Leann Schmidt
Member Since: April 2016
I’ve loved art for as long as I can remember. The first time I went away to college, it was to London, England. We could bring two bags and a carry-on – and we had to bring our text books for all of our classes. Not a lot of wiggle room for a semester-long trip across the pond! Everyone else wisely brought extra clothes and necessities as there would be no weekend trips home for whatever we didn’t have room for on the first trip. I squeezed all of those silly things into one bag so that I could bring my carefully-rolled poster art in the other bag.
I always knew that art was important to me, but in 2007, when I had a significant fire where the status was listed as “a total loss,” I began to realize exactly how much. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and that was most important. When I went into the charred house after they put out the fire, I saw soot dripping down one of my mother’s framed photos (she’s a brilliant photographer), and I just broke down in tears.
Though I had lost most of my material possessions in that fire, somehow, miraculously, nearly all of the artwork was salvageable. And really, of all my material possessions, the artwork was what I cared about most. I remember my mother telling me she still had the negatives, but it was the original art that she signed on the back of each piece that she gave me throughout the history of our relationship that meant so much. You can’t always know the depth of what something means to you until you are faced with losing it.
That fire was also significant to me because it made me realize the importance of giving gifts from the heart. In our society, we are often consumed by giving gifts to others. Of course we want our gifts to have meaning – to be the best, the biggest, the shiniest – but we often go for what’s easy instead of what’s heartfelt or time-consuming (because we have no time!) After the fire in 2007, my niece Heidi showed me a picture she did in school. I loved it! I especially loved that she wanted to show it to me. For Christmas that year, I bought her a sketch book and did a sketch for her on the first page. I wanted to inspire her, encourage her, and give her something from me, from my heart. Though she opted not to be an artist, she has a true appreciation for art. I’m sure she’ll be just fine as a bio-engineer. (Shameless bragging, I know.)
I feel good being surrounded by art, and nearly all of the art in my home has come from people I personally know or have a connection to. Art has meaning to me. It touches my soul.