''SHE HAD A STROKE. SHE'S GONE.''
The unexpected death of Tabitha's grandmother, Ruth, deals a blow to her small family--one that comes just as Tabitha is ending things with her long-term boyfriend.
Reeling from these two life-altering losses, Tabi...
Well, damn. I already failed my resolution and skipped a day. In my defense, I went to play cards with the girls and George. Those delinquents kept me out until 10 last night. I was already asleep when I made it home.
But here I am, picking up the slack. It isn't about how well you do, it's about trying again. I think my middle school art teacher told me that. Of course she was talking about art, but it applies to many things, I find. If you fail, try again. If you do well, try again and do better. Practice, practice &c.
My art teacher would be proud of where I ended up. They will never hang my landscapes in the Met, but there are several around town, and that's good enough for me. I'm not too proud to say I smile every time I walk into the bank and see my '92 painting of the Des Moines River still hanging on the wall. I nearly gave up on that thing half a dozen times, but there it hangs, proof that if you keep working at something you can turn it good.
I think I have probably done a couple hundred paintings over the years—finished paintings, that is, not sketches or studies or messing around. Some I have given away and several I have sold and there are a bunch still upstairs in my studio that will probably be there forever.
In a way an artist brushes a lot of herself onto a canvas when she paints, but in a way each piece of art adds something back to her, too. That's the strange thing. Creating something. Sort of like being a mother: you give of yourself, bring a baby into the world, do your best to raise her up, and she ends up giving so much back to you, too, and changing you.
This circle of creation, of influence. We are what we make and what we make tells us who we are, shapes who we are.
Good Lord, I wonder sometimes if I make any sense at all. But it gets me thinking sometimes. It really does.
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