new print in the shop

I hope that you all had a lovely holiday season. I personally, had quite a nice little Christmas, and a very relaxing New Years and am ready for the fresh start that the new year brings. I'll post a little more on that in a bit, but for now just wanted to let you know that there is a new print in the shop. This started as a request from a lovely woman who is in the process of adopting her daughter from Vietnam. But I thought I would make it available to everyone, and so here it is:





It's quite similar to the original Family print, although (as you might notice) this one features a family with a daughter. Here is what I wrote a while back about the original concept of the Family print:

"I knew fairly early into the project that I wanted to somehow incorporate the lines from e. e. cummings' poem "i carry your heart with me". And I also knew that I wanted to somehow do an illustration of a family that was based upon this same idea. I'd had this image of a family tied together by their hearts for some time, but it took several different goes at it before I finally arrived at the end product. It was important to me that race or ethnicity not be suggested by the illustration. That is why I chose to leave out their facial features, and why I stuck to a neutral color palate. My goal, really, was to do an illustration of a family that could be any ethnicity, or several ethnicities combined--that the one similarity between them would be their love.

When Katie first proposed the idea of she and Michael adopting internationally, she said it to me as though she was asking if I would love this child the same as a biological child. My answer to that would be "of course" -- a million times "of course". I am sure that this is a question that is asked among every family who makes the decision to adopt internationally. But while it is true that I will never be able to look at their child and point out Katie's eyes or Michael's red hair, I am quite certain that attachment and love and a sense of an emotional connection will be no different at all.

I think that what Katie was really asking is something that we all ask ourselves--something that is so completely universal. I think we all have those moments when we just want someone to tell us that we are good enough. I do at least. Or did I just divulge too much of my own insecurity? I doubt it.

Katie has been watching a new show on TLC where they have given children video cameras and allowed them to document their lives. There was a young girl on one of the episodes who had been adopted into a interracial family. When speaking of her family she said "I don't think it matters who you are with, as long as you're loved". Perfect."


Happy New Year!

xo,
Amy