Christmas 2013 photos individually at: http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/24430774

Art, in many forms, has been a constant in my life for as long as I can remember.  From drawing stick horses to designing my own paper doll clothes to making my own dolls and designing their clothing.

From an early age I knew I would always create.  I've worked in fabric, chalk,water color, oils and clay.  My first job experience after graduating from high school, was in the fashion department and then in advertising while employed at the old Meier and Frank store in downtown Portland Oregon.

Actually my place in the art world began when I was placed in an advanced art class in the 4th grade. I always knew the sky went all the way to the ground but learned it appeared lighter as it came nearer to the horizon.  What a foundation that class was!  In Jr. High, my Mother let me travel to downtown Portland to take Sat. classes at the Museum Art School.  Something we wouldn't consider letting our young girls doing alone today!  In high school she enrolled me part-time in Portland's Advertising Art School run by the Mechlinburgs.  I was the youngest they had ever had.  There I learned to draw precisely what I was looking at.  Many hours were spent in the live model class of which I had to

have written permission from Mom, if the model was nude.

If Mom hadn't lost her Mother when she was but 11 years old I believe she would have been encouraged to do something in the arts as her Mother was a fine china painter of some renown.  However,  everything Mom touched through the years had an artistic flair.  With these facts in mind you can see why Mom encouraged me to go as far with my art as I could.  However, she made me learn how to type so I could always get a real job.  Too bad she couldn't teach me to spell

The high school art class attitude of (here's the paper and here's the paint....keep busy and you will get a good grade) was pretty much a waist of time.  Learning how to draw ketchup bottles in add school didn't teach me how to be a painter.  It wasn't until I moved to Germany with my Air Force husband that I began to fill a dream to "paint" paintings.  I was fortunate enough to join a small art class given once a week by Heir Hershfield, a well known conservator of museum paintings.  I spent a couple of years studying how the Old Masters painted.  Starting with a pencil or chalk layout so when I finally began to paint I knew where I was going.  We worked in water color until Heir Hershfield thought we had learned enough to graduate to oils.  Unfortunately my background in advertising art made me feel my work was more illustration than "painting".  Someone once told me if I took my glasses off and then painted what I saw without them maybe I could loosen up and produce more painterly pieces.  Should try this someday!

After I retired I wanted to move east of the Rockies to be nearer to my Grandchildren.  It was either Minn.  (too cold) or Texas (too hot),  I made the choice to move to Texas and come home to Oregon, staying with my Mother, during the hot Texas summers.  During the years I lived there I augmented my income with painting.  Once my neighbors found out I could do portraits of people and animals, I had more work than hours for.  In between commissions I was painting and selling water colors and oils online and in local galleries.

The Nut Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree

I remember a story that Mom told me.  When she was about 11 her Grandmother taught her how to crochet.  She almost wore the thread out because she was told to take it out, do it over and do it right.  I've been thinking about this as I've tried to learn how to make a piece of jewelry from a magazine article.  You have to know first that I have never been able to bake because of my dyslexia. I've had the same problems with this project.

So my sister said to copy the steps and put them in order.  Picking up one step at a time helped some but I still have problems getting the correct number of colors in a row.  At least I'm not confusing the rows.  

I can't remember how many pieces I've started and taken apart.  You can only do this so many times and then the fireline begins to wear.  Mom would scowl at me if I made something with weak thread, I'm sure of that.  I do have 2 sections together and now started on the 3rd for the 3rd time.  Each time I make a mistake I cut off another yard and a half of thread.  The thread alone is going to break my budget.

This project reminds me of the first time I tried to balance my check book.  I spent all night trying to find 4 cents.  I did!  And so I will concur this hurdle also!

My true inspiration.....Mom, Grandmother and Great Grandma. We miss her. This is a song "My Bill" wrote and recorded about her and in her honor. My Blog wouldn't be right without posting this

Grandma, We Love You