school?

I can't believe that I'm really enrolled at Grand Valley.  Unfortunately, I can't get the degree that I really wanted.  Damn background checks!!  If you have three dui's, you can't get into the nursing program unless it has been 10 years since your last conviction.  I only have 7.   They don't have a veterinary program either.  So  I guess for now it's general education courses and then on to Not For Profit Administration.  I was really dismayed that my 188 credits from Lansing Community College didn't transfer.  Well, 4 of them did.  So, for now, I'm starting over, accept it's going to be harder because it's on a university level.  I so wanted an easier, softer way, for continuing my education, but I guess it's not Gods will.  What is Gods will for me?  To have a degree when I'm 53?  It just feels like so many road blocks popped up, and yet I keep going.  I'm beginning to wonder, but the financial aid is the only constant in the scheme of things.  I guess I just have to roll with it.  I already told my job that I would be cutting down to 4 days a week instead of 5.  I think I'll get a waiver for next term to at least get into a painting class as a non-major.  That could be fun, or very intimidating.  I'll just have to focus on my work, and not look at anyone Else's.  I'll be getting the Internet at the house, so that will be easier for me to study.  I guess it's just the process that I'm supposed to be going through now.  It just doesn't feel good.  It's out of my comfort zone.  I am not excited about it at all.  Time to make lemonade out of lemons.

oh,,,,,, I forgot

Hey Debra, It's me again.  I've been wanting to tell you that I am now almost 7 years clean and sober, and that I am now a watercolor artist.  I've sold almost all of what I've painted in the last 8 years, and I only have 3 left, that mom really liked and they are on display at the house.  I gave away a few too, to my best friend, Melissa.  She really needed some pictures for her apartment.  I looked for you in my dreams last nite, but I didn't see you.  I knew when I awoke from our last meeting, that you lied to me about not being dead.  The only time that you ever lied to me was when it was for my own good.  Is that how you feel now?  I still feel like I have no closure.  I haven't seen your grave site, or your ashes, or the program from you memorial service.  I've been wanting to ask you if you've seen dad, he really liked you.  In fact my whole family loved you.  They knew you were good for me.  You gave me a great opportunity working at your bakery, and I learned a whole new set of skills.  After almost 7 years of the bakery, I think you knew that I needed to move on.  Even though it didn't end well, you still were my friend, unconditionally.  I miss that.  I miss you.  When I see you again, I'll be sure to tell you how nice it is to see you, rather than to bring the moment down by telling you that your dead.  I think you know that, but I also think that you wanted to stay around on this earth longer than what God gave you.  I have our skating pictures in my wallet, and sometimes I look at them to remember how you used to be.  Before the M. S., and the breast cancer.  We really sucked at first, but then after some time and a new coach, we became the team that finally won.  Unfortunately, my drinking was starting to escalate at that time, and I quit before regionals.  I wanted to skate in new colors, but in a roid rage from your medication for the chromes disease, you got mad at me and cut up your new dress.  I regret quitting at that time.  Who knows how we would have done at that contest.  It was also the start of your M.S.  A couple of times I found it strange that you would be skating and just fall because you put your foot down and it didn't do what you wanted it to do.  I should have seen the signs, but I was too wrapped up in my own little world to notice.  Can you forgive me, especially for not being there when you needed me most?  Do you come to me in my dreams to let me know that you are okay?
When I see you again, I'll be sure to tell you to tell dad that I love him and miss him too.

