here is to show that this is where it all began… PEOPLE in my drawings!! What is it with the Millers and their ability to convince me?

Mrs. Miller wrote and asked if I would be interested in sketching a picture of her with her 5 best College friends at the beach.  She assured me that the faces did not need to be detailed… She even suggested that I face everyone towards the ocean.  I decided that my confidence level for drawing their “backsides” was even lower than for their faces and dared not go there!!

With assurance that the faces could be abstracted, I set off on my attempt.  Of course, at this scale, it was quite impossible to just leave out the faces, so I found myself bringing out my “portrait drawing” and “people drawing” books that my dad has given me over the years.  NICE.  Perhaps I would be a little more confident in my ability to draw people if I actually had opened these books even once prior to now.  Alas, the drawing was completed, but of course, I could find a million things I would change.  Mrs. Miller (and Carter) assure me that they love it, so I will just have to accept that compliment and be happy that my first “People Project” ended with a happy client!

I had 5 prints made for each of Mrs. Miller’s friends and inscribed them with a personal note from her to each of them…. very sweet.  This past weekend, these 6 cute girls celebrated their 60th birthdays together, and she gave them each a print.  I love the quote that we included in the clouds.  It is such an incredible lesson for us all not to worry about our tomorrows and the years that lie ahead, for if we live it up in each and every moment, those years will certainly take care of themselves.  So, as Mrs. Miller likes to say: “let the good times roll!”

What a year for 60th celebrations.  My own mother turned 60 in December, and we celebrated at the beach.  This spring we will celebrate my daddy’s 60th, also at the beach!  I can only hope that I, too, will be dancing in the sand and surf with my children and college friends during my own 60th birthday year!  In the meantime, I have 25 years of moments to take care of!

Happy 60th birthday to all of you born in 1950-1!!!  and a special Happy 60th to Connie Miller and her girls!

[my home today:  Columbia, SC.  Tying up lots of loose ends and preparing for a new job that I will start in less than 2 weeks.  This new position will take me back to Charleston this summer, and I am excited about that!  This will mean a lot less drawing, but hopefully a lot more writing at night and on weekends.]

Camden Military Academy Chapel; Jenny + John's Wedding - Camden, South Carolina.

In December of 2007, my cousin, John McGill, married a lovely young girl named Jenny, and so, there is now a second “Jenny McGill” in our family.  Granted, she spells her name with a “Je” and not a “Gi” like I do, but let’s be honest here:  in the south… no matter how you spell “Jenny/Ginny,” all we hear is “Ginny” as in gin + tonics and cotton gins.  “Jennys” are only really heard north of the Mason-Dixon line.  For that matter, we also write with “pins,”  watch TV in our “dins”, marry “min”, and count to “tin”.  We Southerners might never learn the proper pronunciation of the “short e,” but gosh, our accents are endearing. 

I created this drawing for John and the “new Ginny McGill” as a wedding gift.  The quote and the horizontal lines are meant to recall the great torrents of rain that fell before, during, and after the entire wedding ceremony and reception.  Umbrellas lined the entire front facade of the Chapel, and it was truly a  beautiful day.

Detail of Chapel and Rain

The Chapel is part of the Camden Military Academy campus where John attended high school.  I remember visiting him there and bringing much coveted super value meals to him and his friends.  My dad used to take him treats nearly once a week.  He loved his nephews like sons, and clearly John appreciated these times because he asked my dad to be a groomsman in his wedding.  You can see  him and my uncle (John’s dad) in the photo below… which also shows evidence of the aforementioned RAIN!  I adore this photo…

My Daddy and My Uncle Yancey (John Yancey McGill, Sr.)

I have heard that rain on your wedding day is a lucky sign and even found an Italian expression, “Sposa bagnata, sposa fortunata“, which literally translates “a wet bride is a lucky bride.”  I thought that Jenny would appreciate this since there is Italian in her blood.  More specifically, rain on your wedding day is thought to mean that the marriage will be blessed with fertility!  Well…last week, the blessing of John and Jenny’s wedding came to fruition.  John Yancey McGill, III was born, and he is a precious bundle of joy!  He will be called “Yancey” like his grandfather seen in the photo above.

John Yancey McGill, Jr. with John Yancey McGill, III

John was born on the same day and year as my little sister, Leslie, making them “twin cousins.”  Next month, Leslie will have a little bundle of joy of  her own, and we are sooooo excited!  In fact, baby Yancey is the 1st of FIVE new infants slated to be in attendance at my Grandmother’s house on Christmas Eve.  Wow, my cousins are fertile this year!  I am convinced that John and Jenny are spreading the blessings of that 2007 December Rain.

