My artistic process involves staying true to the values I have inherited from my upbringing. Last week, I reflected on the traits and influence of my parents, this weekend, in conversation about my maternal grandfather (who will be 100 this year!) in reflection of his life, I realized that his profession, building homes, was also a huge influence in my life. He and my grandmother would build and style homes, moving their young children into them for the purpose of staging and selling. I had always heard about how much they had moved as children, and I imagine this side hustle, building and selling homes on spec, probably made their sense of home feel important. The security, to know you've got a place that is yours, that you made with your hands, the importance of that, was passed down to my mother, then me. It's truly in my blood, and a trait I appreciate in my husband, who is also from a family who built, repaired, and created art.
I've written about my paternal grandfather before, Pop- he had a long time career as an artist, and his china paintings inspired our monogram collection, a collection of china and linen with your personal emblem on them. 
Pop was a an amazing painter and sculptor, creating detailed, realistic carvings out of stone and wood, lovely landscape barn paintings (one of his specialties), and for many years, beautiful florals on fine china. Pop taught china painting for over 20 years, to dedicated students in northern California. His pieces are exquisite, and I have a variety of dessert plates mostly: a set of four autumn-themed in browns, golds and reds, a sweet set of purple toned flowers with more gold rims, a teapot.
But little animals were something special he created just for kids, either painted on china, made out of clay or wood, and these little animals are treasured pieces in my brother and my homes: the ceramic elephant he created for me as a child, and the wooden bear he carved for my son.
So whether consciously or not, as I create products for the home, my heritage informs my work. And these little watercolored animal prints have a very Pop feel to them. I hope you enjoy them.
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