Mom's Birthday

Hey, VA! Happy Birthday!

For those who don't know, I got a lot of things from my mom: Life, a work in progress set of teeth, my laugh (according to Mike), and my artistic talent (though to be fair, Dad's determination to gut it out through the hard stuff passed on to me, too). To both of my parents credit, they really encouraged and sometimes stood open-mouthed at my progress through school and my art career.

It makes me glad that Mom has taken and is taking art classes now that her chicks have flown the nest. There's a lot to doing art that isn't all about if you can or cannot draw (which, trust me, my Mom and draw!). What I mean is, you have to be willing to have a hand in creating what could possibly be the most horrendous, god-awful piece of crappolla in order to make progress. I still manage to create the occasional "experimental" piece, usually with oil pastels which intrigue but don't like me at all. However, I make these stinkers in the privacy of home now, it's much harder to be willing to risk that in a classroom. So you have to have guts to be an artist... or conversely, I guess, not care at all, but those kind of apathetic artists don't get too far. You have to care, and you have to be mortified a little inside over the thought that fingers will point and bellies will laugh. The guts just carry you through that and you come out the other side with something you're proud of.

So Happy Painting, Mom! Be gut-sy and blow the doors off your classroom! :)

Love,
Regan
who once painted a strange "Age of Aquarius" montage with sharks and birds... yeah... P.U.