I am one of the lucky ones. At age 3 I proclaimed I was going to be an artist when I grew up and I never wavered. I knew the what and the why of my life, but it was after college that I learned I needed to figure out the where and the how. I consider myself a river person. I always felt the pull to flow to the valley of art, but that river has taken many twists and turns to get there. For to combine your deepest longing, your voice, your calling with the aspects of the real world, can be one of the most challenging missions.
I had waited enough tables to figure out that I needed to have a job at something at least partially art related. So I took anything I found that could increase my skills; sign painting, faux finish, massed produced paintings for time shares, cruise ships and flea markets. Anything. I became a scenic artist working for the theme parks in Orlando and then started a company doing large scale murals. The whole time I painted for me, trying to find a way to combine my voice with the seriousness and urgency of “making a living”. I finally starting showing “my” work in restaurants and gift shops and then gratefully in art festivals and galleries. I discovered that some people loved my art as much as I did. My river had made its way over the waterfall into the lake of “I’ve made it.”
My river continues to twist and turn its way through raising my 2 children and has recently slammed against the rocks of a global economic crisis. Things, as always, continue to change. I now show my work in galleries around the southeast and I’m learning the balancing act of having a career that I love and being the mother that I want to be for my children. What I know for sure is that “what I want to be when I grow up” is an ever flowing and changing process- no matter how crystal clear the water may be.
