Catherine, was about to be separated from her son as he moved abroad for a new job. She wanted to give him something special to remind himself of her and to help keep him focused on his love of books and studying. I told Catherine that I like people who follow their dreams … something like children when they fly a kite.
That was my thought for her and her son.
In every life there are important moments that mark a turning point, a change, a new start.
Catherine wrote to us from New York because she wanted to give her son Alex something that would remind him of one such moment in both of their lives. Alex was about to go abroad to live. After years of study and commitment his moment had finally arrived. It was a great opportunity for him and his dreams were coming true.
With my work, I hoped to remind him of the all-nighters, the sacrifice, the hardships they had faced; the difficult moments and the small goals they had achieved step by step. Catherine wanted to give him something that reminded him of the hopes and dreams that he had had along the road towards that moment. She didn’t know how to represent those hopes, but she was sure of the phrase to engrave on the bookmark:
Follow your dreams they know the way
So I was reminded of a verse and a painting … “how a boy follows a kite”, with trust, strength, courage and determination. Each of them had followed their dreams: Alex had done so through his plans, ideals and personal vision of the future. Catherine had raised Alex to be a self-realized young man.