Fun Friday

Last week I was reading The Art Lesson by Tomie DePaola with my son Aidan. It's all about little Tommy's passion for art as a young boy and his quest to become an artist. Tommy is always drawing and coloring and sharing his artwork with others. He is excited to go to school and have an opportunity to learn to be a "real" artist.

When we finished the story I told my son that the story could be about his mom. I could really relate to the little boy's story and his great love of art. You see, when I was little, I loved to draw! I used to draw, and draw, and color, and color some more.

When we would go out for dinner in the Greek coffee shops (which was a lot) my favorite thing to do was to flip over the paper place mat and create my masterpiece. My mom told me that I would sometimes finish my drawings and go over to another table and give them away.

The best times of my high school education were my art classes. I took them all and loved every minute of them. Of course there were a couple of kids in my class that were phenomenal artists and I figured I could never be as good as them so I decided to become a teacher instead of an artist. I thought about becoming an art teacher, but everyone knows they aren't in demand so I dropped that too.

Over the years I have dabbled in art here and there with drawing, painting, photography, and collage. I even spent some time as a mosaic artist but I never really felt confident enough to really give it a go.

It's funny how we can let our fears stand in our way of doing the things we love. I think that would be an even better children's story; how to feel the fear and do it anyway.

As part of my Fun Friday quest, I headed off to an art show at the Water Street Studios in Batavia. It is a really great place with all kinds of artists working and showing their art. It was nice to do something out of the ordinary.

I can't say I wasn't a little pulled to start creating some art of my own, maybe take a painting class and just have some fun with color. Maybe I will...next Friday! :o)

What's the one thing you would do if you knew you couldn't fail?