I have already been told I have no talent, so I also have no fear of failure. I am untrained, other than some obligatory art classes in High School where I was wholly ignored, and which I would have failed except the Principal thought my work was entertaining. After surviving that class, I did not paint or model for 20 years, painted and sculpted frantically for one year, and then did nothing again for another 10 years.

This is not to say that for 30 years I separated myself entirely from art, because art is like breathing--if it is a requirment of your genetic code, you do it or die. My maternal grandmother started painting at 60 and painted until she died at 86, nearly blind. My paternal grandfather retired from the railroad at 84 and started painting, and continued for the next 12 years. I still have his paintings of trains and envy his talent immensely. My sister is a painter and a mosaic artist--plus being the one who does my computer stuff because I am computer illiterate. My father was a draftsman, my grandmother wrote poetry, my great uncle was a journalist for 60 years...to paraphrase the late Arthur Conan Doyle's greatest creation, Sherlock, "..Art in the blood will show, often in strange forms.."

Speaking of strange forms...I lay no claim to being the reincarnation of Leonardo DaVinci. The only thing we have in common is the production of cartoons, although what he meant by that and what I mean are obviously different. I once read "you should paint what you see" and " you should write what you know", and perhaps my subject matter would best not be discussed much beyond saying that I like animals better than people, I have had Bull Terriers for children for the last 25 years, I have a razorback hog as a pet, I live on a farmlette and I read 3600+ words a minute, which means I spend more for books than I do for food and almost more than for art supplies. I get up every morning at 3:30 AM to go to work to pay for all this.

Finally, since I did start to paint again, my work is in collections on every continent but Asia, and I am not sure about there. My paintings and sculptures each tell a little story, or part of a big one (Bobo is a story in progress), and they make people laugh, or at least smile a little. I can't ask for more than that, although a little money in exchange helps. I have to thank my horribly literal husband George for all this, because he is the one that asked me when I was last really happy and got me started again. He doesn't understand the things I make, but he is behind me all the way.

I also have to thank my sister Paula Nelson who is also an EBSQ member, because if it weren't for her I'd never get my pictures up on this thing.