it runs in the family...

many years ago, i remember sitting at our dining room table with my grandfather, my dad's dad, on thanksgiving day. i was in fourth grade and learning to draw. art class was my favorite class back then... well, it always was a favorite of mine...

at the time i was at north falmouth elementary school, in fourth grade. my beloved art teacher, mrs. moran, asked me to paint a picture on the wall. i worked hard creating a drawing i could project onto the wall and to this day it is still on the wall... some day i'll take a picture of it, for keepsake purposes. it is a painting of pippi longstocking, tommy, annika and their adventures in the south seas...

one of my favorite child hood characters was...
pippi longstocking

since those days, i dabbled in art.

back to thanksgiving day... i was having a hard time drawing someone sitting. how can you possibly draw someone's legs showing they are sitting? well, my grandfather patiently sat with me; he drew on a napkin showing me how to draw someone sitting. i treasure that memory... i remember finding a scrap piece of orange construction paper and drawing family sitting on the couch in the next room over while my grandfather gave me tips.

so maybe art runs in the family?

my grandfather was able to create wonderful drawings, among other things...

my uncle tim builds gorgeous, beautiful furniture from hand. he creates designs on paper and then forms the wood into phenomenal furniture. in fact, he practically furnished my parents' house. (pictures on that later)

my uncle larry built us a fabulous swingset when we were younger. it was without a doubt the best swingset on the block. we had monkey bars, swings, two floors, a fireman's pole, a rope to climb up or down and a super fast slide. we could swing soooo high on those swings and the swing set would never rock. it was solid. the best thing about swingsets when you're a kid is to be able to swing soooo high - like the big swings at the playground. we had those in our backyard! he then built us a fun go-cart. it didn't have a motor, although he could have easily installed one... it had a brake and a steering wheel. it looked like a little red race car.

my uncle ray is the "artist". he can paint beautiful pictures. when we were little, he would paint us pictures. now, he dabbles in photography, computer generated art and continues with the painting...

i could go on about my dad's other five siblings and their artistic talent, because they all dabble in the "art" in some form or the other.

now, my brothers and i grew up encouraged to do what we love...

but this post is not about me, it's about two of my brothers - pete and phil. they are a senior and freshman at wheaton college in illinois.

they are both talented and have done photography, web design, videography, etc.
in fact, phil, designed my company's website: www.mmisi.com after his senior year of high school. mind you, he's been using a computer since he was 2 and that's no joke.
we had a computer in our family room and 2 year old phil would sit at the computer and play learning games and figure out how the computer worked. i thought i was young using a computer at age 8, but he was the first of the 4 of us to use a computer since he was able to use the keyboard and move a mouse by himself...

this semester at wheaton, pete and phil collaborated on a timelapse video. they took thousands of pictures and put them together in a video...
check out the video and let me know what you think.

(note: watch it at 720p if your computer is skipping, the video was created in high definition)

Wheaton College Time Lapse Video

i am a proud big sister, and slightly jealous of their talent...

this is my recent photo creation that i'm proud of... and pete helped me photoshop it! (a little)

(photo: Sara Giguere - Kiteboarder at Chappoquoit Beach - Sunset)

not quite as exciting as a timelapse video, but i'll be proud of my picture for now... there's always room to improve...

do you make time for doing what you love????
whether it's your job or a hobby?