This is a character for a future book. It's sunny and going to be warm today! Spring is here and he looked like he wanted to come out and enjoy it! He's actually a street performer and I've seen him for over 20 years perform in various towns!

Good Art is More than Talent

I really like it when people recognize my "talent". I really enjoy other people's talents that I don't have, like singing and gardening (everything I try and plant dies).

One year my mom asked me to take care of her plants while she and my dad were on vacation. I asked her to please not put me through this torture. I didn't want to be the reason all her plants died. I couldn't take the responsibility. I asked her to get someone else. But I lived "next door" 2/10ths of a mile away and my sister lived 10 miles away-but she's a great gardener. My mom encouraged me that I could do it and I reluctantly gave in. I was in my 40's at the time but mothers are still mothers and can get you to do things you don't want to do. So she made a schedule of which plants to water when and she showed me all of them. I did want the note said and after the week they were still alive but pretty limp. when my mom got home, I went through the list with her to tell her when I last watered each one. I came to a particularly large plant on the porch in an old 70's macrame hanger and told her when that one needed to be watered next. She stared at me in disbelief and said, "that one is plastic". I wondered why all the water kept pouring out of it so easily.

A little off track, just a bubble.......pop!

Back to talents. I just wanted to say that having a talent for something is nice, having that talent be a passion in your life can be a little more complicated and then taking that talent and passion and doing hard work everyday to hone that talent to make the best art you can at that time is what people see. If I just relied on my talent, I don't think anyone would notice very much, but wrapping it in passion and decorating it with alot of hard work and learning can make it a gift.

I love where I came from...

I love the fact that my parents saw what I loved to do when I was two and encouraged that by giving me tools to explore drawing and painting. This passion was never pushed but it was really nurtured. They still encourage me to go for my dreams. I hope my kids can say that they loved where they came from. My dad is an artist. We do different things but he has taught me the tools necessary to hone my craft. To draw daily, to make big mistakes so you can see them and realize they are just opportunities to grow and see surprises, to not take yourself so seriously, and you can cover alot of mistakes with paint. Also, always use really good paper whenever you are drawing or just doodling because you never know when one of those doodle is something you'll really want to frame.