On Her Way

Nayda’s coloring at 3 yrs old

Nayda was always the introverted type. In fact she didn’t start talking until she was about 3. We all kept trying to get her to talk but she just wouldn’t. I knew she was pretty smart because at 18 months old she could put together complicated puzzles. At the church nursery there was this one puzzle in particular that had animals (approximately 8) and you would have to fit them in the correct shape on the puzzle board. She would very patiently pick up one piece, turn it around and around looking at the board and then looking at the animal until she was sure that the piece would fit and without any hesitation she would place the piece in its right place. She would do that for each piece until the puzzle was complete. Additionally, at 18 months she was perfectly potty trained without ever talking! The other thing that was a little unusual was that she would sit for hours coloring. At 2 and 3 it\’s extremely difficult to get children to sit still let alone color with such precision. Her capacity for intense concentration, her almost dogged determination, attention to detail and color scheme combined with her uncanny discipline was evident even at that age. (She undoubtedly gets that from her father because Lord knows I’m nothing like that!) I saved some of her coloring, which I dated, because I felt that that was an unusual skill for a child at that age. So it shouldn’t have been a surprised when one day, at the age of 3, we all were getting ready for church and I instructed the children to get their coats. I reached in the closet to get Nayda’s coat. I selected the red coat and suddenly she announced “I don’t want to wear the RED coat, I want the GREEN coat!” What????? We all stopped in amazement. Not only did she speak but she spoke in a complete sentence and we found out that after all the repeating of the colors, and the prompting and cajoling her to tell us the colors, she actually knew, not just green but all the colors – selecting the GREEN coat in particular. One of the local elementary schools was having a coloring contest so I decided to let her participate. You can\’t imagine my surprise when we got a letter in the mail saying that Nayda had won a blue ribbon for her coloring. We walked into the exhibit and sure enough there was Nayda’s coloring hanging with a beautiful blue ribbon on it! She was about four at the time. From that point on I decided that maybe she would be an artist. I spent all afternoon one day looking for a small-sized portfolio that she could carry around. In it, I put color pencils, art notebooks, charcoal pencils and various other art supplies. I enrolled her in an art class when she turned 5. The class was about 45 minutes from our house. On Saturday mornings, the four of us would get up, and after having gotten dressed and gathered up some snacks for the road, we would make our trek down to Fort Washington to Harmony Hall for Nayda’s art class. She was the youngest person in the class and of course, she never talked. The class was only about 1-1/2 hours long but for us it became a half day’s journey. She seemed to enjoy it so we just kept taking her. In both the third and fourth grades her teacher, noticing her neat handwriting, entered her into the statewide handwriting contest and she came in first place both years!! Down through the years she expressed and participated in many different interests from basketball to track and field to cross country but when I came time for her to go to college she decided that her major would be graphic design.

I was always the kind of parent that let my children determine what they wanted to pursue. I always look at it like it was my job to expose them to as many different things as I could and then create an atmosphere whereby they could explore those interests. By no means am I a free spirit, let’s not make any mistake about that. There were definitely rules like they had to go to school everyday even if they didn’t feel well. I would tell the people in the office not to call me to come pick up the children unless (1) they were bleeding profusely, or (2) they were throwing up continuously and to please wait until they were finished before calling me! The three of them knew the rules, I went to work everyday and they went to school everyday. If you didn’t feel well, you would get some medicine and go anyway. The other requirement was that if you started something – you had to finish!! No quitting in the middle. So once they committed to something, no matter the difficulties that they faced, they had to see it through to the end. Looking back I think that those two principals were paramount in their successes. All three of them had perfect attendance throughout their secondary education only taking off one day for my father’s funeral. And all three of them graduated from college. For many that might not seem like a big deal but since I was the first in my family to graduate from college it was a major feat!!

Nayda’s decision to major in graphic design led her to explore all kinds of artistic expressions – from web design, to visual arts, graphic illustration, and even a little photography. While in college she even started an organization “The Black Artist Society”. She ventured out and moved across the country, joining her sister. It was not too long before she connected with the Raw Artist group. When she got accepted to display her art at an upcoming show, she and I were very excited. The days, and months that followed were quite hectic. I was busy trying to find a way to get to the show and she was busy getting her artwork ready – mounting, framing, etc. I didn’t tell her that I was planning on being there. I wanted to surprise her. The show was going to be on a Thursday evening so I had planned to arrive that Wednesday night. I made sure that I talked to her early that Wednesday so she wouldn’t think it suspicious that we hadn’t talked that day. Her sister met me at the airport and we proceeded to the house. I could hear her upstairs in her room on the phone when we arrived. I tiptoed up the stairs and peaked around the corner. When she saw me she was COMPLETELY SURPRISED! The expression on her face was priceless. That night and the preceding day was quite hectic. Getting the artwork to the venue, getting ready for her interview, orchestrating through LA traffic – which is a nightmare in itself….not to mention parking and loading and unloading – wow!! Nevertheless, it was worth all the stress. The show turned out very nice! It was a chance for her to get some exposure. I’m attaching one of my favorite pieces from her first show. Since then, she recently had a show in DC. The curator wrote this of her work….”Nayda creates art that reflects her interpretation of human behavior, culture, history and spirituality. She challenges us to observe her works and start beautiful discussions.”

What I\’ve come to learn is that creativity is a hard sell and oftentimes it can be a lonely existence. It takes so much courage to \”put yourself out there\”. You have to be willing to be rejected, ridiculed or even worse, ignored and then you have to be bold enough to try again, and again and when you think you\’ve had enough, to try again. I found out that what one writer said is true, you have to be willing to go out on the limb because after all, that\’s where the fruit is!!!

To see additional art work and/or graphics by Nayda\’s,  please visit her instagram page @naydapirela

Illustration by Nayda Pirela