When I was a kid, I cleverly realized that if you woke up early, you got to hang out with the grown ups and watch them do what they enjoyed doing the most. For my family, that was at about 4-o-clock in the AM. It's a habit that I will pick up again when I can sneak away from my youngest in the morning (which makes me realize my parents were probably trying to sneak away from us kids to get their "me" time).

When I got older, my sister and I were naturally nudged toward our creativity when we had free time. Probably because it also kept us occupied and quiet. For me, that became drawing everything from my orange crush can to the trees around our campsite. I did not use anything fancier than pencils on paper until I reached high school. It wasn't until I became an adult that I realized the joys of painting, which is heavily inspired by my family's love of hiking and hanging out in meadows (since we've moved away from the Colorado mountains where I grew up.) 

 

I find the rest of my family way more interesting:

MY DAD
He was an amazing woodworker. He made inlaid bowls comprised of tiny pieces of wood, glued together, and then molded and polished on a lathe. He won awards for the finished pieces, but he refused to sell them because he said he would never be able to earn what they were worth. A statement that took me years to finally understand. Some things you just make because you love making. He would also build amazing, miniature victorian houses without any type of pattern and using tiny pieces of stacked wood as if it were big-people construction. I imagine that he was especially skilled at this because he was a foreman and brick mason, which made him accustomed to editing and following architectural blue prints.

 

MY MOM
She was a librarian. When she wasn't reading and when she was home with us in the summers, she would paint on canvas (and even painted on rocks before it became a thing). She would also make needle point wall hangings, hook rugs, knit sweaters, crochet afghans, make jute plant holders, and sew our family's clothes from patterns. This last endeavor she had to give up when we entered middle school, however, as we were (sadly) embarrassed to wear homemade clothes. Something I sincerely regret now that I reflect upon it. She would let us girls pick out the fabrics for the entire family and use the same fabric, but different patterns for each person. This became a super exciting shopping trip as a kid, but probably something my dad wasn't too fond of, as we picked out a lot of flowered patterns. My mom also made the most amazing cookies that to this day I cannot replicate despite trying. Too bad for my kids that she is not around to bake for them.

MY SISTER
My sister, Patricia Ann Bell, also known as “Andie”, was an artist who started on her artistic path by making clothes after watching our mom on her sewing machine for hours on end. As a teenager, she became a whiz at beading on a loom. As she grew up, she moved on to making jewelry and sculptures from found objects. She often embellished thrift store finds and her own handmade clothing and purses with hand embroidery and beading. She eventually merged her jewelry making with her sculptural skills by incorporating intricate wire work into beaded pieces that could be worn. She continued to experiment with art throughout her life and even began making her own beads. Her sculptures have been collected privately and her jewelry has been featured in boutique trunk shows. Her work was so impressive that she was officially labeled an "outsider artist" by an art professor who was taken with her skills. I've seen work in galleries that cannot compare to her pieces. She might be the most interesting and curious person I have ever known. 

 

MY HUSBAND
He is an amazing painter who both started and stopped at age 13 during a long winter. To this day, he can sketch me under the table in five minutes. Although he has absolutely no interest in pursuing it and sticks with hiking and cigar smoking for his free time activities.

 

MY KIDS
My oldest son loves to create digital drawings from his sketches and is learning how to code C++ and C Sharp for Unity to work toward his dream of becoming a game designer some day. My youngest loves to paint himself. By that I mean to paint ON himself. Probably a habit he's gotten from making all those painted handprints.

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