How It All Started…

Like many people, I started drawing at a very young age. I was the youngest of three children with a significant age gap between my siblings and me. It was completely understandable that pre-teens had better things to do than to play with someone my age, but that also meant I had to entertain myself!

My mom gave me notebooks and crayons. I had a little desk in my room that was just my size, which was the coolest thing ever. I would fill notebooks with drawings as if they were storybooks. Drawing pictures was a gateway to another world for me.

I once got in trouble and was sent to my room for an hour as punishment. When the punishment was over, I asked, “Can I go to my room for an hour every day?”

In other words: I was hooked.

Also in other words: My mom probably wondered, “NOW what will I do as a grounding!?”

I was lucky to have a lot of extended family members who encouraged my artistic aspirations. Aunts always wanted me to bring them drawings when I went to visit. One aunt was a very good painter and would take me to art fairs.

But my grandmother, Peaches, was especially enthusiastic about supporting my artistic dreams. I remember her always telling me about how “a real artist” lived next to my aunt. One day, she took me to meet her. I was so excited-- she gave me a little sample set of oil paints! I felt like I’d met Bob Ross!

Peaches also would hang my drawings up on her walls. Some of them were gifts to her so she hung them all over her house, even framing a few. She’d hang the drawings I made while I visited her in the kitchen like a gallery so when family members came to visit, they could pick the one they wanted!

As I went through school, I was lucky to have teachers who recognized my passion and my talent. I was further encouraged by winning 1st place in a yearly art contest at school almost every year.

My proud 2nd grade moment right there. I loved that trophy.

Kids are always asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Well, I made up my perfect career. It was perfect for me then and it still kind of is: I want to be a singing artist!

What did this mean? I thought I could set up outside on a sidewalk somewhere and paint. While I painted, I’d sing!!! Then people could tip me in a cup for my performance as I painted and once I was done with the painting, they could buy it!

The thread between who I was and who I am as an adult is fun because, at the heart of it all, I’m the same: My favorite thing in the world always was and always will be to create art and sing my heart out as I’m doing it!

Now, I spent 20 years of my life working in IT. How I made that choice and my subsequent shift into my art career is a story for another day. But I reflect on the support I grew up with and the excitement that people showed about my TALENT as a child and, you know, it’s a shame… somewhere along the way, the older you get the less value that people put into an artistic talent or “having a great imagination”. We grow up hearing how great these qualities are, then reach young adulthood facing society saying, “Well how are you going to make money?”

So if you know a child who has artistic dreams, support that. It may not seem like a big deal now, but here I am, a middle-aged emerging artist saying that the memories of that support helped me then and helps me now. I think about my most supportive family members who are no longer with us and am very motivated by the thought of how proud they’d be of me if they were here!

So have conversations with that kid. Talk to them about how they can build those dreams into a reality in ways they don’t even know possible! They can be a painter, a sculptor, a poet. There is web design, multimedia careers, graphic design, and so much more for a creative to leverage their talent into a successful career!

Be someone they’ll remember when they’re my age and say, “This person was so supportive, it’s how I got to where I am today!”