I see you

Dear Deborah,  I saw you again last nite.  The M. S. was gone, the chromes disease was in remission, and the breast cancer was non-existent.  We had small talk, nothing in particular, and I rolled my sleeves up and began to help you at the bakery.  This time you told me you were far from dead.  I cried many tears of joy, as I did last week when I saw you.  We skated our favorite waltz in competition again, and you were like you were when we won state meet.  That time, I did not tell you you were dead, as I have so many times before.  You would get angry at me, and I didn't want to spoil our moments together.  It's so hard for me to believe that about 6 years ago, you succumbed to the cancer that came back after you lost both of your breasts.  And no one called me.  I hadn't heard from you for awhile, and even the last time we talked, you assured me that you were okay.  So when I called the bakery to see if you were there, they told me you had died the year before.  I was shocked, and angry, why didn't anyone call me.  You were supposed to be okay, fighting the cancer that had returned to a spot on your shoulder.  The reality of the situation over came me, and I became very sad.  I cried for awhile in disbelief.  Then you started to come to me in my dreams.  Are you really okay?  Is that what you are trying to tell me?  When you come to me, I know I am a lot older, out of shape, and unable to skate the way I used to, but we seem to manage.  I always want to hug you, but I know you are dead.  And the dream ends, as frustrating as it began.  I hope you come to me next week, as you have just about every week since you died.  I really want to skate our favorite, but technically difficult, fox trot that  we both loved.  I promise that I wont ruin the moment to remind you that you are dead.  We skated like champions before, with grace, and with ease.  I miss those times.  Five years of skating with someone just doesn't go away, not to mention all of the years that we had known each other.  We had some really good times, and some not so good times.  I remember when the chromes would flair up and I would try to carry you through the dances, and our coach would yell at me and insist that you do it yourself, with out my help.  I remember the times when you were strong from the steroids and would fight me through our dances.  I remember how I would joke with you before skating in front of the judges to put you at ease, and hopefully take away some of the nervousness that you always felt before we took the floor.  You were a beautiful skater, and when the M. S. took over, it was hard for me to watch you unable to balance and fall, just from walking.  Why God, did it have to be Debra?  She had made it through so many other health problems, why the M. S.?  Why the cancer?  She wasn't a bad person, she had a huge heart.  She gave me so many chances to clean my act up, and stop the drinking.  Why her? And to have been divorced by her third husband who was the love of her life, why?  He couldn't just hang with here sickness anymore?  So he cut and ran?  I know her sisters must have been around her when she died, they were all very close.  I know she was not alone.  Did she see angels when you came to take her, God?
 

 

hey

Hey all it's been awhile since I last blogged.  I finally got the surgery on my right big toe, and now I'm layed up for two months with nothing to do.  It is so much effort to get around.  I have a knee scooter, but that's a pain to load and unload  from my van.  I will start some new paintings soon.  I just have to get the energy to do it. I get my stitches out June 20,  and then I should be able to walk on it July 2nd.  Then I should be able to wears shoes on it August 2nd  So there goes my whole summer.  It's just a pain to load up my art supplies.  Also some guy hit me in a parking lot and now my car goes in for body work on the 13th.  I went for a job interview yesterday and I think that the boot and scooter was a drawback to getting the job.  I really wanted to get into this place too.  The pay is better, but I don't think the benefits are as good as what I'm getting now.  He said he would check into it and get back with me.  Oh well. If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all, it seems.  Hopefully things will  look up in the next month or two.  And my best friend is going off to college in the fall but moving into her new place on August 1st.   I'll be all alone!!!!!!  Okay, not totally.

It's all about the foot pain

A friend of mine has reminded me that it has been a months since my last post.  Well I have been dealing with some health issues, and I have tried just about everything imaginable to get the needed surgery paid for.  Medicaid, Adult Medical Program, and a call to Social Services to see if there is any help there for me.  None!  Not to my surprise, I don't have kids and I'm not dissabled, and I make too much money working part time.  What a joke this health care system is.  I don't have insurance through my employer because I don't work enough  hours,  so I'm SOL.  I even  went on the "wish upon a hero" website to see if I could get donations, and I only got one, and that was from my best friend.  This crappy weather is not a prime time for me to paint, my heart is just not into it.  I have two paintings that I can swap out for the ones that are winter scenes, just to keep up on the seasons.  I have to frame the one, and make a few minor corrections on it.  But as soon as I get this next consultation about the surgery, then I can start focussing on something else, and hopefully start a new painting.

First day of Spring!!!!!!!

The Robbins are back and the crocuses are blooming.  The first day of spring is here.  The weather today doesn't seem like it, though.  It's cold and cloudy today.  The giant moon last night was amazing.  It was yellow and hung low in the sky.  It was almost like a harvest moon, but bigger. 
The movie that Melissa and I saw last night was really good.  I didn't think that it would be that good, given the title, "I am four".  I didn't see the previews for it, that I can remember, but I'm glad that we went.  The way it ended, you just know there will be a sequel to it and I can't wait.  I wish that I could get rid of this "painters block" that seems to have overtaken me.  I almost feel like it's too much energy to get started on a new one.  Maybe it's just because I am still so tired from working so many hours in the last two weeks.
I know the inspiration will come, I just have to be patient with myself and let the creative part of me come out when it's ready.  My paintings have a sense of where I am at when I do them, and each one has a different emotion that I am feeling at the time I do them.  It's almost like I'm painting my feelings.
 

whew, I made it!!!!!