Congratulations to John and Jenny. I cannot wait to meet Baby Yancey!  May you have at least 6 or 7 more!! 

John Yancey McGill, III

[my home today:  Columbia, SC.  Working on the launch of a new product for expecting moms and new babies! ]

The Bowers Home - Pinehurst, North Carolina

My college friend, Mary Lawrence, commissioned me to create Christmas gifts for each of her parents, and this is the first of the 2.  This drawing was for her mother and stepfather who live in Pinehurst, North Carolina.   Considering the name of the town, the name of their street (Pinewild), and the abundance of Pines in their front yard, we decided to dedicate the rendering to the Pine Tree, with color elements being its cone and needles.  I was unsure of how the drawing would look, considering that the entire facade of the house is nearly completely shrouded by the trees.  I think it turned out pretty well, with the home feeling protected by a blockade of pines.

I thought that this John Muir quote was appropriate and asked Mary Lawrence to have a few additional photos taken which revealed the “doorway” to the home.  This is not the first time that I have used this quote.  I used it for a drawing that my sister commissioned me to create of her in-laws’ farmhouse in Lake City, SC.  I have not yet written that narrative, but there, I will explain its significance to their story.  I also used a John Muir quote in the Cantey Falls Drawing, which I rendered in DAY and NIGHT.  It read: “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”

Perhaps it was this second quote that inspired my use of the pine quote here.  Muir’s admiration and respect for Nature should be emulated by all.  I think of times as a child when I explored the woods of our little neighborhood or those of friends’ and cousins’, wandering aimlessly and playing, in search of a vine to swing from, a stream to jump, or logs to use for building a fort.  Nature always gave me more as a child than I was ever looking for or recognized then that I was receiving.

The more often one walks through those trees, the more doorways Nature opens, and thus, the more adventures she creates.  I suppose there is a metaphor here, for even if we are not able to literally walk through two different pine trees each day, we can get up and walk nonetheless.  We can choose to get out there and explore and to see what new worlds will open up for us.

Just as we might discover doorways to new worlds outside out of our homes, whether in nature or in our daily lives, so surely can we also find a doorway to a new world each time we come home.  We can create new traditions, initiate a conversation, nurture a relationship, curl up with a new book (or even an old one), create something beautiful, play with a child; the list is endless.

It is up to each of us to make the effort to walk through 2 new pines each day…to find those doorways inside our homes and out.  May the next 2 pine trees you see remind you so!

Pine Cone and Needles

Drawing Framed

[my home today:  Columbia, SC.  Drawing, writing, and willing away the flu which seems to be attacking everyone around me.]

The Sigler Home

This drawing was commissioned by three daughters for their mom as a Christmas gift, and the story could not be more touching.  You see, this house, located in Kingstree, South Carolina (just around the corner from my grandmother, where my dad and his brothers and sisters grew up!) is where these 3 sisters were raised by their mom and dad.  It is, as the quote reads, where their story as a family “began”.  This home, I am sure, was blessed with many memories of giggling girls, school events, family dinners, toys, dress-up, boyfriends, and even sisterly “arguments.”  Individual moments define our lifetimes, and so, I can understand why preserving the memory of this home was so important for these girls, particularly since their family no longer owns or lives in the house.

The history of the house became even more touching when I learned that just as their story began here, so did parts of their story end, for it was in this home where their father passed away.  Because their mom moved away from the house last year, the girls wanted to preserve its memory, and so with this drawing, we have created a little slice of their home that they can visit each day (the original went to their mom, but I had prints made for each of the sisters.)

I loved that they asked me to highlight their mom’s ferns as the color element of this drawing.  She hung them all around the porch and also planted them in the ground in front of the steps.  As her daughter Katherine comically tells it, her mom may have given these ferns more attention than she did her own daughters.  While I am sure this is exaggerated, it is lovely to think about how much care she gave to these plants and to see them still growing strong.  Like the care she provided for these ferns and their evergreen quality throughout the seasons, the care that this family is giving to the memories of this home and to their father will surely preserve them, making them “ever-green” in their lives.  So while parts of their stories physically began and ended in the shell of this house, the true story of their lives that began in this home never ends and will remain with them always.

