Vision Quest

If I had to precisely guesstimate my time spent as a stay-at-home mom, I'd say it's been about 10 or 11 years, give or take my odd job as a silversmith. But that was at least two kids back and had next to nothing to do with drawing, illustration or 2-D art, in any general way. I loved it though. We fabricated, by hand, Rebecca Collins' pieces. Mostly earrings and bracelets and necklaces. The best part was.......playing with fire. Seriously. All that potential for big trouble and, yet, so much precision at the tip of a flame, from a torch, attached to a tank of gas!!! Never mind the grinders, the blades that could cut through sheets of metal, lapidary saws, metal snips, molten solder.....argh, argh, argh! Loved. It.

Mask. colored pencil, graphite, ink.

But more children happened and life went on and I was afforded the opportunity to stay home and I took it. The one thing I wasn't doing that I felt like I oughta' be doing, for money maybe, was drawing. Somehow, in the back of my head is there is a nagging voice in my head that says, "Go forth and create a portfolio...of something. Anything. Scribble scratch'll do at this point. For the love of God, woman, do it for children...." It's a very Charles Heston-like voice. Anyway, it had a point. Money hasn't really been the object of my desire, so much as not wanting to let loose the drive to try. To do what I don't know I can do....yet.

Sorry about the bad photos.

So this year, with only one child left to chase out of the peanut butter jar only a daily basis, I've decided to buckle down and "do". "Do" draw, "do" paint, "do" muddle through till I find a style that suits, with consistency. Just "do". And, in this vein, I took the figure drawing class and I've accompanied my husband to the Art Walk and I've started what I hope becomes a series of drawings and/or watercolors. Too much the personal pep-talk? Yeah, well....I'm pretty sure every quest started with some crazy dude trying to appease the voices in his head. Or is that serial crime? Hmm...