Yes, thank God, I made it through the two weeks of hell at my job.  Now it's back to normal hours for me.  I am so glad.  It really took more out of me this time than I had expected, but, at least I'm going to get a good paycheck from it.  Next time I have to cover, I'll only do it for one week.  Two weeks of a lot of hours is too much for me at my age.  Now I just have to find a pic of spring flowers for my new painting.  The crocuses are starting to bloom, so maybe I'll use some of those in the painting.  We have a big patch of them out behind the house at home.  They are all different colors.  Purples, yellows, and mixed colors.  How nice.  I think that is a real sign that spring is just about here.  I hope so, I am kind of tired of the cold and snow.  I think that spring is my favorite season, everything is in bloom.  I love the cornucopia of colors, and it reminds me that the warmer weather is just around the corner.

Another day off

I must be getting old.  I used to be able to handle working 40 hours a week.  This last week has been a little different, though.  Working 3 and a half hours in the morning, then coming back to work 4 and a half hours at nite.  It seems to drag you down a little more, when you have to be back later in the day.  I bet if I just worked the full 8 hours, it would seem less stressful.  I only have to do that on mon, tue, and wed, then the usual part time hours at nite on thurs.  Then just 8 hours in the morning on sat and sun.  Of course Friday, being the only day off for the week.  It feels like more hours than it actually is, and here I am blogging on my day off.  I am tired as hell, but the whole day seems to be slipping by rather fast before I have to be in at 6:30 in the morning on Saturday.  One more week of this and then I'm back to the normal four and a half hours a nite mon thru fri, with the weekend off.  I can't wait, back to normalcy.  That way I'll have some more time to start some spring paintings.  I'm not sure what yet will be the next one, but I have an idea it will be flowers of some sort.  My art is so basic, so it may be just a couple types of flowers, something within my ability.
 

Hows the weather?

I sure hope spring is near, I'm tired of the cold.  I do like the change of the seasons, but after 3 months of this crap, it starts to get old.  Even though I like snow, it's the cold weather that comes with it that is hard for me to deal with.  Maybe when I get rich I can move to Southern California, or to Arizona.  Yeah, like that's going to happen.  I need to start some spring like paintings, that way if I think spring, it will happen.  Maybe some tulips or some daffodils, with some crocus flowers here and there

Me, Donate??????!!!!!!!!

I was at the usual coffee hang out today, and I had just finished a new painting, when a person came up to me and asked me to donate a painting to the Academy of Arts and Dance.  How cool!!!!  It would be auctioned off for money to be used by the school.  I have until the end of March to make up my mind, so as I feel right now, I think I'm going to do it.  The painting is of the Grand Haven pier at sunset, and I really didn't like how it was going when I started it, but it seems to have worked itself out.  You tell me what you think.  My friend thinks it's a good Idea to donate a painting to get my name out there, but will anyone really buy what I do?  Who knows, I'll get the details about what they are going to start auctioning it off for.  She thinks that at least someone will see my art and pay for it.   It's not a matter of being seen or becoming famous to me, it's just a matter of getting them sold to get back some of my costs, and with donations as they are, I won't see a penny from it.  I think that however, what goes around comes around.  I can afford to give to a good cause, especially since it's a school.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

OMG.  The snow is coming down really thick and fast.  It's like snow drifts dropping from the sky.  I hate to say this, but it's really beautiful.  I always get kind of excited when the snow starts falling.  It's like a new cover for the ground.  It looks like there are a lot of closings coming across the t.v.  Another snow storm, yeah, I guess.  I knew it wasn't done for the season, as a lot of people had hoped.  We still have a couple of more months of this stuff to deal with.  I don't mind the snow, it's the cold that I don't like.  I get chilled to the bone.  Even though I have some extra weight on for this year, I still get cold very easily.  I kind of wonder what it would be like to have no snow for the winter, and be like tropical weather in the Virgin Islands.  Some day I will experience a whole season without snow.  Two years ago I went on a cruise to the Caribbean, and it was in January when  it started to get really cold here in Michigan.  It was quite nice to not have to wear a coat, and the sun shined every day.  The islands were beautiful, and the snorkeling was great.  The water was just the right temperature, and very warm.  The fish on the corral reef where very colorful, like neon blue and black.  I also saw an octopus.  Some of the fish were neon yellow.  It was a great time.  The food on the ship was outstanding, and so was the entertainment.  I think I might want to go on another cruise again, some day before I die.  This time to maybe the French Riviera.  That would be exciting.

