The Crayola Effect

Once upon a time my sister told me about a great sale on temple art that was taking place at the Costco in Orem. Kyle and I happened to be in town and mosied on over to find some beautiful depictions of the LDS temples.

After gawking for several minutes at all the pictures, I finally narrowed down my choice between the Nauvoo temple and the Washington, D.C. temple. This particular artist didn't seem to capture the beauty of the DC temple, though. I think the DC temple is a gorgeous temple, but just not one meant for one of these vintage expressions because it has a very 70s-ish architecture. But it was the temple we were married in, and the temple I grew up going to. I wanted a really pretty picture of "our" temple, but I wasn't sure this was the kind of depiction I wanted. I hummed and haaahed for several minutes waiting for Kyle to give his opinion. Kyle was not much help and just said, "Whatever you want, hon." He was on the phone deciding what he was going to do with the rest of his life and had our future in his hands (sell the business, start a new one, keep the business and find a new partner) so a picture of the temple was not really top priority of decisions to make for him.

I finally decided upon the Nauvoo temple. It has a special place in my heart. Kyle and I both love reading and researching about the saints in Nauvoo and the pioneers who traveled westward. My parents took a trip with me and the kids to Nauvoo last summer and while looking up at the temple my dad remarked, "Savannah has to get married in this temple." I agreed.

I took it home to my parents house as it was too big to carry on the plane. I knew we were moving west eventually so I would get to hang it above my fireplace within the year. In the mean time, I left it in the guest bedroom of my parents and told them they were welcome to hang it wherever they wanted in the mean time.

This past Thanksgiving we stayed at my folks place and I again admired the painting that was still sitting on the floor against the wall in the guest room. I was anxious to get it in my own home to hang it, I loved it so much. One morning I went into the guest room to track down the kids and saw the painting again--- only to find it with a few extra artistic expressions added:

here's a close up if you can't tell...

I didn't know whether I should laugh or cry. There were swirls of blue and red crayon at the top of the canvas. I had a pretty good idea it was Savannah, but I wasn't sure of it. Cade has quite a track record of coloring on things he shouldn't as well. Then I thought there were two colors of crayons, so perhaps it was a joint effort. I wanted to scream at myself for leaving it so accessible to the little culprits, but I also wanted to ring a little neck, too.

To my children's good fortune, I was getting ready to drive them down to my sister's so I didn't have time to get angry. After very curtly buckling the kids in their car seats I dialed my sister and unloaded my exaspiration on her. As it always does, telling her about it took the edge off, so I felt human enough to communicate with my kids. When I got off the phone I interrogated Cade, and he denied the accusations. I actually believed the little guy because he was so devasted to hear that his beloved "Au-Voo" temple picture was defaced. So Savannah was given the scarlet letter. She got the silent treatment for the rest of the drive. Childish? Yes. Better silence than screaming though, don't you think?

In order for me to restore the painting to it's original beauty, I figured I'd have to contact some sort of fine art doctor and spend lots of money on removing the crayon wax without defacing the art--- that idea did not thrill me. The more I thought about it, I decided the crayon wasn't that bad. I could still hang it. In fact, I could relish in the fact that I lived through this moment and didn't kill little Savannah over it. One day I could look back on the day and laugh, and in the mean time, the crayon art would be a reminder of what is really important in life. When Savannah did marry in the Nauvoo temple, I could give it to her as a wedding present and smile on the day when those little hands took a red crayon to the sky.

Now that we moved to Idaho for a few months, I have been so anxious to have the painting in my house. This last weekend I went to Utah and brought it home. After the kids were in bed I hoisted the painting on my fireplace and looked at it. I decided to try out a little idea I had....

This was the result:

See?!

Thank you, Magic Eraser!

Morals of the story

1. Don't buy expensive art until your kids are grown. Stay with the inexpensive reproductions like this one.
2. Don't leave your art lying around unless you want your kids to add to it.

3. Never underestimate the power of the Magic Eraser!