Some of the art we treasure most isn’t found in a gallery – it comes home tucked inside a child’s backpack.
My longtime collector Emily has spent years thoughtfully filling her home with original art that sparks joy. Her appreciation for art began with her mother, and today Emily is passing that same love on to her four children: James, 10, Jack and Luke, 8, and Gianna, 6.
For years, Emily dreamed of creating a gallery from their artwork. The seed was planted after seeing her friend’s children’s art beautifully framed along a stairwell. She began saving her own kids’ creations, but years of artwork from four children accumulated quickly, and the project felt overwhelming to a working mother of four.
Then came the spark: Emily fell in love with the newest painting in her art collection, “Built from Wonder,” a piece from my 2026 Learning the Lines collection, inspired by watching my own young daughter’s artistic abilities blossom. Emily knew she had to have this piece and that it would be the perfect complement to her children’s playful colorful art in the space they spend most of their time.
With a vision she had long wanted to bring to life, Emily sought out my help to transform her dream into something truly special. Together, we began treating their artwork as exactly what it was: a collection worthy of being curated.
We sorted through years of artwork, selecting pieces that captured each child’s personality and thoughtfully considering color, framing and placement. The result: two expansive gallery walls where their creations live alongside Emily’s collection of original art in one of the most important rooms in their house.
Seeing the final installation was like “Christmas morning” for Emily—a five-year dream come true. Emily reflects, “We created livelihood for the art that it didn’t have before, bringing the art to life.” But my favorite reaction came from the little artists themselves.
The kids raced downstairs, pointing excitedly: “Mom, that’s mine! Mom, that’s mine!” They were beaming with pride.
These pieces also hold the stories of who these children are right now. One of Emily’s favorites is James’ drawing of a giant banana – a nod to his longtime “Banana King” nickname and a beloved oversized carnival-prize banana he once brought to art class as his favorite object.
That’s the magic of these walls. Someday, the family won’t simply see paintings and drawings. They’ll see personalities, inside jokes and pieces of childhood they might otherwise have forgotten.
One generation taught the next to value art. Now that love is being passed down again.
And hanging on those walls is a message every child deserves to hear: What you create matters.
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