Some kinda wonderful

I don't know why I put that up, just a song stuck in my head.  The weather is warmer today, but really windy.  I had so many errands to run today, I'm glad I got them all done.  I had to get some more paper for the business cards, and this time I got the right stuff, thank God.  It seems like it's time for spring, but in all reality, we have a couple of months more of this cold shit before spring is really here.  MMMMMM, this coffee is good.  I should have called this blog like Melissa's, but a Very, Very, Caffinated Me.  LOL.  I think I'm going to paint tonight.  Thinking about doing a pier picture with a really cool back drop of different colors.  Yellows, reds, and purples, or least I think that's how the picture looks.  The pier pictures sell the best here in the big resort town of  Grand Haven.  I just think that the multi-colors would look kinda like an Andy Worhal painting.  That would be cool.  I think I need a refill on coffee, this one really rocks.  It's chocolate, raspberry and vanilla. MMMMMMMM!!!!!!
 

New business cards

Wow, my best friend, Melissa did my business cards on her computer for me and they look great!!!!!!  Thanks Melissa!!!!!  The next two weeks are going to be hell with work, I have to fill in for a guy who's wife is having a baby.  The money will be great, but I'm getting too old to do split shifts, it just may kill me. LOL.  I'm sure I'll get through it, it just won't be a cake walk and I know that.  I just have to go into it with a positive state of mind.  It won't give me much time to do any painting, but I plan on getting some more supplies this week to do more pieces.  Maybe something will inspire me in the mean time.  Who knows?

some new ones

Okay, here are a couple that I haven't had on my blog, one is the barn on display, and the boat is my most recent painting.

This one of the cabin is a chistmas card that I had made.  I can't wait to get a frame for the sailboat.  That one will probably be put up in the spring time.

Just another sunset

I just finished a painting of a sail boat at sunset, I only used 2 colors, black and yellow.  It turned out pretty nice, just need to get my friend Melissa to take a picture of it so I can post it on my blog.  It's really a very simple painting and it only took me a couple of hours to do it, unlike some of my other works, that seem to take for ever because of the detail.  Maybe Doris, the owner of the  Jumpin Java coffee shop will let me display this one too.  It should look very nice in a black frame.
AAAhhhhhh, what to do next?  I really don't know.  Maybe another winter scene.  Who knows, maybe another barn or wooden bridge in the winter time.  That would be really cool.  I just need to find a good pic to work from.  MMmmmm, hunger strikes again, off to Rios, Mexican restaurant.

The new painting

I think I found it.  I was looking at some photos, the other evening with Melissa, of the Grand Haven Chamber of Commerce publication, and I found one that was of a boat and it was in the sunset, so all the colors are yellow and black.  I did a light house at sunset once, and it turned out really cool.  I can't remember what I sold it for, but it was the same colors, just yellows and blacks.  Of course different shades, but it was really nice.  I displayed it at the Arts Council 3 years ago.  This one is of  a tourist ship with sails that does charters.  I think I'm going to do it on large paper, 18x24.  Seeing as how the winter is in full force, and only a couple of months more, I think I will also start some type of spring paintings.  The seasonal ones seem to sell the best, and spring can be really beautiful.  So, I have some work cut out for me, and I hope that I can live up to the self imposed challenges.
 

I have the day off!!!!!!!

I thought maybe I would have to work today, the guy on days, him and his wife are expecting a baby.  The due date is today, but no call as of yet.   He's taking two weeks off, what a pain in the ass that will be for me.  I have to cover and work some split shifts.  So I'm still on call for tomorrow as well.  I hope the baby is at least a week late, that way I get my weekend off.
The sun is shining bright today, maybe some of the snow will melt.  We have had enough this year already to last us until summer.  It's not that I mind the snow so much, it's the cold weather that comes with it.  I feel like I'm getting too old to experience the seasons of Michigan.  My body just can't take the cold anymore.  Some day I may move to Arizona.  Hot and dry there.  It would be hard to get a job any where now at my age.  There a lot of younger more qualified people out there with out jobs, so I guess I'm grateful for the one that I have.  Especially in a resort town like Grand Haven.  Hopping for 3 months, then dead for 9.  At least at the nursing home it's not cyclic like the restaurant business.  There are a lot of aged people here.  That keeps the nursing home quite busy.

