Every day we get to choose. We are a combination of our choices from the beginning. I have always been an artist. I have had a calling in my soul for as long as I can remember to create. Even as a little girl growing up in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, I lived with the magical world surrounding me. "Being an artist is not practical." "You need to really be focused." "Stop daydreaming." "You are not good enough." I still hear it all each and every time I step forward to create, but the scoffing voices are getting quieter. I pay very little attention any more. I look at what I do...make dolls, critters, pin keeps, and I love them. I know those who purchase my work love them too. Many do not. I was once told, "I'd be hard pressed to like anything that you do." I was shocked to be told that...then I smiled. It is about the creative muse, not the critic. My biggest complement was from a gentleman who continually came to buy my dolls. One day I asked what he did with them...were they gifts? He laughed and said they decorated his office. He was an engineer. He said he was collecting a group of creatures to help him keep perspective of his own work. He said that all of his purchases had formed a dysfunctional family with way too much inbreeding! When he looked at them...he smiled and remembered what was really important...SIMPLICITY. He said my work made him smile, especially a rabbit I had named Festus...he was sure he had turned into a Blue Grass fan because of Festus's face! No greater complement than that!
So I say choose to create and let nothing stop your journey. I am 65 years young and I am finally starting to "Get It" Choose all that is good for your Soul. Choose to be unstopable. Choose to dream. Choose to use God's gifts. I choose to be a Folk Artist......Blessed Be !
