Becoming an Artist

I was in the third grade when my teacher came up behind me and gasped with surprise “Girls don’t drive race cars!” she declared.

I heard “Girls don’t draw.”

From that point on I never drew.

Not until 1993 when I was waiting for my mate Michael to wake up. I saw his pen and ink supplies laying against the table. There was a picture of a dragon inside the art folder, so I started a pencil drawing of the dragon. I wasn’t able to stop the progression of scales so it ended up being a pregnant dragon. But, it was obvious is was a dragon.

About a year later we were going to go camping up in the mountains and Michael surprised me with acrylics and a canvas tablet and a group of postcards of Monet paintings. I had such a wonderful time trying out the pallet knife techniques.

Several years later I was visiting my aunt in San Antonio and saw a picture I fell in love with. The only problem was it was meant to be an iron on for a t-shirt. So I bought the stencil and when I got home I bought a canvas and oils and then traced the stencil on the canvas and did it as an oil painting. It turned out well enough that I framed it.

I gave it to my niece about five years ago and often wished I had remembered to take a picture of it first.

Leave a Comment