JAY

My brother, Jay, was born 49 years ago.  He has Down Syndrome. He is a funny little man who stands about 5'6" and is getting quite wrinkly.  He loves all of the members of our family and asks about them often. He enjoys drawing and painting and I think he is a good artist. He lived with our Mother until she died in 2009.  Now he lives with my sister, Lynn.

One day when I went to visit him and Mom, she gave me a piece of paper and asked me to draw a teddy bear she had.  I did a simple line drawing of it and gave it back to her.  She then showed me the drawing that Jay did of the bear.  Then Mom asked my sister do do a drawing of it, but she declined. Mom wanted to have the three of us draw the bear so she could frame them together as art from her 3 children. That was the inception for a project that Jay and I did last year.  I thought it would be cool to have an art show displaying paintings that Jay and I did using the same subject matter and medium.  We painted during the winter of 2010 and hung our show last June in a local coffee house, Bainbridge Bakers. I called the show, "As Renee Sees it, and As Jay Sees It". It was a great success. People seemed to really like the concept of the artwork and we sold several paintings as pairs. We were delighted.

 We have been painting things I see around the Island and fruits and vegetables.  As a sneak peak I'll display a couple of paintings we've done.  This is my mailbox.  I like to point out that the story is not the mailbox but the bushes behind it.

This is Jay's mailbox.  I think he did a great job capturing the flora behind and the perspective of the box.  He works hard at his art and takes it very seriously.  It makes him happy and he is proud of his accomplishments.  Mom would be proud, too.

As we finish our sets, I'll post them.  There are too many things going on in our lives right now for me to get a firm date on our next show, but hopefully in September. Until then, enjoy our work.