How I Got Started With Art

To understand how I ended up here we have to go back to tiny me. Yes, at one time I was even shorter than I am now! I know I know, it’s hard to believe!

As a kid, I was always sick. Seriously, ALWAYS sick! We weren’t aware that I had celiac disease so my immune system was very very bad. We’re talking strep throat, scarlet fever, and mono all at the same time bad. Actually, I suspect that awesome Christmas of 1994  is what triggered my fibromyalgia. The point is, being sick so often translated to being indoors drawing and coloring a lot. I was no child art prodigy, but I did spend enough time drawing that by the time I was in my teens I was above average in my drawing skills.  At the time I was obsessed with orcas. I drew them non-stop. In ballpoint pen on my homework (if I was going to be terrible at math, I might as well pretty up the paper!), and in charcoal over watercolor. I didn’t have the funds to purchase more art supplies, so these kept me busy.

I didn’t jump into college like many of my friends did after high school. I didn’t feel well enough to both work part-time and go to school. One afternoon I was walking around Laguna Beach CA with a friend and we came across this gazebo filled with a woman’s dolphin paintings. Her perspective was completely off on all of them. What was even more shocking to me is that she had price tags in the thousands. My thought was “Wait! Mine are better than this! I can make a living drawing whales like I love!!” Go ahead and laugh, I now realize that is SO not how the art world works. I don’t regret my naivety though because it sent me on this path.

Learning what I did through trial and error, I have a slightly different view on art. For me, art has never been about some elitist idea of the “right” way to create. Instead, I see the value in art for art’s sake.

There are just SO many out there who feel that they have the right to others how art should be created, that the tools they use, the methods they use or the style they enjoy working in is wrong. I’ve seen so many artists discouraged and give up altogether on art because of the absolute ridiculous crap that comes out of some people’s mouths.  There is a special place in hell for someone who causes another to give up something they enjoy over their own personal hangups and misconceptions of what they think art should be.

Art can be just about anything you can imagine or enjoy creating!! I don’t care about what process, tools or technique someone uses to create something beautiful! It’s the end result that matters to me.