Inspiration...

All that we love deeply, becomes part of us.....

Author unknown (by me anyway....)

I love my drive to work... i get some gooooood thinking done, and there are no interruptions either! So there I was the other day, cruising along on 195 - and i said how about a post on what/who inspires me to create??? So here goes.

When i was young I loved dogs, and horses and I wanted to live in the country, or at least in a real house instead of a trailer... So i drew a lot of dogs... and horses and houses. Not just the house, the entire property complete with barns and ponds and more barns. (I had a plan..) When i was done, I would scurry to find my Grandfather to show him... and get his approval. He was my art critic for my entire "growing up". He would study it, and tell me what was wrong... and that I should "keep the heel of my hand down" when I drew... and then there was the ole "receding parallel lines seem to converge on the eye level".... (figure that one out when your 10...) But he was right, and as I adored him - I listened to every word he said, even if i didn't know what he meant until years later. Was he an artist you ask? I never saw him draw anything. Many, many years later, under the bed in the back bedroom in a box... i found his small but awesome little pile of drawings... I will never know if he drew other things before.... my mother doesn't remember him drawing either, but as you can image i treasure the art I have.

Of course there was my mother, who is also artistic... her style is different, but she can draw too. I commandeered her box of oil paints at a young age... she didn't even try to get it back. I never used the oil paints... but I liked the faint hint of turpentine and the oily smells and the brushes and the potential all the tubes held... and they were in a wooden box with a handle that i dragged around until the box finally fell apart...

I have also always adored Beatrix Potter.... and tried to recreate her beautiful animals. The list of artists i admire has grown.... thanks in part now adays, to being able to find just about anyone on the Internet.... but we'll leave who i admire and why - to another post...

In more modern times, i am inspired by our animals, nature, our life... funny things i see.... the odd situations we sometimes find ourselves in... (Like towing your goat pen on top our your canoe across the snow...) and in the last few years I have had to add my wonderful pen pals to the list of inspirations! Someplace between the colorful conversations, their photos and their animals - it has literally opened up an entire new world of things to draw and create!

So I'll take this opportunity to thank all the people and all creatures who over the course of my life have provide me with fodder to make my silly "art" in all it's forms!

Without out all of you, i'd know not what to draw!