Kreativ Blogger Award

It appears to be that Ginny Stiles has passed me the Kreativ Blogger Award and asked me to list 7 things about myself as a result of her passing along this honor. You need to see the 7 things she wrote as she is totally creative!!! You can see these things by clicking on her Blog - An Artist Labyrinth: Ginny Stiles - in the column next to this post.

So - I am going to tell you about my early creative pursuits during my childhood in the city:

1. I guess my creative impulses were present at a very early age when I was famous in our family for drawing on the walls and my parents had to hide pencil, crayons, and most collagraphic tools to stifle some of those impulses.

2. It wasn't long before I was in school and in first grade got into trouble for drawing pictures instead of doing my lessons - needless to say I was and am a very right-brained individual. My parents heard about this and I was threatened within an inch of my life and had to concentrate on class work and no drawing. Did you know that you aren't supposed to draw in textbooks or bibles?

3. I don't want to paint my parents as those who would stifle my artistic urges forever - they did send me to Saturday art school at a local community center which we were lucky to have in Cleveland. I was also lucky to attend an elementary school that was an experimental school for the time, so there were many creative opportunities there also.

4. I was always looking for drawing materials, and I discovered that you could draw with the burnt end of wooden matchsticks - like charcoal. Unfortunately I really got into trouble when I was caught re-burning them to get more "charcoal" by catching them on fire from the flame on our gas range. Not good for a 3rd grader, eh? (I was innovative, no?)

5. My favorite subject to draw was people with flowing robes floating through forests of trees - I thought they were really cool, but my parents thought they looked more like ghouls:) Sometimes I think I worried them. teehee! I always went for the dramatic:)

6. I was very lucky to be raised in the city, Cleveland, which had and has, a wonderful art museum and I was also lucky to have parents who took me to the art museum often. I was absolutely enthralled with it, especially the displays from the middle ages with their armor and also the wonderful Egyptian room with it's wonderful decorated mummy cases. There is a statue of Rodin's "Thinker" in the front of the museum and he looks out over a lake surrounded by gardens, one of God's beautiful places. I was fascinated with this statue at an early age and still can see it in my mind. Rodin remains my favorite sculptor.

7. Most importantly, I was blessed with loving, supportive parents who didn't laugh when I said I wanted to be an artist, but did encourage me to teach art instead of make it because in those days there weren't too many women making a living at making art. When I retired from teaching art, I announced that from that time on, my passion was going to be painting, and I have pretty much stuck to that (except for the wonderful, loving husband, 3 children and 6 grandchildren who get their share of my time- such blessings.)

THANK YOU FOR PASSING THIS AWARD ON TO ME, GINNY!

Now I am going to pass this award on to another blogger I enjoy immensly...the blog is Watercolor by Brent Perkins-www.watercolorsbybrentperkins.blogspot.com