Last month, while I had Gone Reading, I came across the drawing I made in first grade that started me on my path of fear of drawing, painting, and doing anything in the fine arts. "Make the calves touch the ground," wrote First Grade Teacher. She even drew an example of a calf on the ground on my drawing. Sigh. Many moons later, I realize that First Grade Teacher was merely doing her job to make sure I knew that cows belonged on the ground and not in air. Teacher did give me an A for the assignment after all. But, it would've been nice if she had also written something like "You have a wonderful imagination, Susie." Or, "The cows look happy in the air. How would they look standing on the ground?" If only. Three or four years ago, I began to embrace art. To simply draw, paint, make collages, and whatever I feel like trying. The more I do, the less time I stay in a frozen-in-fear mode at the start of a project. Better late than never, right

Some of you may recall that last month I bought an empty burlap sack , which once held coffee beans, at my favorite cafe. The sack hasn't moved from where I draped it when I took the photo of it last month. It questions me every day: So, what am I here for? Yesterday morning, as I was picking leaves off the lawn, I thought how exceptionally pretty they are. Bingo! So, I collected a few and brought them indoors to dry. By afternoon, they were in the office. Ah-ha! Within minutes, I attached a few of them to the canvas. Hmmmm. I looked down at the floor and saw the box that held stuff I used for a floral arrangement for last year's county fair. Hellllllllloooo! called some blue dried flowers. They went up on the sack. Then all went quiet. To be continued. * * * * * I'm linking up with the weekly meme, What Happened in Your Surroundings or in Your Mind This Week? , which is hosted by Pippa Koenig. To join in and/or to check out the other participants, click he

I'm a kid when it comes to doing (making? creating?) art. "Look, look. Look what I did," I say, jumping from one foot to the other. I mostly do that to the Husband. Yesterday, I found myself doing it to Only and Older Brother, who I hadn't seen in two years. "Look, look, Brother. Look what I did," I said, showing him my Creative Play #1 on the iPad. "Hey, you can sell that!" Only and Older Brother said. I didn't know if he was being funny. I never know with him.  But, I took it as a thumbs up. Unlike long ago I'm not concerned whether or not people like my art work. I'm simply having fun exploring that side of me. Finally. I'm hooking up with Creative Every Day hosted by Leah Piken Kolidas. Click here to join in or to check out other participants.

I bought this painting for my birthday. Isn't  it darling? It was showcased in the recent children's art exhibition at our local art gallery.  The painting is based on the Pete the Cat books. Guess what books I'll be searching for when I go to the library. This cute painting was done by a class of transitional kindergarten (TK) students in Sunnyslope School, which is a couple of blocks from our house. That's where I went for fourth and fifth grades over 50 years ago. My gosh! The note attached to the painting says that the students used their thumbprints to create the flowers that Pete the Cat is enjoying.  So sweet.