Taking the chance when the chance presents itself leads to unexpected joys.
Sometimes, we take chances in life and other times, in an odd way, chance chooses us. Beginning in my senior years, after emotional trauma, I decided to try something different: to put myself in uncomfortable situations. I was searching for something different, unfamiliar.
Happenstance, while sipping coffee at Starbucks, a free local newspaper lay on the table. I turned a few pages, and spotted a small, boxed ad, "Do you know how to draw a straight line?" Well, certainly I did not. Seemed simple enough, not too heavy so I signed up for five Monday night sessions to learn the basics of drawing. I was interested and haphazardly tried to sketch a banana, a sailboat, and a building. The banana looked like a worn-out rope, the sailboat resembled a fish and the building, well let’s just say it was a vertical rectangle.
With not much else to do, I kept at it and enrolled at the East Side Art Center where Don and Carolyn Simon taught me the fundamentals and more. My art became a hobby and then a passion. Sitting in front of the easel allows me to be creative. I didn’t despair when I had failure after failure. In fact, I estimate that for everyone satisfactory piece of art, I have 5−10 failures.
Each failure represents a new challenge. I allow myself to paint subjects that interest me; many pieces tell a story; others are my interpretations of what I see. I especially enjoy abstract art; my biggest thrill is when two or three people perceive completely different things.