What is famous

I feel famous now, although many people may not know me by my initials and last name.   What is famous anyway?  I won't be famous for my art until I really sell a lot, make it into the artists registry, and die.  For now I think that I'm infamous for  my personality and my current art projects.  I haven't felt this way since I was on display at the Grand Haven Arts Council 4 years ago.  That was really exciting at the time and even though I felt like I didn't belong, because of the quality of the work I was displayed next to, I did enjoy the comments some of my friends made, like they didn't know I was that "good'.  That made me feel like I was at the right party and dressed for the part.  There are so many artists in this world who are so well practiced, and can look at something and paint it to look like a photo.  Even though I am told that art is subjective, I still feel a pang of not belonging.  The fact that I haven't painted for two years is part of that sense of not being "good enough".  I have to learn to feel more secure about the paintings that I make and believe, that above all else, I did my best.  Besides, I'm not doing it for the acclaim, but for the enormous calm that it brings over me, and  the sense of purpose that seems to find me.  Now when I look back, over the last 7 years I have produced many pieces that I have sold, and long forgot about.  Those should be the reminders that some people do enjoy my work, and are willing to pay for it.  That still seems like a big wow, that people have actually paid me for some of my paintings.  How cool.  I never thought that I would be painting, let alone selling them.  I had this mid life awakening that I wanted to give water colors a try, when my only other experience with them was an art class in high school.  So 7 years ago, my mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I said paints, brushes and watercolor paper.  Now here I am, blogging about it. 
 

They are displayed

Wooooooo hoooo, the paintings are displayed!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Now I feel like a celebrity, and as soon as Melissa gets her computer to cooperate, she is sending a couple more picks so that I can post them on my blog.  I bet your wondering about my grey fleece that I'm always wearing.  Well it's one of the few that I have that fits, and being as cold as hell in Michigan, I wear it under my coat, and over my work uniform.  I usually go to the coffee shop right after work, so I don't have time to go home and change.  Okay, so you were'nt wondering, maybe I look as poor as I feel sometimes.  Oh well, boo hooo, hugh.

The new business cards that Melissa is making are on their way.   I did one more painting since my last post and it's a small one, of a cardinal.  The pic I looked at had it in the winter time on a snow covered branch, but I just left the snow out.  I really like to do winter scenes;  they take less paint, and are a little easier than the woods with leaves on the trees.  Okay, ready for more pictures?  Here they come.  Okay, one is of the one painting on display, the cabin  next to the stream at nite time with the moon is one I had a printing company make into a christmas card, and of course the cardinal is the most recent.

Thank you

Thanks Melissa, the cards will come in handy.  I was going to just make some, but that would look tacky.  Thanks again.  I dropped the paintings off today, and Doris said that she would put them up tomorrow.  I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!  I hope she doesn't put them up in the bathrooms!!!!!!!!!!  Oh well displayed anywhere is better than no where at all.  I hope it's right out in the open, one can dream.  Steve seems to like them as well, I just don't know what I'll be painting next.  Mom has been excited about me painting again, and of course, she has all these ideas for me.  I have to paint what I feel.  I know she was trying to be helpful, but sometimes she can be a little pressuring.  She has this distorted opinion that I can paint anything, which is not always true.  I learned that from experience.  It does have to be something that I'm capable of doing.  Who knows what will be next.

I've been framed!!!!!!!!!!!

