My friend Nita celebrated her 90th birthday last month because she had family reunion and that was the best time for all of her relatives to get together.  Today, September 5th, is her real birthday.  She and I both live in the Bridge Meadows community.  Her strength and vitality have been an inspiration to me.  She was very helpful to me when my mom passed away in February.  She’s has a wealth of stories and welcomes new friends of all ages into her life. I don’t think it’s necessarily true that as you get older you get wiser, but she has left her heart open and the wisdom has come with it.  She works with kids here in the community and brings them a whole new sense of possibility.

For her birthday family reunion, I made her this card, with 9 Nur Mahal roses, a rose that hybridized the year she was born, 1923:

Nine Roses for Nita, 5×7″ watercolor and ink

For today, her real birthday, I made my second everyday icon.  My first, I made for my daughter’s birthday. I decided this kind of illustration would be a good way to honor my family and friends.  Nita and I both loved the illustrations of David Diaz in the picture book Me, Frida, so I loosely based the design on the cover of that book.

Queen Nita: Celestial Love, 7×10″, mixed media

I made her the queen of celestial love, because she is so full of love and idealism and nine decades have only made her more so.  It’s not an easy planet to live on, but she keeps a clear vision of what is good.  She has the universe in her hands.  I feel blessed to know her.

I think this will be a series and the next birthday in my family is mine, so I guess the next one will be a self portrait.  Stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting!