So i made a sculpture

So....One of my main goals this year was to incorporate making art into my life! Since college days, i've had spurts here and there (usually for a gift) where i'd make something, but really it wasn't with any regularity. There were several factors that contributed to my lack of creating (tough job, commute, having kid, laziness and an assortment of other excuses) and eventully art began to seem like something i used to do. I felt like i couldn't even call myself an artist anymore. I taught art, but i sure didn't make it.

Well, folks....there's nothing like a little cancer to give you a swift kick in the butt and get you motivated! Oddly enough, during those "early cancer" days, when things are new and scary and unknown, i began to have creative urges for the first time in years. Maybe its because I really needed an outlet more than ever...or it might have been that i didn't have the words to describe certain experiences, so imagery met me half-way.

Also during that time, art spoke to me differently; more intensely. Music had more emotion (thanks Kealy & KQ2) and provided a soundtrack on certain days. Books seemed more profound, exhibits were more intense....Ideas came to me more fluidly than they had in years.

I'm clinging desperately to this newfound inspiration to create. As the days pass and take me further away from that Sarcoma summer, I'm grateful yet scared. I don't want to forget how vividly i felt things....i feel like if i just continue creating, i'll have a lifeline to keep attached. They can be my breadcrumbs, lest i need to find my way back to remember what those times felt like. Its so easy to get bogged down in the daily grind and forget. I'm so scared I might forget.

So i made a sculpture. I've been working on this for months, hence part of the reason i haven't been posting. I was really honored to be invited to participate in an art show, put together by Wally Knight, called "We've Got Soul, Let's Take Control". Each artist was asked to pick a musician who inspired them and interpret it through their art.

I chose Fred Lowery, a famous whistler from East Texas from the 1930's. I carried his autobiography with me all summer, to Houston and back, visiting MD Anderson. I read it in the waiting rooms, sometimes inspired to whistle to my fellow waiting patients to lull boredom. Really, what inspired me what this man's ability to overcome some serious adversity. It reminded me daily that i didn't have it so bad.

Here is his profile.




Here is a picture representing the crappy childhood he had: he lost both his parents by age 2, lost his eyesight when he was 18 months old and was working in the cotton fields by age 5.



Thanks to the Golden Age of Radio, he was able to make a career by whistling all over the US, performing with Horace Heidt's Big Band Orchestra.

i lucked out with this radio cabinet; my friend Marcia GAVE it to me~!


Unfortuately, all I have are these pictures of it before i fiinished it. I was working all the way up to the deadline!! (imagine that!) I'll post recent pictures when i get some.

The opening was this past Saturday...it was SO awesome to be a part of it, because it's motivated me to get busy in the creative department. Now what? I've got a few ideas up my sleeve.....