Apparently when I am interviewed, my brain sometimes is like uhm durrr question.  Many times I am asked who inspired me or is there anyone I would want to give a “shout out to”.  95% of the time this question causes my brain to spasm LOL.  For some reason I just can’t think of anyone or anything to really say HEY to.  Sometimes I leave people out.  Usually it is my poor mother.

I had made a mental note to myself that if I should ever be asked these random questions again I would be sure to include my mother as an answer.  Yup, totally forgot in my newest interview.  So, to rectify this situation I am posting about my mom.  Why?  Because without her I doubt I would have all these cool pictures and books.  She encouraged me to try to learn how to draw, write poetry, paint, make things.  She still does to this day.  She even has my books at her office and lends them out for people to read 🙂

I remember sitting in the back yard with my newly acquired “painting” set that I had received when I was about eight.  I think it was some boat on the water scene.  She showed me how to draw a picture with a grid and helped me paint.  Although I don’t remember how that picture turned out, I am pretty sure that is what started me with trying to draw.  I carried that grid drawing lesson with me through my one high school art class and into my minor in college.   Even today sometimes when I am having a hard time drawing I use the grid method to break a picture down.

You see, my mom was the only real art teacher I had other than myself.  Yes, I had art in middle school and one class in high school.  They taught me a little here and there.  Sure, I have a minor in art, but those professors TAUGHT you very little.  I didn’t finish the major in art b/c it was TOO DAMNED HARD.  There were no A for efforts and no real instruction.  Just create stuff and we will come tell you that it sucks and you did stuff wrong!  No wonder all my really artistically inclined art major friends fled to various art schools.  But the only person that ever sat down and said you do this like this and that was my Mom.  She’s secretly talented in artistic areas herself.  In fact, her mother and her mother’s mother (my grandmother and great-grandmother) also were both extremely talented in things like music and crafts.  I guess it runs in our blood in a way.  And let us not forget that my daughter is showing signs of being a raging artist herself.  Guess it is going to be my turn to teach art! (And thanks to my mom, I think I know how to do it).