Nathan, A Budding Artist, Creates Work For Our New Refrigerator

As luck would have it on the day we had our new refrigerator delivered this week, we also received a most special envelope with a piece of artwork.  Since we knew the arrival time of  the delivery truck, it was the unexpected postal delivery that produced the most smiles.

Our wonderful friend Nathan, who has the most contagious laugh of any spirited four-year-old I have ever met, thought it best that our refrigerator have a work of art that would make people look and ponder the deeper meanings of life and the universe we live in.  With care and thoughtfulness he drew his creation, and then helped mom slip it into the mail.

We met Nathan when he was one-year-old while gardening near our home on the west side of Madison.  There has always been a genuine and care-free quality to his manner, and that was displayed recently when he visited us on the Isthmus.   While James was showing his mom around our home, Nathan came into the kitchen where I was making some hot chocolate, crossed his arms, tilted his head, looked up, and asked, “What are you stirring on the stove?’  It was the inflection in his voice and his mannerisms, more than his words that made him interesting and somehow seem older than he was.

Under his ever-present smile is a mind that works and thinks about… well…..the stuff kids think about.

Later that day he asked if we had a basement.  Sure, I told him.  Well, what is in it he quickly wanted to know.  I gave a short response of the type of stuff we had down in it.  “Well,” he said as he showed me some water balloons, “I thought we could fill these up with water and have fun down there”…….  The active and imaginative mind of a child is never boring.  (I think water balloons out on the lawn this summer might be in the cards.)

His truly wonderful personality comes through from his belly laughs that are ignited for no reason at all.  All of a sudden, without warning,  comes this deep, fully charged and amusing laughter that makes his eyes sparkle as he looks your way.  It is too contagious not to respond, and soon all those around him are also laughing…at what we do not know…..but it sure feels good.

That is a pretty special quality for a kid to have, and be able to create in others around him.

As a new artist in Madison, Nathan would like to introduce himself a bit for his public.  He was born in this city, knows what a pastry-cutter is, does not like beer, and can tell the difference between a pole-bean and a bush-bean.  Sounds like he is reaching out to the wine and cheese crowd for his first art show……..

Now to the artwork. 

This is one of a kind.  We are very proud to have this hanging in our home on the refrigerator door.

Thanks Nathan!