Pictured: Untitled painting by Sophie Patterson
Owned by Kelly Ward, Administrative Assistant & Events Coordinator, Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery

I don’t consider myself a “collector” in the sense that serious collectors do, but I know what it is like to love a piece of art, to align with its sentiment and be moved by it. This is my own Mona Lisa….

I purchased this piece at an auction for a small amount of money. It was a fund-raiser for a private school, and I was volunteering, setting up the auction. There were maybe three hundred items in this auction, of all kinds, so I was helping to set up the room so that it looked attractive. And I saw this piece, and I really liked it. I mean, I was instantly attracted to it. And then I turned it over and found that it was by my daughter, and then I didn’t want to leave it there. Her teacher had put it in the auction without my knowledge – I didn’t even know it existed. And so, because I liked it so much, I bought it – but I had to pay for it. I paid a hundred dollars for it. I bid on it like everyone else….
Kelly Ward, 2012