Artist Sandra Boynton and I go way back to the mid-70’s.
Not that she knows who the heck I am, of course. But I loved giving and receiving her greeting cards back in the day. There are even a couple that have been stuck in my memory all these years (decades!).
I was living in San Francisco on 38th Ave and one of my birthday cards had a drawing of a cow standing in a big meadow. The card said “Happy Birthday to someone who’s outstanding in the field.” I still giggle over that one.
And then there was a card that we gave to some friends who had just had a baby. “Congratulations on your new little one. Wishing you joy and wonder and some sleep.” I’ve remembered it all these years for its whimsical sweetness combined with a touch of reality.
But I never knew anything about Sandra Boynton until last week when I discovered her music videos. I’ve been totally enjoying everything I’ve learned about her since. This paragraph from her autobiography will give you a taste of her (not surprisingly) quirky take on life…
“Between the first two recording projects, giddy with my new-found calling, I wrote and composed a most unlikely non-children’s album (with illuminated book) Grunt: Pigorian Chant. It’s plainchant and polyphony written in Latin and Pig Latin. I like to think of Grunt as the culmination of a lifetime of joyfully squandering an expensive education on producing works of no apparent usefulness.”
I’ll close with another of her delightful videos, this one a bedtime story and instrumental lullaby featuring Yo-Yo Ma.