Forum / My daughter

• 
  Dolemite

  Jun 07, 05:35am

  ...who had her artwork displayed in the Mississippi Museum of Art (Jackson) at the age of 17, has now won a gold medal in the national high school arts competition (mixed media), with her winning piece displayed at Parsons School for Design (NYC).

  She was also the only student, nation-wide, to be offered the Presidential Scholarship at School of the Arts Institute Chicago (SAIC).

  Still wasn't enough(we're talkin' Harvard $), but she WILL be going to Kansas Art Institute in Kansas City, MO.

  That's all. Just some proud papa info...

  ;-)

• 
  Ann Bogle

  Jun 07, 06:00am

  Thanks for telling us about your daughter's accomplishments. It's exciting news. She is fortunate to have you and anyone in her life who appreciates (accepts) her talent.

• 
  Dolemite

  Jun 07, 06:07am

  Thanks, Ann!

  She herself found out about Mississippi School of the Arts, the state arts-based high school I've sent her to for the last two years (think "Fame" without the tv raz-ma-taz).

  She's very self-motivated.

• 
  Nicolette Wong

  Jun 07, 09:21am

  Whooo! So much awesome news! Thanks for sharing your joy with us and big congratulations to your family!

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  Sam Rasnake

  Jun 07, 12:22pm

  Great news.

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  James Claffey

  Jun 07, 02:09pm

  fantastic matt!

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  Julie Innis

  Jun 07, 04:43pm

  Wonderful news!

• 
  Dolemite

  Jun 07, 04:45pm

  Thanks, all!

  We knew she had won the gold, just didn't know what was being done about it, so to speak.

  Then the other day she got a call from our local newspaper editor (Birney Imes, one of whose photos from his book "Juke Joint," about the MS Delta region, is the cover of Lucinda Williams' "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road") who happened to be in NYC and saw her name in the NY Times.

  So that's how she and I learned about the Parsons exhibit.

• 
  Andrew Stancek

  Jun 07, 05:07pm

  Fantastic, Matt. So wonderful to have accomplished children (I have two) and so natural to want to share their news.

  Congratulations!

• 
  Jane Hammons

  Jun 07, 06:24pm

  congratulations, Matt--to your daughter and to you!

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  David Ackley

  Jun 07, 07:05pm

  Congratulations to your daughter and her justly proud dad.

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  Sally Houtman

  Jun 07, 08:57pm

  The force is strong with her.

  (Y'know...you CAN post things like, say, photos of artwork and such, like, say, on your story page ...hint...hint...)

  This is fabulous and very cool of you to share this here.

  Congrats of the warm and fuzzy variety!

• 
  Joani Reese

  Jun 07, 11:10pm

  Good for her, and good for her parents for instilling the personal qualities it takes to strive for and achieve success.

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  Linda Simoni-Wastila

  Jun 07, 11:33pm

  Most excellent Matt- a huge congrats to your daughter. Parsons. Like wow. The dream of every fine artist/designer.

  Yes, can you pretty please post a pic or a link? Peace...

• 
  Dolemite

  Jun 08, 12:18am

  Thanks again, All The Above!

  Wouldn't feel right posting her artwork, not sure why, just a gut reaction, probably unwarranted... but I'll post a picture of her (for a while) in my bio pic.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  (and sadly, her mother has been MIA the last eight years, so it's really just me and her making this happen...)

• 
  Darryl Price

  Jun 08, 01:35am

  Very cool!

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  Misti Rainwater-Lites

  Jun 08, 05:17am

  Great stuff, makes me smile. Congratulations to you both!

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  Gessy Alvarez

  Jun 08, 05:36pm

  That's fantastic! I may have to catch this Parsons' show...

• 
  MichaelDickes

  Jun 08, 09:13pm

  Beautiful news, man.

• 
  Penny Goring

  Jun 09, 02:48pm

  Fab! XXX

• 
  Ann Bogle

  Jun 09, 09:05pm

  Matt, the other night, I nearly posted my other thoughts about your daughter's distinct achievements. I know of two other parents whose son or daughter is headed to art school (following high school) in the fall. I shared this news about your daughter with them, out of my own excitement about it. I hadn't known much, if anything, about national recognition for arts in high school. Once, a boyfriend's nephew won the Lincoln-Douglas debates (now the young man is through law school, working as a lobbyist, and getting married to a man in July). I am so interested in these instances of marked achievement, I feel I must share it as news. The other two parents got solemn, quiet, and one even looked depressed when I told them about your daughter. I don't know where I am going with this ... one of the parents is sending his son to R.I.S.D., and of course, I was just as happy about that. The other parent's former wife has lined up a sponsor for their daughter's art education in Chicago, and that (in my opinion) is great, but the girl's dad has stayed hot under the collar that an outside "sponsor" (a district judge, I think, whom the girl's mother had found) has taken an interest -- financial -- in their daughter's education. I get to spend relatively little time with young people, yet few things really light me up like watching young talent take off. Young artists are often raised by artists to be artists. In my family we were clearly encouraged in the arts but not raised by artist parents. I think my parents thought competition in the arts might be similar to competition in other sectors. There is something very best about pursuing art, and yet there are insidious and socially dangerous forms of competition out there as well, challenges that interfere with the joy of it. So I think about the young artists and hope their lives go well and they find balance. I'll be meeting all summer with a young writer. I'd love to tell you his name because I think we will all hear of him one day. He is eleven and skipped the 2nd grade and writes like a writer already. His mother and he are so excited to meet me next Tuesday. There's a tradition in his family of seeking the teacher -- these will be private writing lessons. Already, I have given his mother advice (she asked for it) in how to prepare her writer son. Keep his interests sharp and wide, I told her. Keep up with music, math, and chess and soccer. Keep up with foreign language. It's got me excited and nervous at the same time. I want this kid to become a writer.

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  Meg Pokrass

  Jun 11, 06:45pm

  wow, Matt! thank you for telling us, this is wonderful news!

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  RW Spryszak

  Jun 11, 07:05pm

  She's going to love Chicago. If you come to visit her give me a buzz. We'll go drink too much. :-)

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  Lucinda Kempe

  Jun 11, 07:48pm

  How wonderful for both of you. Especially that you encourage her to follow her heart.

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  Laura McCollough Moss

  Jun 11, 10:04pm

  Matt, this is wonderful, wonderful news. I have a daughter who is a doctor of psychology, and I am known to crow that raising a strong, independent, intelligent woman of the world is my proudest achievement in this life. And so it shall be yours. Aren't they the best?

• 
  John Riley

  Jun 15, 02:57am

  That is great, Matt. I'm sure she couldn't have done it without family support. My son is graduating from high school this year as well. He's a violinist who still loves to play but the competitions burned him out last year. The kids of musician parents had such an advantage that it was discouraging and the politics could have consumed our lives if we'd let it. Kudos for your daughter for hanging in there.

• 
  Dolemite

  Jun 15, 03:43am

  Thanks, newest members of All the Above(!)

  (I haven't been responding, lately, just to keep from bumping this up to the top, repeatedly, though I DO appreciate your warm thoughts.)

  John--I can see that music thing becoming a complete nightmare for the entire family, like having a kid in sports at a very high level, where whether or not he wants to it's practice/practice/practice/perform/ compete ad infinitum.

  Same thing could be said of those little girls in beauty pageants.

  Probably best he gets out with his love of playing intact!

• 
  See ya

  Jun 25, 11:42am

  Oh wow, Matt...just saw this. Big congrats, hoss. Waller around in the pride that is so deserving to a dad and his wonderful daughter!

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