I learned at a young age that one of the best gifts you can give someone is the one that you make. Even better is the one they least expect.

As an artist I think it’s a great way to show someone how much you appreciate them in your life. It’s something my mother and father used to do all the time. My mother was a tole painter and she’d paint stuff my father cut out of wood. It was a great system they had, and as a result, my parents artwork adorned the houses of many family and friends.

One time in particular, my father created a stained glass window for my grandmother of two birds. I watched him carefully cut out the pieces of glass, line each with copper, and then solder them with lead. He did this on the table in the wood floor room back home, and I was content to sit and watch. I marveled at how good he was, and how much he enjoyed constructing his artwork. This stained glass (shown above) hung in my grandmother’s house for years and every time we’d go over to her home I’d see it and smile.

After the death of my father I had a bigger appreciation for this stained glass piece because one, it reminded me of my father, but two, I knew it was created with love from my father as a loving son to his mother. And that I admired. What my father never anticipated is that his unexpected gift actually lived beyond for a second round. My grandmother left this stained glass window to me in her will after she died now almost 17 years ago. It hangs in my home office in New York and I see it everyday. It is a constant reminder of two individuals, my father and grandmother, that helped shape me into the person that I am today.