Art!

art·ist

/ärdəst/

noun

artist; plural noun: artists

:a person who produces paintings or drawings as a profession or hobby.

Everyone is familiar with the age old question: What do you want to be when you grow up? My answer has always been a moving target. Up until 10^th grade I wanted to be a doctor or a veterinarian. A career aptitude test squashed that dream. According to that particular test I wasn’t doctor material, but would make an excellent nurse. Interesting…..

By my senior year in high school, I still didn’t really know. I applied and was accepted to the only college I wanted to attend, Penn State (We Are!!!) without deciding what I wanted to be. I was put into a category known as Division of Undergraduate Studies, also known as DUS. No big deal right? Wrong. DUS gets to pick classes last, so not only was I last in seniority, freshman pick last, I was last of the freshman to pick classes. And this was a million years ago when you had a book to look through, an advisor to see and faculty to talk to before you were allowed to try for the classes you wanted, with no guarantees you’d get them. I enrolled, along with 34,932 (yup, I looked it up, that’s the actual # of students who enrolled that fall, just at main campus) other students in the fall of 1985 at University Park, also known as main campus. Can I say I had some of the oddest classes my first semester freshman year? Just two were: Sociology: The Demystifying of Ancient Man and English: The Analysis of Science Fiction. I also took the regular freshman classes where a typical class had over 300 students in it.  Fun!

That lasted for one semester. I declared my major, Elementary Education, K-6, with a minor in Social Sciences (just so I could get credit for those 2 odd classes listed above) my 2^nd semester, pretty much  just to get real classes. It wasn’t necessarily my dream, but it served its purpose.  

Fast forward 6 years and I wanted to be a Pharmacist. For real, I totally did. I almost did it too. I was working at a drug store and they offered to send me to pharmacy school, for free! As long as I signed a promise to work for them for 5 years post-graduation; I didn’t do it, I ended up moving to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina instead. I wonder what my life would be like if I had instead moved to Philadelphia and gone to pharmacy school. I wouldn’t have met my Debi or the kids or have my Little Man or my Pumpkin. Maybe we would have met anyway, hard to say about destiny, but I don’t regret not going to Philadelphia, nope not one bit, I wouldn’t have my family.

Fast forward a dozen years and I now want to be a lawyer. I know, I know, I am a bit fickle. I marinate on something for awhile (sometimes for years) and then change my mind. This last adventure began 6 years ago, I am in the final stretch but crossing the finish line....has been delayed, just until I figure out some logistics. It’s not on hold forever, but just for the moment. 

As I said, I’m a bit fickle. But, the one thing I have always loved is art; pretty much any medium, any artist. I love to read, I love music, I love photography, I love the fine arts, paintings, sculpture, drawings and so on. Some of these I can actually do. If you’ve been following my journey you have seen some of my photos, but I can draw, I can paint and I can write. Most of my drawings have been in pencil and landscapes, cityscapes, dragons, trains, anything OTHER than a portrait and always in pencil. My paintings are along the lines of the impressionists, Monet, Manet or even Van Gogh, but again no people. My photography has recently turned to portraits, mostly because of my Pumpkin, but in the past it had always been unusual angles or patterns and such, you know “Arty”. I have always been someone who keeps a journal and the way I lull myself to sleep is by telling myself stories, sometimes they’re pretty good and I write them in my journal, never to see the light of day, but they’re written down.

If I could be absolutely anything I wanted to be, with no worries about making money or logistics of how to do it or any of the usual things that bog down a grown-ups’ dreams, I’d answer: Artist

Recently, I have wanted to figure out how to draw/paint people. Mostly because of my obsession with the chicks of Lost Girl, but whatever motivates you right? I have done some drawings in ink, colored pencil, pen and of course graphite. I heard from an actual artist, in order to master your art you have to draw or paint or write everyday....so that’s what I’ve been doing:

Anna Silk india ink

Classic Bo india ink

 

Pumpkin pencil

Anna & Zoie india ink painting

Anna Silk pencil

 I have some colored pencil drawings in the works:

Zoie Palmer ala Warhol

 Until we meet again....thank you for reading and enjoy the day!