This painting currently resides in my bedroom.  It was painted by my great-grandmother.

Born Caroline Belle Boalt on August 8, 1882, she married Karl Kumler Lorenz on June 5, 1906.  Apparently Caroline loved parties and was a gracious host.  She broke her back when she was a girl and had to relearn how to walk.  My mother adored her.

I don't know much about the Boalt family but the Lorenz family emigrated from Russia.  Edmund Lorenz, Karl's father, founded the Lorenz Publishing Company in Dayton, Ohio.  Karl and Caroline's oldest daughter, Ellen Jane (my grandmother), wrote choral and handbell music, which was published by the family business. 

When I was a child, I sometimes went to handbell choir practice with my grandmother.  I couldn't read music so she'd point to me when it was my turn to ring my bell.  She wasn't a whole lot of fun but I enjoyed the bells and some of the naughty songs she taught me.

Sadly, I'm not genetically related to these people.  The world will never know how much talent I didn't inherit!

An aside:  The pot in the painting is the same pot that sits in front of it!  How cool is that?