FRENCH CAFE' & FRENCH TEA'

 Cafe'

6" x 9" Mixed Media Drawing on Distressed, French/English Dictionary

Tea'

6" x 9" Mixed Media Drawing on Distressed, French/English Dictionary

Last year I got the bright idea to create some drawings on different dictionaries using other languages.  Since I work at a high school, I asked our amazing French teacher if I could borrow her French/English dictionary to photocopy a few pages.  I work on actual book pages but for this experiment I thought it best to borrow and not rip apart someone else's book.

One afternoon I was prepping pages with ink and watercolor and happily cutting through old, damaged books when I suddenly realized I was cutting through the French/English BORROWED book.  I was frantic.  I soon discovered that this wasn't just any dictionary - it was the book she had used since college nearly 40 years ago.  Well, I was able to locate a replacement book, apologize and apologize and apologize and repair my friendship.  As part of my penance, I promised to create her something special whenever she asked.

She came to me about a month ago and asked that I create her a Tea' and Cafe' page as a Christmas gift for her daughter.  These are those drawings.  When I gave them to her she was thrilled and she was especially pleased that her treasured book was going to be preserved on her daughter's wall.  She once again told me that my replacement dictionary was far superior to her original and that our friendship was more than in tact.  I had a lovely bouquet of Christmas flowers delivered to my classroom later that day as an additional thank you.