OMG

OMG! 

Nope.  I have not morphed into a 13 year old girl with a sparkly pink iPhone case (no offense to any 13 year old girl with a sparkly pink iPhone case.  Rock it). 

Just referring to the three letters I recently completed in my Memphis alphabet series. 

I actually did the G first, then the O.  They were laying around together, and it occurred to me an M would be fun to do next. 

I'm easily amused.

So, O is for Orpheum. 

"O is for Orpheum" 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 watercolor on paper by Holly B. Johnson ©2014

M is for Mud Island.

"M is for Mud Island" 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 watercolor on paper by Holly B. Johnson ©2014

and G is for Grizz.

"G is for Grizz" 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 watercolor on paper by Holly B. Johnson ©2014

Not long after college I moved into a one bedroom apartment on Mud Island.  I worked two jobs to pay for it- full time for my dad and Thursday evenings and Saturdays at a place called The Art House- but I loved that apartment.  It was just a short walk from the river, and it had a wood burning fireplace and a sunny little alcove where I set up my easel and my drawing table.  I started Painted by Holly in that apartment.  Robert would come visit me from Oxford often, and one of our favorite things to do was walk along the river.  We'd climb down the rocks and meander along right at the water's edge.  Sometimes we'd find random objects up on the rocks, deposited by the ever rising and falling water, and one day Robert wondered aloud, "What if we stumbled across a dead body washed up down here?" 

OO                  <----try to imagine me making that face

From then on out I always asked him, "Wanna go look for dead bodies?" and then we'd walk over to the river.   

Just the other day I asked him that old question, and he knew exactly what I was talking about.  But instead when we got to Mud Island we took Seth to the Mud Island River Park.  They have an exact scale model of the Mississippi River.  It's really cool and perfect for busy little toddlers.  Perfect for people of any age, really. 

And there were no dead bodies.  We looked.   

Giant baby crosses the Might Mississippi!