Teachers

My parents are both teachers and when you asked me the magic question 'What do you want to be when you grow up' my answer was always 'a teacher, of course'. Sometime in high-school I changed my mind (the story is more complicated, enough to say that I grew up in a totalitar regime and teachers were not perceived as a need of society, more of a nuisance to be shown 0 respect) and I chose the path that eventually brought me to Canada: a software engineer.

For a brief period of time I tought children computer science; a very daring enterprise: getting grade 1 & 2 kids to use computers almost 20 years ago was most interesting. We are not talking about the PCs as they are today (with amazing user interface and a string of tools and games to captivate the young minds) - we're talking about ancient ugly black-and-white screens, with no graphic interface... try to get the interest of a 7 year old! Enough to say that I had to be really creative in holding their focus for a whole hour :)

Fast-forward to current days - the end of kindergarden era for my son, tryig to come up with a special gift for the teacher. After browsing every store in the city in the hope that something will 'jump' at me and scream 'I am the perfect gift you're looking for!', while making a candle for a friend I realized I had the answer all the time. What's so special about a gel candle? Well - not much... unless you personalize it :)

And that's what I procedeed to do: I printed the class picture, set it in a miniature frame and dropped it in a gel candle. The result? A small piece of art with a great memory for a wonderful teacher.

Where do you get inspiration for your pieces?