Inspiration

I asked the other day what inspired you me to do the things that you now love to do and so now I'm going to give my answer to that question. I realized that there were many influences on my artistic side. Musically it was my parents and grandparents. To say they are musical is like saying that fire is hot-- a major understatement. There was always singing and instruments being played. On the art side, I watched my mom draw and my dad create things with his lathe and jig saw. Hanging on my living room wall is a sandblasted plaque that they made together. My maternal grandparents dumpster dived and frequented garage sales, thrift stores and people's large useable "trash." I had a child size antique doll due to a broken arm that my grandpa fixed with a very large bolt. Charlotte may have had a slight resemblence to Frankenstein, but she was beautiful to me at 5 years old. My grampa also made miniature working violins working from pictures in books. My gramma sewed beautiful quilts and dolls and many other things. My paternal grandparents had their own specialties. Gramma Betty crochets and sews dolls clothes and people clothes too. She still makes her own clothing. My grampa makes crazy quilts out of double knit polyester and does woodworking that still amazes me, making puppets and cars that rolled, furniture and so much more. My stepmom finds all sorts of unusual obects that start off separate and plain and somehow turns them into wonderful works of art or toys for her family while still managing to save money. I have taken all of these skills and woven the parts that I am good at into my own particular style. I am constantly seeking out new challenges because of the wonderful people in my life that tought me so much. And this list doesn't even begin to scrape the top of the barrel-- teachers, my brother, aunts and uncles, my husband--- I've watched them all and learned so much from them. They all have talents that I envy and I am so thankful that they have been there in my life. For those of them who read this, thank you all so very much. I would not be able to do the things that I do today without your examples.