Blake Foster

Musée d'Orsay in Paris is one of my favorite museums..it's smaller than the Louvre and therefore less overwhelming..I always force museum visits onto my daughters,along with a lot of other fun kid activities, so every trip is a mix of education and party..my eldest has been to this particular museum half a dozen times and today was the first time that on her own initiative she took interest in a painting and remembered who the artist was..it made me feel like finally all the past suffering of me dragging them to museums has paid off..they may finally embrace culture on their own without having me force feed it to them..I consider this a victory for all of us well meaning parents I see coercing their off spring through these large complexes..the painting we're in front of is by Courbet..he influenced many impressionist painters and I'm particularly fond of him because he's from Ornans, in the Doubs department in the Franche Comté région of France..his village was 20 kilometers from the village where I spent a lot of my childhood..my family has been there for a thousand years so I was telling my daughters that it wouldn't be impossible that they share genetics with Courbet, because the dating pool back then was dependent on geographical proximity..I like Courbet paintings because he always captures the light and feel of my childhood in his paintings..you can immediately tell his paintings take place in the Doubs department so it always feels like an honor to be able to immediately identify the tacit mood of his paintings..that's my turf...I'm still feeling under slept as I just got back from Canada and only had a two day turnaround in Nice before coming to Paris with my daughters.. I'm really happy to be back with them and to be able to expose them to different sorts of experiences..as usual,we have a bunch of cool stuff planned and I love watching them grow and enjoy life..they're maturing and developing..I'm cherishing these moments..years ago I decided to sacrifice my professional and financial ambitions in order to invest that energy into my children..it hasn't always been easy and I've had doubts, but ultimately I'm confident that I made the right decision..