MY ARTISTIC SIDE

I was always a bit on the artistic side as a kid – I loved to draw – but I got shot down one Christmas by my father’s brother, a know-it-all if there ever was one. To this day I don’t like him (wherever he wound up in the afterlife). I drew what I thought was a nice poinsettia – I was in 5th grade and the teacher had set us an example on the black board to copy for Christmas decoration or card. My uncle proceeded to critique it in the meanest way. It was one of those “this is for your own good” lectures. Well, after that I didn’t draw for quite a while – well into my 20’s – I think I was afraid to. I did other things like collages and montages, and pretty good seasonal decorations, but no more pictures.

Then I was at a street art show and I bought a work I dubbed as being from the Splosh School of painting. Perfect colors for my living room. I took a good look at it: it was one 6” wide brown brush streak headed north, one wide brown streak to the northeast, and one streak eastward, with big carmine splosh at their juncture. Hey! I can do that!

I had saved my pastels all those years, but I invested in some basic acrylics and oils. The oils were not my medium – impatient thing that I am I needed the whole thing to dry overnight – but I took to the acrylics toot sweet. Except for the paintings I did for my office and later sold to the bank when I retired, I’ve done pictures only for my own self or as gifts. I thank those folks who over the years have said I should sell my stuff, but I’ll pass on all that hassle.  I made my living in banking and the artwork was for my own amusement and amazement, and a bit of home décor. For a time I even had copyrighted a set of pictures that spelled out what they were. For example, the turtle was made up of the letters t, u, r, t, l, and e. There was a horse, an elephant, mice, a giraffe that made me laugh, and many others. They were all fun to create. I did up several sets of pictures for children’s rooms and for Make-it plates. There are still some of those in service.



This is the original Turtle from over 40 years ago.  The colors are faded
now - they once matched the frame - but you get the idea.

 

 

I often think about taking up the brushes again, but I’m having too

 good a time writing these essays.