CIERA/ THE ARTIST!

     Years ago my daughter, La Risa, worked in a restaurant in West Des Moines called Maxie's. It is still there on Grand Avenue and doing quite well. On occasion, I would drive down from Marshalltown and La Risa would reserve me a special booth and serve me!

      And, on occasion, Ciera, my grand-daughter, would also join me for dinner there. When we started the routine, Ciera, was probably only 3 or 4 years old. It was really a nice way to spend time with both of them and usually later would stay with Ciera until mom came home after work.

      One thing I will always have as a good memory was when they would bring out the paper mat with crayons for Ciera to color with while waiting for our food to be served. The one mat was a map of the United States. Ciera could always not only color very well with soft strokes, but, keep her different colors in the lines of the states. 

    And, the one thing that really impressed me was that she could color the different states and use various colors and spread them out evenly over the whole country. Other words, she would make sure there weren't two red states together and so on. I am not sure what that is called in the art world but, she had some kind of perception! For someone to be that young and careful and with such a "soft" touch! She had a gift!