I Am an Artist

When I was a kid I wanted to be a paleontologist. I loved dinosaurs and science was my favorite subject in school. I spent hours drawing dinosaurs. Eventually I lost interest in dinosaurs but kept drawing and picked up painting as well. I loved watching Bob Ross on Saturday mornings. I preferred watching him paint landscapes rather than the dumb Saturday morning cartoons. My Grandma Audry was an artist and even after a stroke paralyzed the entire right side of her body, she still continued to learn and practice. I believed my gift for art came from her. People told me I should be a singer but I remember confiding in my friend, Lacey, that I really wanted to be an artist. In ninth grade I joined the art club and made some beautiful things. It wasn’t really the cool thing but I liked it so much I didn’t really care. I considered myself an artist and was more than happy to be thought of as one by others and I tried not to let it bother me when others thought I was a little strange because of it.

Then I entered high school and got lost in choir and musicals and didn’t have time for art anymore. I fell out of practice. I still drew once in a while but nothing more than that. In the years that followed not much changed. I didn’t draw much and if I did I didn’t put much effort into it. While I didn’t do much with art during this time I did become very comfortable in myself as a choir/music geek and have been happy ever since letting my nerdiness (musically, scientifically, or artistically) show.

A couple of years ago I thought I’d give art a try again. I drew a few things here and there but nothing serious or consistent. I thought maybe I’d lost my talent for it. I started taking Illustrator classes from Alma at Nicole’s Classes. I didn’t really know it at the time but have since come to realize that even though it’s on the computer now, rather than more traditional mediums, I’m still creating art.

Once I realized that I could still be an artist I started trying with drawing and painting again. I’m still out of practice and don’t know a lot of the things I might if I’d studied it in college but I’m getting back to it. It’s exciting again and I didn’t realize how much I had missed it all those years.

Now, at the beginning of a new year, I’ve decided to have this be a goal of mine. I won’t bore you with the details here but I’ll be posting some of my work here form time to time as I go along. It’s funny, last year my goal was to give birth because that’s all I was up for. This year, as I’m not pregnant, I feel capable of so much more and am excited to work on it. I don’t think I’m quite there yet but I’m on my way to feeling like an artist again.