Phi the Art Collector

The Phi is a child with many interests. One of these interests that I am very proud of is her interest in art. PR Dad was mentioning the other day that in her 3 years The Phi has gone to as many art museums as he has in his whole life! She enjoys wandering through museums and gallerias. Of course she prefers the interactive ones and we spent most of the time telling her not to touch the art, but she loves it. There are some pieces that she is drawn to over and over. And in her 3 years she has collected 3 pieces of art.

The first is an original one of a kind piece that I passed on to her before she was born. During one of his moves my friend Gordon (aka G$) gave me this framed drawing of John Lennon that he had done years before. I loved it and cherished it and when we moved into our house I never had the chance to put it up. While getting The Phi's room ready it was becoming too cutesy baby and I wanted something more grown-up, more rock-n-roll and I knew that this piece was meant to be hers and in her room. So in the midst of all the cute sea creatures we hung this up. Over the years the the sea creatures have been replaced by My Little Pony and Moto-Cross posters but the John Lennon piece stay where we first hung it.

Her second piece is a print that we purchased for her while on our honeymoon in Hawaii. While we were gone we bought her something everyday. One day in Waikiki we wandered into a Thor Art Gallery and loved the fun and Hawaiian Tiki vibe of his work. We found a piece for my parents as a thank you for taking care of The Phi for the week, and we found one for ourselves. Then we came across this little lizard series and knew that this would be perfect for The Phi. We had the artist sign it for her and brought it home. I mean come on, its a lizard surfing on a plastic knife!

Her latest acquisition came from Incredible Artist art gallery in Palm Springs. We stop by this gallery every time we go to Market Night. There is a piece called "Reach" that is a dark piece with a lot of hands reaching that The Phi always goes to. Last Thursday there was an amazing piece by a local artist named Tag. It was a white and blue piece of Barack Obama made entirely of painted kisses. Of course The Phi loves her some Obama so we went in. The gallery owner was impressed with The Phi's love of art and to keep her inspired he gave her a print of "Genesis: 7 Days of Creation" by local artist Vernon Finney. Yup gave it to her, signed by the artist and everything. We saw the original piece hanging at a local hotel lobby and it was huge. Here is the postcard version....

I am hoping that we can continue buying her a piece a year.