The Art of Giving

I received this original artwork this past weekend as a belated birthday gift from my mother-in-law.

"Happily Ever Now," original collage by Jason Mraz, 2011

She personally delivered the gift to me on Saturday when she came to spend Easter with us; the artist had personally delivered it to her just a day or two earlier. He's a friend and neighbor of hers who created this original collage to be auctioned in a fundraiser organized by the Feeding the Soul Foundation. Among her many other excellent qualities, Mom-in-law is a generous supporter of good causes, and she made the winning bid on this work at a CD-release-party event benefiting Superfood Drive, just one of the organizations the Foundation supports (you can see some of the others on their site, which I've linked above).

At her suggestion, I left a thank-you note on the artist's Facebook page:

Florinda Lantos Pendley VasquezJason MrazHi Jason - I'm Peggy Vasquez's daughter-in-law, and I just wanted to thank you for the collage! I already thanked her :-).

Yes, Jason Mraz the musician is also a visual artist - and a friend and neighbor of my Mom-in-law's. I've yet to meet him myself, but you'll most likely see something about it here if and when I ever do. In the meantime, I need to decide just the right place to display this work of his, since my iPod clearly isn't it.