Meeting the art and the artist

Bella's out of school for the holiday, so I took her to the Portland Art Museum to see Isaka Shamsud-Din's work, and she loved it. "He uses all your favorite colors, Baba: red, orange, and yellow. I love how warm it makes me feel."

As we were leaving the museum, who should walk in the door but Isaka himself! I introduced him to Bella, at which point she was overcome with shyness and couldn't say a word. After he left for his meeting, she whispered to me, "It's my first time to meet a real artist with pictures in a museum!" Then it occurred to me I should have asked him for a picture of the two of them, but I was a bit humbled and shy in his presence myself. 

After lunch we played cards, listened to holiday songs, hung my one strand of colored lights, got out my one ornament, and made slime. A splendid day. If you go to Shamsud-Din's website, you can see a gorgeous calendar he has made with 19 of his paintings, now available.