The Carrot
32 years + a day ago
Behold the carrot. It’s a special carrot. It is one of the first things I drew while taking drawing lessons at the age of 40. I found it in a sketchbook last week while organizing my office/studio. This carrot is a good metaphor for what it took for me to follow my dream of becoming an artist. I spent half my life thinking it wasn’t possible.
My first formal drawing lesson was an after-school class in 1965. I was a timid beginner and timid when it was over. I took art my senior year in high school. I don’t recall any instruction. I turned in my portfolio at the end of the semester as required. I don’t have any of my art or projects from that year because I never got my portfolio back. She said she lost it. To this day, I tell myself that the art was so good that she wanted to keep it all.
I believe my lack of success and understanding in those two situations was partly because I ended up sitting first, next to Patty Donohue, and then Diane Kuzio in high school. Both were natural-born-artists. You know, the ones who could easily draw anything realistically right out of the gate.
Figuring I’d never have any artistic talent, in the 70s I turned to something I thought I could do - crafts. I did macramé, decorative painting on wood plaques and refinished wooden trunks, wove baskets with local grapevine, and began to quilt. I was good at putting things together but still lacked an eye for colors plus a lot more. I also created two children.
I didn’t give up. Between 1983 and 1990 I took Design 1, 2, and 3 and started an Interior Design major at the University of Maryland, earning 21 credits overall, while working as a real estate appraiser. Design 1 was the first time I had heard of art principles and elements. Eye-opening, to say the least. My instructor also said that I had a “strong drawing style.” Until then I thought I had no talent. A good teacher doesn’t just tell or show you how. They tell you WHY. That is the key to understanding. And during this time, I also created three more children. I was very good at that.
Two independent art classes in the 90s were turning points. I began to study drawing and painting with a friend who happened to be an art instructor. She was the first teacher to teach me drawing fundamentals. That’s when I drew the carrot, 32 years + a day ago. An Unlocking Creativity class at the Corcoran School of Art was the key that helped me unlock the mystery of becoming an artist. Oh! And I created another child.
Fast forward to the 21st century. With 90 credits in tow, I was determined to finish my degree. College catalog in hand, I calculated that if I completed all the required courses for a degree in Women’s Studies, a major that didn’t even exist at UMD until 1999, by taking one course per semester plus a semester Honors Thesis, I could graduate in the Spring of 2003. And I did, Magna cum Laude. That choice of major was a blessing in disguise. In many ways, it strengthened the trajectory towards what I now do. Two years after graduation my first book, one that I was asked to write, was published by the creative force known as Jo Packham. I’m now living an art life and having a career I never dreamed could happen.
All this talk about me is my way of pointing out that I never gave up. I didn’t let my lack of innate drawing skills or art fundamentals, children, or time, especially time, stop me from pursuing my carrot dream of becoming an artist. I believe that the burning creative drive inside of me was the stick that made it all happen, even though it took me 50 years.
There’s still time to pursue your carrot. We all have carrots. I still have carrots. Go for the carrot if for no other reason than to get the dopamine hits that the pursuit produces. Really. This feel-good hormone gives you motivation. Your carrot can be as simple as spending 1 hour a day on your art, reading, walking, or whatever you want to do/be/have more of. Do more, get more.
In my last Further to Fly post I asked, “what are you looking for?” Now I ask, what’s your carrot?
Quote of the Week
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.
General Douglas MacArthur
In the community of artists who are diving in later in life, there is nothing that can’t be learned. The basic understanding of the elements of design and the principles of design are game changers for those who think they can’t. As to your question, I have never (since going to the Honolulu Academy of Art in elementary school) have ever been able to not make art. I’m addicted.
Powerful story Leslie.
The last day of my trip to Morocco I fell and ended up breaking a bone in my forearm and hurting my pelvis. My motivation in making art right now is to learn to use my nondominant hand, my left, in making art.