Where Did It Come From?

I don’t know where did it come from but I often ask myself from where did my children get their creative bent.  Certainly not from me!

My husband’s sister was an artist and so was his cousin.  I’ve seen paintings done by his mother as a “genteel young lady” which show considerable promise with training.  And I can’t help but recall (for it was often told) the story of the New York success of an Arkansas cousin of my husband’s.  Her name was Dorothy Shaver and I’m sure most of you are too young to recognize the name.  However, she became the first female president of Lord and Taylor.  In fact, she was the first female head of any major American business. When she became president in 1945, her salary was $110,000.  Can you imagine a woman making that kind of money in 1945?

Of course, I can’t neglect her sister, Elsie, who was an artist.  Elsie convinced Dorothy that the two of them should make a set of dolls, called the 5 Little Shavers.  They were introduced at Lord and Taylor.  Dorothy had quite an entrepreneurial sense about her and created positions for herself in the company that lead to increasingly more upwardly mobile titles.

In 1932 she created a program, The American Look, to feature American designers and she also revolutionized the composition of store window displays.  So, perhaps that’s where the children came by their creative, entrepreneurial and marketing talents.

But wait a minute.  What is it that I recall about a long ago French relative of my father’s mother?  Well, I had to look it up but I think I’ve got the greats correct.  My great, great, great, great grandfather was an architect named Louis Francois Trouard who was commissioned by Louis XV in 1758 to design and construct the Hotel de Crillon in Paris; one of the oldest and most exclusive luxury hotels in the world.   The hotel occupies one of two identical buildings.  The other is the French Naval Ministry.

There’s also a painter, Evariste Vital Luminais, who became one of the favored painters of Napoleon III because the subjects of most of his paintings were historical or mythical French heroes or peasants of the Breton region.  Today, his art hangs in the Musee de Orsay.

I always dreamed of one daughter writing a children’s book and another one illustrating it.  Well, so far, that hasn’t happened but there’s always tomorrow and the next day.  Right now this writer is busy decorating her home.

Two of the girls did go into business together, with me, to form Casart Coverings.

My son has an outdoor advertising company in New Orleans, appropriately named Pelican Billboards.  He is terrific at marketing and, like his father, always thinking of new ideas.  I think he’d like for us to do “slipcovers” for billboards!

So, where did it come from? The answer may be family.

Whatever the source of their creative talents, I’m delighted my children have all been fortunate to find opportunities to put them to use.

–  Lorre Lei