Photograph of the Home

The Ferns

[my home today:  Columbia, SC.  Way too much going on in my head and way too little going on in my studio...DETERMINED to get on a regular schedule of posting these projects/stories dating back to LAST Christmas.  It is truly unbelievable that January 2011 is already over.  One of these days, we will get our act together over here.]

I finally made it into my studio today to finish up a drawing and will be here for a few hours.  I will also be here tomorrow.  Let me know if you would like to stop by.

Hope that everyone has a merry merry merry Christmas.

“Two Thousand and Ten”

That is me circa 1978… and behind me is an incredible painting of a Gamecock that my Grandmother did for my dad.  Very sadly, that painting was stolen from his office several years after this photo was taken.  My dad searched local pawn shops for months trying to hunt it down, but he never did locate it.  The USC gamecocks have always been a fun part of my life.   I searched everywhere for the awesome photo of me and my sister with Cocky taken in our cute bifocal years, but I could not find it anywhere.  I will leave it to your imagination.

So, this holiday, it occurred to me, perhaps a bit belated, that a fun product to sell in this great state would be a print of the USC flag flying over the South Carolina capitol dome after the Baseball team won the NCAA championship this year.  So, I braved the cold, took a few shots of the capitol, created a drawing, and superimposed a Carolina (in color) flag atop the dome!

I decided to name the print “Two Thousand and Ten” to commemorate the year 2010 – a year of excellence in Gamecock Athletics (SEC East Football Champions and Men’s Basketball victory over Kentucky, etc.!), the enduring faith and devotion of Gamecock fans, and the END of the “chicken curse.”

The print comes in 2 sizes:  SMALL and LARGE, and both can be ordered at my online shop.  The prints have already been quite popular with the Gamecocks, especially with the ladies who are at a loss as to what to buy their sons, husbands, boyfriends, dads, uncles, brothers, etc.  for Christmas gifts.

My days and patience for the post office this holiday season are growing numbered, and so my last trip pre-christmas will be tomorrow afternoon, so order by tomorrow at 3 to get yours before Christmas.  (today there were 24 people in line, and 1 person working. bringing light to the phrase “go postal.”)

Here is the print:

Each one is signed, numbered, and hand-titled, and each is packaged in a protective plastic sleeve.   I am partial to the small one, but most people prefer the larger version.  OK..  I am off to draw.  Go Cocks!…. awwww… don’t worry, Tigers… I have a drawing in the works for you too!…. We will call it 2011… but can you live up to that title?    KIDDING, relax.

[my home today:  Columbia, SC... Just returned from a nice trip to Tybee Island, GA and really looking forward to the moment my hand stops drawing on Wednesday or Thursday. ]

Yes, I suppose that it is that time of year again…the holidays, that is… when I am writing Letters to Santa, drawing homes for commissioned Christmas gifts, and this year, inventing some fun new holiday decor.  I have already finished 4 Christmas Home drawings and am still working on 4.  If you would like one this year, please make sure to get your order in before the 2nd week of December, so I am certain to get the final product to you in time for Christmas.

I remember when I was a little girl and anticipating the Christmas season, my little sister and I would spend hours sitting on the floor making decorations for our bedroom doors.  When I say decorations, I am telling you we went all out, making the longest construction paper “chains” ever seen, coloring bells and ornaments, and using every inch of scotch tape we could get our hands on.  I am fairly certain that we made our hallway the most tacky sight imaginable.

Perhaps this early interest in holiday decor is why I created this advent calendar this year.  (although I like to think that these are a bit more attractive than our paper chains!)  I was really just looking for a way to experiment with a new reusable fabric decal material that I hope to use for some new children’s products in 2011, and the advent calendar became a point of inspiration.  It was really inspired by a felt calendar that my friends, Caroline and Richard, have.  Theirs was used by Richard when he was a child, and it is adorable.  My calendars are a modern twist on that old-school felt calendar and come in 3 color palettes/designs:  traditional, retro, and modern.  Remove a present each day to reveal an ornament that you hang on the tree.  Then, place the gift under the tree.  I like the idea of also hiding a scavenger hunt clue under each ornament.  The links take you to my Etsy and online Shops, but here are some images to give you an idea.  If you are still interested in one for this year, you can still order one by November 24th which will give me enough time to get it made and to your home by December 1st!

