Why talk about art? from an artist's point of view.

Yes, I've been making art since I was a child. Maybe I didn't always love it, but I never stopped doing it...drawing, painting, making things in clay, whatever. I'm not going to say I am a master. I will say that I'm not very 'commercial.' My business head is lacking. So what? We're going to talk about ART and making art. Money is a different matter and maybe we'll talk about that later.

Luckily I had art in school throughout elementary, middle, and high school, and then majored and minored in Art at University. So certainly I have had a lot of practice. I encourage everyone to be life long learners.

After university I did many varied things and then returned to college in my 40's, at first to learn anatomy and then someone said the nursing program was good, so I did that. One thing I thought was that nursing was a steady income.

Despite being a teacher, a nationally certified rehabilitation Register Nurse for 20 years, a singer, body worker, Reiki master - whatever sort of jobs I did to pay the bills - I always made art, showed art, and sold art.

I do not know what I would have done if I didn't have the outlet and ability to express through art! Teaching art was a joy as long as I only have to deal with students. I have to admit, I do not seem to meld well with regs and metrics and lesson plans and all the other hoops a teacher has to jump through, but I did it. After retiring from nursing (due to our jobs being outsourced to India) I returned to teaching. At first I was taking advantage of a trade school, fashion design and sewing. Then I was offered a job to teach art in the program. I did that for another 3 years. I might have renewed the contract, but frankly, standing on concrete floors all day long was just too hard by that time.

The main issue most students had at that trade school was assuming that ART is an inborn TALENT and if you aren't doing it PERFECTLY the first time out, art isn't for them. So not true. Hey. Everyone can learn to draw and paint. It is like learning to play the piano for other instrument. It takes practice. Self taught or schooled, you practice, practice, practice. Not everyone who plays the piano will be Mozart, and not everyone who picks up a paint brush will be Picasso. But if YOU don't pick up the brush, or the pen, or the guitar and give the world YOUR efforts and art and creations, the world will never have it. You can do it... it may require work, however. There is nothing wrong with work.

Art, for me, was a savior. My childhood may not have been so hot. I was an only child, mom was a struggling single parent and we didn't have money. Nevertheless, we worked hard. To me it was a matter of course. Maybe for mom it was a bitter pill. Art was my sibling, my friend, my companion.

There were times I didn't take art seriously, or anything seriously. We go through phases. Just keep going and keep practicing. You can't be a success without failures. Failure is our greatest teacher! Sounds cliché but that doesn't mean it isn't absolutely true.

Art may be a metaphor for Life. Many things can be taken metaphorically. It becomes a story, or a structure your story hangs on. I will try to speak to this in these blogs. I will try to encourage you to keep learning....read, go to museums, travel all you can, practice practice practice - at whatever it is you are hoping to learn. In the Japanese martial art of Aikido (amazingly I had reached the level of black belt about 40 years ago) it is said to keep the 'beginner's mind.' Yes, accept the fact that there is always something new to learn. There is also the wonderful concept of Wabi Sabi, the perfection of imperfection. There is no way not to make a mistake. Just get over it, learn from it, keep moving forward on your path. Come back in a couple of weeks and we'll talk more.