Art is how I live my life. It always has been, it always will be. Without art, I would be adrift without direction, without purpose, without sense of self, without confidence.
I remember being at an art workshop when I was about 5 and, having completed the prescribed project – which was, as usual, far too simple and ordinary – I became bored and ambitious and so I began fashioning a complex creation wholly unlike the intended product. A locally well-known artist observed my work as I was applying the final touches and asked, “Do you want to be an artist when you grow up?” I have no recollection of my reply, but according to my mother I shocked everyone in the vicinity with a decisive “No.” My mother and the gentleman were entirely confused until I clarified: “I already AM an artist.” I received a warm and happy gaze of pride from my mother, and the gentleman gave me a slightly crooked, but trustworthy grin of approval that seemed to say ‘I like this kid’. He then joined me in my deviant art and made for me a set of unconventional panpipes held together with pipe cleaners and painted with red and black flowers.
I still have that set of panpipes, somewhere in a box of keepsakes. I find it every now and then, remember that day, and smile…and try, unsuccessfully as always, to coax a note or two out of the little souvenir.
~LaughingNymph~ 
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