For Baby

This month I  designed a baby card for a friend I met in Rome.  She also happens to be the daughter of the woman who taught me my profession while I was in college and who encouraged me to become a professor.  Honestly, I had never been good at presenting. I had famously destroyed a presentation on Napoleon and Francisco Goya in my Spanish Cultural History class, to the point where the teacher assigned presentations again the following year to give me a second chance.  I nailed the second one, refusing to admit defeat.  But this professor was wonderful. She was enthusiastic, intelligent, kind, and most importantly, was genuinely interested in her students.  I gave a presentation in her class on the medieval sculptures of the Church of La Madeleine in Vezelay, France, and tried to channel her enthusiasm.  I had learned from her that I could incorporate anecdotes that would make a lesson seem like a story. Indeed, I still teach like that today.  After the presentation, she asked me if I had ever considered becoming a professor.  In God's honest truth, I had never once considered it.  I was an art major.  Within the year I was a dual major in art and art history, and the rest is, well, art history, I suppose.

I had the good fortune to meet her daughter who was a few years my senior during my year abroad in Rome.  We had a really nice, rustic Roman meal and enjoyed some outdoor cafes and late-night art.  How pleased I was that she now has asked me to design a baby card for her.  She wanted elephants as a theme for her baby boy, who is due in the coming weeks.  I incorporated two textiles that she had in her home from her travels, and added a bit of my own flair as well.  It will be printed into cards on lovely cotton tree-free stock for her to use as thank yous for all of the sweet gifts her little bambino will receive to welcome him to this world.

Welcome, baby!

"Three Elephants" Pencil and digital color.  Copyright 2012 by Jessica Boehman