I wanted to take a moment to leave a personal comment on the passing of Elizabeth Edwards, and remark on the impact she had on the early art careers of Karen and myself. When Karen and I were just beginning to sell our paintings on ebay, the ID "heelsfan" began to show up frequently in our auction listings. It wasn't long after that the Elizabeth wrote to let us know that she was heelsfan, and she was the wife of senator John Edwards. Her letters were very sweet and complimentary, and we both were impressed that she took the time to let us know how much she enjoyed our paintings. It was also very exciting to think that our work would be hanging in the home of a senator. Elizabeth never seemed to be too busy to respond to a letter from us. Even when she was on the campaign trail, she would reply to an email from her laptop.
We also just loved the fact that she purchased so much of her art from artists on ebay. Many of our friends, such as Karin Jurick, Jeff and Leslie Cohen and Chris Stott were among those whose paintings she collected. She was an amazing human being, whom I thought would have made an awesome first lady. When her husband was running for the VP slot with John Kerry, the New York Times Sunday magazine section ran an article on the families of the candidates. In the article about the Edwards family the photo of them in their living room showed one of Karen's paintings hanging on the wall in the background. Elizabeth wrote Karen just to let her know that her painting could be seen in the picture. It was the little things like that, that showed her warmth. She was wonderful and will be greatly missed.
