I'm Going to Paint!!!

I cannot express how excited I am. But let me start from the very beginning to tell you my news.

A recent book I read called The Wishing Year, by Noelle Oxenhandler, involved art and getting involved with art. In snooping her website, (which I do for all authors I read) I found the site of one of the most influential people she had in her life during the time of her writing. This artist, Carole Watanabe, is a person I would love to get to know and have as a mentor. She's a successful artist AND business person, so a life of poverty for someone living the life of an artist is not a given, as Carole has proven.

So of course I went to Carole's website, artfully.com to see her works, which are gorgeous. Well, she's got a book out too, about the Ecstatic Marriage of Life and Art. The blurb for the book is:

Do you wish you were an artist? Are you an artist who wishes you could actually build a sustainable life around your art? Then read Carole Watanabe’s beautiful and lavishly illustrated new book, The Ecstatic Marriage of Life and Art. Offering wisdom from a lifetime of Carole’s personal journals, it is a companion volume to Noelle Oxenhandler’s book, The Wishing Year.

The answer to Carole's two questions is a loud and unrestrained YES!!!!

I have always wanted to create art. In my childhood that's all I did. In college I took art classes, but ended up majoring in graphic design (so I wouldn't be a poor pauper) and discovered graphic design didn't float my boat. I let my art side slip away. I still went to galleries often, especially when I lived in San Francisco. I also explored the art scene in Bangkok, and I got the opportunity to teach art to kids at the two schools I worked at when I lived there.

But to learn to paint on my own and create for the sake of creating is something that has slipped away over the years, but now I am inspired to begin again. There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING else in the world that gives me such inspiration, focus and feelings of near ecstasy. When in the midst of drawing or painting a picture, I forget to eat or drink and the concept of time vanishes. Going into an art store makes me feel giddy. The smells of the linseed oil and wood for the canvas framing and other new materials smells creates feelings of deep happiness.

So I decided to carve out the time I need to do this. I have thought long and hard of where to paint in our apartment (far from art studio style) and when I can do it. Yesterday I bought some supplies and I already have my portable easel. You can be sure I will share with you some of my creations and while I'm sure my early works will be a bit sketchy as I get back into practice, my future pieces should be something to be proud of.

Here's to ART!!!