Let’s Start at the Very Beginning: Art Journey, Part 1

“It’s a very good place to start, when you read you begin with A-B-C when you sing you begin with…”

So how many of you read that title and had a familiar melody pop into your mind?

I’ve been a Sound of Music fangirl as long as I can remember.

If I had said this title out loud at my house several voices would have finished it in song. I love that my kids enjoy classic musicals and modern broadway too. I love that they have a taste for all sorts of music not just one genre.

My daughter and I recently went to see Wicked… but that is a story for a whole other post. 

A few posts ago I shared with you my future hopes for this space. The more I have thought about it, the more I think I should start at the very beginning of my story; because without the foundation of my story my journey back to art would make little sense. Why a journey back to art?

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I have always liked to do art.

I remember a very long time ago, honestly can’t remember how old I was, I just remember that it was probably before I began Kindergarten, my mother set up a little table in our kitchen and gave me some paint and a fold out picture that almost covered the top of the little table I was working on. I remember it being Jack and the Beanstalk. While Mom scrubbed woodwork, I painted. I loved it!

The Arts were always my favorite subjects in school. Art class ran equal with music class. I wasn’t too great with the other subjects. I lived for Art and Music. Every year, in every grade, my music teachers and art teachers were my favorite people.

I remember in 4th grade having drawn a self-portrait I was so proud of. I remember looking at it stapled up on the bulletin board and my fourth-grader-self thinking that it was one of the best pictures I had ever drawn and thinking it actually looked like me. I knew my mom had it somewhere so I called her up and asked if I could have it. (Sorry Dad.) My poor dad ended up digging through lots of  boxes in the attic but his day in the cramped attic was successful and now I can share with you one of my first “I liked what I did” pictures.

 

selfportraitgrd4

On the opposite page of this portrait was my life story, written at the ripe old age of 9.

 

my_story

“I love art also I hate school.”

Interesting, I don’t remember liking Science class. And I know the line about “liking ALL my teachers so far” was a bold-face lie, but do you write that you hated your 3rd grade teacher when she is still teaching in the room next door? And is likely to read what you’ve written?

I had to blur some stuff out because, believe it or not, my mom still works at the same place she did 35 years ago. She’s never worked anywhere else. Job longevity like that now-a-days is almost unheard of!

And I’ve written about the friendship with that adopted girl from Binghamton, New York before.

I ended up traveling several times to Europe since my Aunt and Uncle and cousins lived there. When I was older, I appreciated being dragged all over Europe so much more than I did in 5th grade when I went on my first trip to Europe. And that is also a story for another post.

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The rest of the Art Journey…

Part 2

Part 3

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