Little Girl With Tap Shoes

Yesterday evening I received proofs of an oil painting that my dear friend Marion Wood has been working on for three years. This masterpiece is so special to me because my daughters posed for this in our first home in front of our piano with Princes Inga, my late father in law's kitty cat.

If you have ever taken an art history class, there are four crucial things you must know: artist, period, title, and date. If you are a true historian of art; however, you know who, what, when, where, and why. I imagine this painting in an art history book a hundred years from now or more realistically hanging above the fireplace in my great-grandaughter or grandson's home. What story about this moment in 2005 will my descendants tell to their friends, children, and hopefully grand-children? Will it be referred to as Jillian & Elise, or will the names be lost and will they call it, Little Girl Playing Piano for Sister in Tap Shoes?

On the late summer day in 2005 when this moment was captured, I was in the height of being a d-list celebrity. Hours before I had attended a fund raiser for Clothes off our Back with W Magazine. Like an absolute fool I hugged the editor of W out of nervousness and made a boob out of myself...I will blog about that later. I had even shared a cocktail with Tommy Lee. (That is for you groovy girl) I flew in to Houston and went straight to the floral market to pick up day lilies per the request of Marion, because they represent rebirth. I don't quite remember dinner, but I do know Marion stayed the night with us and she studied the angle of our great room for hours. At about 7am she popped out of bed and said something like, "by golly, I got it", and she started sketching like a mad woman. Jillian and Elise posed for a couple of hours. At first it was exciting for them, and after about 10 minutes they had had enough... much like our 2005 Christmas Card... Iwill post later.

The tap shoes on Elise; however, will always be a mystery. Did I brain-lapse, did I intentionally put the tap shoe on Elise because that is all we could find, or did Elise put them on herself? At any rate or as I quote Kurt Vonnegut, "so it goes", the tap shoe makes history and this moment in time was immortalized.