: About Me

So this is where I tell you about me I'm not entirely sure where to start.

I can tell you that I'm an artist. The pencil/pen/paintbrush/canvas kind of artist. I don't remember a time I didn't draw or paint. When I talk to clients & friends, wait in airports & doctors' offices, make plans & even keep a diary, I do it in images. Words are generally the last form of expression I use.

My art has been what drives me, frustrates me, challenges me, fulfills me, saves me, but rarely has it been what supports me. That means I have, over the years, done any number of things to keep body & soul together, a roof over my head, food in the cupboard, and enough art supplies to feed my habit.

In those years I've worked the ice-cream bar in a dairy; the central control in a bowling alley/pool hall; learned to run a backhoe and a front-end loader; sold women's clothing, tapes & records, men's clothing, more records, lumber & building supplies; been a bookkeeper/girl Friday with a large building supply retailer; accounts receivable person for a company that wholesaled windows & doors; was assistant manager in a paint & wallpaper retailer; sales clerk & bridal consultant in a china shop; managed a card shop; been an office/warehouse manager, dispatcher & go-to person for a telephone systems installation company; sales person in one of the busiest hardware stores in the American southwest; sold millwork for a big-box store and finally started my own business doing what I love-my art work.

In my spare time, I am an eldest daughter to two very active parents who are pushing eighty (very hard)sister to two female siblingsaunt to two nephews and one niecewife to a great guyfriend to a bunch of wonderful people in three counties and High-Priestess to an eclectic pagan circle of 20 -25 people, ages from 2 -70. All of which leaves me just enough time to squeeze in a bit of reading, as much gardening as I can, an ongoing study of herbs, weekly belly-dance classes, an afternoon a week to peruse WikiAnswers, and an insistence on sending real, old-fashioned, hand-written letters to those I care about. I have to admit I think the hand written letter is a dying art form and I am devoted to keeping it alive as long as I possibly can.

I come from a long line of story-tellers, tall-tales crafters, chatty letter writers, and liars' club members. I even married a published writer. Which had the effect of truly scaring all the ambition to write clean out of me Then a friend, who is also an artist and happens to write, sent me an invitation to this site And here I am All I can say is I will endeavour to paint images with words, and share them here with whoever chooses to read them

My passion is ...

Painting, with colour, image, texture, sound or words.

I know too much about ...

Doing six or more things at a time... aka herding cats.

My parents always told me ...

The last thing my Mom always said as I went out the door, no matter where I was going, was "Have fun!" My Da, wasn't much for talking, but when I started dating, he passed me a $5 dollar bill. It was "mad money", enough to get me home from anywhere in town, just in case I got "mad" and wanted to get home. Since then, I've always carried enough in my walet to "get home".

My childhood ambition ...

To be an artist.

My favorite memory ...

I won't choose one, the others might get jealous.

Why I write ...

It is a new creative outlet. I am learning to craft words into tangible images.

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Right now - D. Gabeldon's Outlander series/the garden grow out my window/the wind in the trees and the birds outside.

My first job ...

I've done so much over the years that comes under the heading of work, put I will remember to my grave the first time someone paid me for one of my paintings. I felt the was hope my ambitions would become reality.

My best moment ...

The last of each day, as I finish my look back at what I've done that day, made plans for the next, spoken with my gods and am readying myself for sleep. It is a peaceful, easy feeling and one I try to attain daily.

My inspiration ...

Everything, and everyone I see. There are paintings in the mundane, friendships in the crouds, and satisfaction in having your hands dirty.

Creative Writing > Humor Humor: Lawn care

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City Boy Solutions Several years back, my husband and I moved to a place he calls Halfway-to-the-Back-of-Beyond. It's four and a half acres, thirty-five minutes from the City, twenty minutes from Town, ten minutes from the Village and just barely within shouting distance of the nearest neighbour. Since we moved in we've done an awful lot of things, but one thing for sure, we've kept the local farmers entertained. It was our first summer in the house. Back then the front lawn was half the size it is now, but it was big enough for a gas powered lawn mower, which we dutifully purchased. Of co...

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