My students and I have been involved in a Memory Project, which is a national organization that facilitates pairing student artists with orphanages around the world. The students receive a photo of a child and then draw or paint their portrait, which then gets sent to the kid. This is a second year of us participating—and I jumped in at the last minute to create this quick watercolor from a photo that my students were afraid to do since the boy’s eyes were closed. I took a chance at imagining how he would look with his eyes open—and voile! 40 minutes later, we have a portrait in watercolor. It was fun to do it, especially because I work with water paints so rarely!

I am mailing this and nine more pieces next week—they all go to Peru! Here is a web site for the memory project if you would like to find out more:
http://www.thememoryproject.org/