Retro Version "after"

Modern Detail

Traditional Version "before"

I have also been busy working on my Letters from Santa.  My dear friend Morgan, who talked me into creating them last year, has a new idea for this year, and any card that is ordered prior to December 1st will be sent to Alaska to be hand-canceled with a genuine North Pole Stamp.  Now, that is taking it up a notch for the non-believers if I do not say so myself.  Thanks to Morgan for this fun idea.. only she would figure something like this out.    Here is an image of the new reusable fabric sticker that will be included with each card this year.  Each sticker is printed with your child’s name.

Custom Fabric Sticker

I will write a separate post about my fun new wall pattern work.  In the meantime, I hope that everyone has a nice weekend. I am off to draw and cut and print and write.

[my home today:  I have not updated this status since I somehow landed in Columbia, SC.  Add one to the LIST. I am enjoying quality time with my sweet Lisa and Abi.  Our own version of  "Two and Half Women" would give Charlie Sheen a run for his money.  I am delighted to be here in Columbia for the early April birth of my new NIECE!!!  So blessed.  Look for lots of changes here to mhmh.  I never thought I would be doing this for so long, but here I am, still plugging away; and so, a full makeover and re-branding with new name, products, mission, focus and goals are on the way.]

Chief's Store - Sandy Bay, SC

Sweet Tara recently commissioned me to complete this project for her husband, Chad, for Father’s Day.  The building is a general store in Sandy Bay, South Carolina that was built by Chad’s grandfather, Herbert McCutchen in 1955.  Tara sent me a nice editorial from the local newspaper about the store and Chad’s grandfather.  According to Charlie Walker, author of the editorial, this store and it’s founder, “Chief,” were incredibly well-known throughout the area.  It was a landmark that became significant to the region, not only for the services it offered, but also for the people who offered them.  The Store was as much a part of the locals’ lives as it is a part of the McCutchen Family.

I chose this quote from the editorial to include in the drawing for several reasons.  For one, it offered a fun color element to include that would honor not only the store, but the men who truly made “Chief’s Place” a PLACE.  I have heard many stories from people who are certain that someone special to them who had passed away had appeared to them in the form of a rainbow during a special moment in their lives.

Specifically, I think of Tim Russert, NBC moderator of “Meet the Press,” who passed away just before Father’s Day a couple of years ago.  The Sunday prior to his Memorial Service, the show honored Tim with a tribute to his life.  At the end of show, they re-played the tape from the prior year, when at the end of his Sunday political show on Father’s Day, he offered a tribute to his own Father and to his son.  I sat watching with my father and became very choked up.  It was simultaneously surreal and moving to say the least.  The next day, at the end of the memorial service, aired live on CNN, as the attendants filed out of the Kennedy Center, the music from Tim’s iPod was played, one song being “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”  They then moved onto the roof where they saw a tremendous rainbow stretching across the entire skyline of Washington, DC.

It is said that in order to make a rainbow, you must first have rain.  Surely both the rain and the sun in our lives are symbolically represented in the rainbows we see after a storm, and so when we see them, we are reminded of our lost loved ones, of the lessons they learned during their lifetimes, and those they are reminding us to continue to carry into our own lives.  May this rainbow remind Chad of the one that his Grandfather, “Chief,” grabbed, and each time he sees a rainbow, I hope that he is reminded that his Father and Grandfather are always with him.

I especially loved this story and drawing because of Sandy Bay’s proximity to Kingstree, SC, where all of my Dad’s family is from and where I spent many days and weekends when I was growing up.  Kingstree is where Chad grew up and graduated from high school with my cousin, Stan.  It is a town where the community is small, but the souls are large, a town that most certainly has raised many a fine father (including all of my uncles, father and grandfather and Chad’s father and grandfather.)  And so, today, I wish a very special Father’s Day to two fine Kingstree men:  Chad McCutchen and my Daddy, Ted McGill!

[my home today:  In car en route back to Columbia from a fun wedding weekend in Wilmington, NC.  Father’s Day lunch and then Father’s Day dinner for the rest of the day and getting excited for a big week of work on a new project next week. Happy Father’s Day to all the sweet daddies out there!]

A Sunset View

the story.
Today the Horger children are celebrating the birthday of their mother, Ruth, and I thought it completely touching of them to request that I post a tribute on my blog today to remind her how special she is to them.  I completed the drawing you see here as a Christmas gift for them to give her this past year, and the drawing itself really took on a life of its own as I will discuss below.  The image is the view from the Horgers’ second home in Hilton Head, South Carolina, where Ruth and her husband now spend the majority of their weekends.