Not really, but I did frame two paintings today.  They are the ones that I'm going to display at the coffee shop.  They do look really cool in frames.  It makes them look like they were done by a professional.  I wish that I could find some matting that will fit the frames, but when you matt, the frame has to be a lot bigger, and they usually don't fit.  If  I bring it to a framing shop, it would cost me more than what I could get out of the painting,  making the cost of the painting much more.  Then I would have to charge $200 for them.   I don't think they would sell.  Besides, I really just want to display them as cheap as possible, hoping that they would sell.  I think that would be more practical.  I've seen some people put their works in expensive frames, and never recoup the cost.   So, I still haven't come up with and idea for the next painting.  Maybe I will do some wild life, like some birds or something like that.  When I painted an eagle, his belly was a little fat, and it did look really funny, but I'll be damned, someone bought it.  Too funny!!!!!
I think that I'm getting addicted to blogging, damn you Melissa!!!!!!!  Anyway, I still need some business cards to put with the paintings.  That will have to wait.  I bet I could get the print shop to design some for me, but they would be kind of pricey.  Well, that's all for now.  Time to look at some pictures to get ideas for the next painting.

another Saturday

Well, I just bought 2 frames for the paintings I have.   As I look at some of my earlier works, It has been about 7 years ago, rather than 5, that I first started painting.  I need to print some business cards to put with them to try to sell them.  I think in the mean time, I'll get some card stock and make some by hand, I don't have a printer.  One of them is the last painting I did that you can see on here.  The other is a barn in the winter time that I painted 2 years ago.  I think that I'll sell the latest one for $75, and the barn for $50.  The prints of photos on display here at the coffee shop are selling for $125.  Wow!  I didnt know that you could ask for such a price for a print.  I guess you can ask for any price, but will some one pay it?
I have sold some of my other past works for as high as $100, but others that I see for sale range up to $300, and thats just for watercolor paintings.  I'm definately not in it for the money, but mostly for the therapy of it.  Maybe I can sell some more to at least get some more money to buy supplies.  The paper and the paints can get pricey, but at least compared to other medias, it's cheap.  How cool, I just talked to Doris, the owner of the Jumpin Java coffee shop that I paint at and she said to bring them in and she would find a place to hang them.   She has always been a big supporter of my art work and loves it when I paint at her shop.  How Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!  

wow, followers

Thanks Melissa and Max for following my blog, now I feel like a movie star!!!!!!  Lol, now I just need to figure out how to follow you two.

What made me do it

Yes, I confess, it was my best friend Melissa that "strongly suggested" that I start painting again.  We both play on the laptops, but have come to a conclusion that it was not very gratifying, and that she could crochet instead of doing the computer thing and that I could start painting again.  Well, we get alot of funny looks at the coffee shop that we hang out in, and our table has been dubbed the arts and crafts table.  Melissa does some beautiful work at the crocheting, and may even begin to start selling some things that she makes, like baby sweaters, baby hats, and wonderfully constructed scarfs.  I did ask the manager of the coffee shop if my friend who owns it would like to display some of my work and even price it to sell.  She has told me before that if she sees it first then I can display it.  Now I just need to get some frames and bring it in when she is working during the day.  "Doris has always been very supportive of my painting at her coffee shop, and I think she would love to see more of it.  At least Melissa and I have a great place to spend time doing crafts, and some great coffee to drink while we do it, and it also gives us a chance to talk about the days issues.  Now the big question is what do I paint next?  Hmmm, some more scenery?  Some wild life?  More barns and bridges?  I really don't know yet, but if I see a picture that catches my attention, that may be the next creation.  Some times I look at pictures, and then I paint the aspects that I like about it, rather than just to copy the picture, then I add some things that I like to it to create my own picture.  Sometimes I just start to paint and never really know where it's going to go until I put everything in place.  I paint alot of things from my mind as I see them, so it may not be very acurate.  I do like to work with pictures, at least that way the paintings will have some semblence of reality.  I don't draw them first, I just start painting.  I guess that makes me a not very good artist, but at least now, I'm starting to not really focus on what other people think, but to just do it for the calm that it seems to give me.

I can't say enough about starting to paint again after not doing it for two years.  It was a tragic loss of  a business that my best friend and I created, and as things would have it, the funding was pulled, and we were left with a huge empty spot that I know was tragic for my friend, and devastating for me.  It really took the wind out of my sails, and it has been all I can do to start the creative process again.  I am a very inexperienced painter that started playing around with water colors about five years ago, and found that I really enjoyed it, and  best of all, some people started to really like what I was painting.  Since then, I have sold many sceneries, peir pictures with Lake Michigan in the back ground, and still lifes.  I've also done some dragons and fairies for family members.  I don't consider myself an artist, although some of my friends do.  I consider it a creative outlet, to stop the squirrel cage in my head from turning round and round.