Art House

Believe it or not, I seriously considered NOT making art as my main gig. Art AND music have always been huge in my life. I have been a performer since I was a girl, and have sung and acted to audiences of hundreds.

But here’s the deal. I knew I wanted to be a mom, too. A good one. A present, available parent who could be counted on in difficult times. Well, you can’t schedule difficult times. They come at rehearsal time and on opening nights. And bedtime snuggles and stories coincide exactly with evening curtain calls.

So I chose to focus on my other love; art. But it wasn’t enough to make art all alone in my studio. That’s not much different than being gone. So I’ve always had an open door policy, and a little table near by with paper and paints always available. My children are as comfortable in a studio as they are in a kitchen.

The payoffs have been immense. All six of my children are creators now. People assume they inherited their mother’s “talent” (if hard work and persistence can be labeled as talents), but I argue that it’s all about exposure. If I had loved basketball, maybe we would be a sports family.

But we’re not. We’re an art family, in our crazy art house, full of painters, fiber artists, sculptors, and a blacksmith. I doubt that many of them will move onto have careers in art, but it will enrich their lives, and those of their children for generations.