Of Elephants and Old Friends

I posted once before about a family friend, Carroll Karlak. Carroll is an artist, an excellent one. My mother, her dear friend, has given me several of her paintings, including a small one of elephants. It's my favorite.

Julia loves it too, and now that she's painting, she wanted to do her own watercolor version of Carroll's elephants.

Carroll's elephants are noble, serious beasts.

Julia took Carroll's painting to her art class on Wednesday to give it a try. Here's what she did.

She made her own color choices, a bit bolder than Carroll's. Fewer elephants too, but she only had 90 minutes to do this watercolor. And her elephants are more whimsical and funny, less serious and noble. And she's not (yet) the fine artist that Carroll is.

But I do love Julia's elephants' little faces -- so cute!

I'm sure Carroll is thrilled to know that her artwork is still inspiring young artists. She always took a particular interest in my life, in my mother's children's lives. I don't think she ever met Julia. Carroll left this old world quite a few years ago, and God took her to His own world. I reminded Julia what Jesus said once, that God is the God of the living, not the dead. God is Carroll's God, which means she is alive; she's just somewhere else. Won't she and Julia have fun painting together, for eternity? No rush, no deadlines. And perhaps the animals -- the tigers and elephants and giraffes -- (Carroll loved painting animals) will stand still for them!

Thank you, Carroll. You continue to bless us.