"I’ve had a romance with beautiful china since childhood......"

.....and I believe it started with Sunday afternoons at Grandmother’s. Every Sunday she would bake a large three-layer cake. Her ten grown children, with spouses, would enjoy cake and coffee at 4:00 P.M. in her living room. Grandmother would always serve coffee from her lovely, one of a kind, china cups and saucers.

Baytown, Texas was an oil town of middle class manual laborers, my family included. I loved watching my dad and his brothers with their big working hands balancing the dainty handles of the china cups between two fingers and thumb as they sipped coffee. The ritual held such a fascination for me that I would forget play, and just sit and watch.

My more prosperous aunt, who owned the lumber yard in town, afforded a lovely teacart with large rear wheels. On special occasions she would have the entire Woods family for cake and coffee, serving from the tea cart and using lovely one of a kind china tea cups.

Through these experiences, I fell in love with the elegance of china, and it has affected my life greatly. To me, it said graciousness, family, friends and good conversation and yes, even the men’s war stories were enjoyable.

In the mid 50’s we would go visit my mother’s sister, traveling on those two lane highways from Baytown, Texas to Upper Sandusky, Ohio - before the days of air conditioned cars. We would arrive at her beautiful large old two story farm house of which the walls were twelve inches thick. The entire upstairs landing had room after room of bedrooms with beautiful poster beds. Under each poster bed was storage for Uncle Richard’s violin collection.

Uncle Richard and his old farmer buddies would gather in the evenings in the parlor with violins and fiddles to make music. Uncle Richard’s hobby was to attend the old farm estate sales, as the farmers were moving to the cities. His search was for just one more violin, but for my mother who would accompany him, the fascination of the sales were the old, European antique, unmatched bowls selling cheap enough for her poor middle class budget….. a nickel, dime or quarter.

Luckily, I grew up with mother’s treasures hanging on the wall above my bed. Many times I’d lie on my bed studying the beautiful bowls and thinking to myself, “I wish I could make something like those when I grow up”.

At 34, I married and moved with my husband from Dallas to Lewisville, a small community north of Dallas. There was not much there at the time, except a couple of grocery stores and an old downtown area. One day while browsing in the old downtown, I wandered into a Ben Franklin Store. A sign caught my eye. Art Classes: Oil Painting - 6 weeks, Water Color - 4 weeks and China Painting. I was so excited! I had heard of a lady once who china painted, but I didn’t know how to find information about it. I went to the cash register and said I want to sign up for all three classes. How long is the china painting class? Her repeated reply was impossible to understand. “Just how ever long you want”. I personally never sign up for anything that I don’t understand (that’s what took me so long to marry). But after repeated effort, she would never tell me how long the class was. I finally just signed up. I have truly found what it was she meant by “Just how ever long you want”. With this art, you never quit wanting.

Of all the arts, our art is a “majestic” art. China has been sought, by the housewife who saved pennies from her meager means to purchase lovely dime store china cups and saucers to serve her grown children, to the dining rooms of Kings and Queens of nations for serving royalty. And that lovely teacup, so gracious, is just as gracious to the poor as to the wealthy.

Our art is not just art, but a life experience; a serving from the results of our art. From the heart of this thought was born the theme for next year’s convention. When I tried to explain what I wanted the 2009 convention to reflect, one hotel saleslady said “this is a convention of Southern Living”. A friend immediately said “Gracious Living” - and from that start eventually came the name of our theme, “The Art of Gracious living”.

This is the year to get out the unpainted tea set you’ve put back to paint when you become a better artist, or that large vase or the punchbowl that you have intended to paint some day. Paint it for “The Art of Gracious Living” Convention and display it in “The Art Gallery”. “Show Off” with your most wonderful gracious serving art on the very special canvas you have saved for a special time. Grace our lives with your most beautiful art work. (As you get better, you can paint another one later.) This year is about Art. This year is about the Gracious Art of China. The shape of the canvas is your choice. The subject is your choice. Plan ahead. Bring your best. Grace all of us with your beautiful “Art” of “China”. Let’s showcase the best of our art.

Make plans to attend “The Art of Gracious Living” Convention 2009!

Carolyn Wilson