reinforcement.

i practiced a little refinement last night and visited the gallery at BYU for my cousin danielle's BFA art show.

holy smokes, that girl can work wonders with a bolt of string and some water color.

last night i became that girl who stood at a piece of art and studied and studied and studied it.

cousin seth came down from salt lake, too. when we walked in the door, dani exclaimed "the mexican came!" and everyone stood in amazement.
{i mean, look at us. my mom's every bit as mexican as dani's dad... how did that happen? cousin carrie pointed out that my 25% mexican shell is every bit as dark as cousin seth's 75% mexican shell. point well taken.}

i loved it all. every piece.

dani blessed us with explanations of how and why she arrived at the string and paint and match sticks and children's story book art. if she knew what was good for her, she'd comment with her artist's statement so everyone could understand the genius behind it.

or... you could march yourself down to the byu hfac 4th floor gallery {until july 30} to see "reinforcement" by danielle stratford.

p.s. dani, remember that spontaneous st. patrick's day road trip to boise in 2006 when you let out that HUGE sigh of exasperation about changing your major and being a college student until two-thousand-ten!? that was such a far away dream... but here we are. way to stay on schedule. good work. and actually, very amazing.

also really great - my cousin seth ran into an old seminary student he taught at east high a couple years ago. as in - high school. totally married. i think the exchange went like this:

seth: holy smokes, i know you! dani, i taught her in seminary a couple years ago.
former h.s. student: this is ______. my husband.
seth: what!? weren't you my student like 2 years ago?
former h.s. student: {scoffs} that was FOUR years ago.

nothing like that to make a 28 year old single feel reeeaaally old.