Meet the "Dornadoes" my 3rd Donut Date in the dozen. The Dornadoes, a combination of their name and tornadoes, were affectionately named by me as they seem to blow into your life randomly, stir things up, leave it never quite the same, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I met Missy about 16 years ago when I hired her into our art department. I knew from the first minute of the interview that she was what we were looking for and she proved me right for the several years we were able to work together before budget cuts. Immediately we became fast friends, our husbands soon after and eventually their kids came along. All these years later, the Dornadoes are always a package deal and we have never minded...once. Hence the group artwork that took me so long to attempt to tackle (although eventually, only 3 days to create). This random pic with goofy faces and expressions defines them perfectly. There is never a dull moment when we get together as you can imagine with 4 art teachers and two extra creative kids. We have spent years trying new random recipes on the fly, camping, creating art, and we have a Jamfest every summer in which you guessed it...we make jam (raise your hand if you thought we played music). But my favorite moments are like the one above where we decorated donuts in an Easter theme for our donut date as it was Easter and we were getting together to color eggs. The entire family is always up for anything and as all creative people, after a few moments, someone says, "I wonder what would happen if....." and that's all it takes for the randomness to begin and we end up with things like Jesse's donut created with a squatting peep followed by a trail of brown jelly beans. We also always play some sort of game whether it be a board game or an egg hunt resulting in playing cards for hours with a miniature deck about one inch tall where the real struggle was just trying to read the cards for the old people. I can't begin to tell you of all of the hilariousness that we have had over the years, and the words we still use today for things their kids said when they were little like, "icky bug" and "Janjuary". Beyond all of the hilariousness and creativity, they have your back like no other and I know we will count them as friends for this entire lifetime. It's not like long periods of time go by without us getting together, but just like the saying when we do it is like no time has passed. We pick up right where we left off and there is no doubt that we will always, always be here for one another. In creating this portrait, I wanted to leave them more expressively created as that is all of their personalities and the background came to me as this entire family is so goofy as bunny ears and randomness have made their way into way more pics than I can count. What we can count on is always having these goofy "peeps" in our lives to stir it up, make us laugh, and support us in everything. I'm not sure how we were lucky enough to get into the path of the Dornadoes, but I hope the weather conditions continue to be just right.
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AuthorGood art isn't about matching your sofa, but about the conversation it starts. Archives
August 2021
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