I love that we chose to commemorate the VIEW rather than the HOUSE, for as we sit IN and look OUT, it is not the structure around us that defines our conversations, our epiphanies, our peace and our laughter.  It seems that looking outside past the superficial “stuff” of our 4 walls reminds us of the bigger picture and leads us inside to what is important.   Most certainly it is the beauty of our Mother Earth to which we must offer credit.  So while I still find it nice to honor HOUSES for the memories and experiences they hold, I find it critical to honor the VIEWS that evoke and inspire them.  Whether taking an oxygen-rich walk, looking at my daddy’s rose garden from his screen porch, or watching the tides come in along the beach, I have learned that no matter how great or how small the view, going OUT brings you IN.

the color.

Knowing that we had decided upon a pencil drawing to accommodate the organic landscape, I was puzzled as to what we would select to highlight in color, a signature element that I typically include in mhmh drawings.  True to the process, however, the question was quickly answered as the Horgers’ daughter Van answered my questions about the story of the place.  It is from this vantage point that the Horgers watch the sun set each evening over dinner and a glass of wine, and so, I gave them their brightly-colored sunset.

This drawing reminds me of the story I told you about Poteat Island, for the view of the sunset over this little island reminds this family of their son Hubie and returns them IN to what is important at the close of each day.  I think that there is something very cleansing about a sunset, that it is a daily gift we rarely take the time to accept.  It cannot be coincidence that some of the most brilliant sunsets are found over waters and flat areas where one can see as far OUT across the horizon as possible.  These colors fold in around you, preparing and healing our souls for the gradual fade to pure darkness and sleep, when our bodies rejuvenate and heal.  Then, it’s “Good Morning, Sunshine!”, and the cycle begins anew.

Close-up Sunset

the quote.
Van and I must have gone through some 15-20 quotes prior to selecting the one used in the drawing (written out at the top.)  Ultimately, the decision came down to simplicity and length, but as I write about this notion of VIEWS, I realize how significant that this passage is.  It does not say, ” The World lies here… or The World lies at our feet… or The World lies  behind me.”  From the narrator’s perspective, the World lies EAST, and the skies, the marsh, and the seas are an ample medium for her to recognize that the World lies out far beyond what is in her immediate grasp.

My grandmother, an artist and accomplished painter, was recently diagnosed with Macular Degeneration, which has prevented her from continuing to paint or even to be able to clearly see her completed works.  Over the past year, I have begun work on a personal project which will involve writing about her art (along with mine and that of my father).  In considering what is important about this project, I imagined that reading to her the narrative descriptions of her work and ours, will enable her to close her eyes and clearly see the paintings, carvings, drawings, etc. before her.

I tell you this because one of the passages that Van and I considered using was a Pat Conroy quote.  While the passage would not fit into the drawing, I told her that I would include it in my blog post.  Conroy is known for his talent of painting with words, and this passage describing a South Carolina coastal sunset is incredibly relevant to the geography and essence of my Horger story and evidence that your mind can create any experience your eyes desire without ever seeing a thing:

“It was growing dark on this long southern evening and suddenly, at the exact point her finger had indicated, the moon lifted a forehead of stunning gold above the horizon, lifted straight out of filigreed, light-intoxicated clouds that lay on the skyline in attendant veils. Behind us, the sun was setting in a simultaneous congruent withdrawal and the river turned to flame in a quiet duel of gold…. The new gold of moon astonishing and ascendant, the depleted gold of sunset extinguishing itself in the long westward slide, it was the old dance of days in the Carolina marshes, the breathtaking death of days before the eyes of children, until the sun vanished, its final signature a ribbon of bullion strung across the tops of water oaks. The moon then rose quickly, rose like a bird from the water, from the trees, from the islands, and climbed straight up– gold, then yellow, then pale yellow, pale silver, silver-bright, then something miraculous, immaculate, and beyond silver, a color native only to southern nights.” -Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides

And so, I wish Mrs. Horger a Happy, Happy Birthday today.
May you and your family continue to look OUT.

And may you always enjoy this color, native only to southern nights!!!

Final Framed Drawing hung next to the VIEW

[my home today:  Charleston, SC.  Heading to Orangeburg (second home to the Horger Family and where I met them growing up) to an engagement party for an old high school friend tonight...on in the morning to the 150th anniversary service  at the Church where I grew up.... a weekend sure to be filled with nostalgia, memories and laughs.  13 more drawings still left unwritten/posted here!  One at a time.  They will happen.  Much time has been devoted to a new project as of late.  I am excited to write about it here soon!  happy weekend.  I hope that you will go OUT and enjoy your view IN.]