Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Reflections on Creativity, Part I

At a barbeque a couple of weekends ago, I was showing my mosaic photo album to some folks I had not seen in a long time and someone asked me if I've always been artistic.  Well, that's a loaded question and a there's meandering story to answer it...I believe we are ALL artistic in some way but our society tries to put us in boxes, we are this and not that.  I always liked to create things.  My father was an artist, he had a degree in architecture and designed exhibits.  One of my strongest memories from childhood was him telling me stories and illustrating them as he went along.  But my sister went to Philadelphia College of Art and was the identified "artist" in the family so I went the route of environmental science since I love nature.  It was not a great fit, it earned me money but I was never happy with it.  My sister meanwhile went the technical route and never pursued her art.  So here we both were, neither being very creative.  Sure, I took classes and dabbled with pottery and watercolor.  Then one day I thought, I want to take a mosaic class.

That was about 6 years ago.  My first mosaic was a portable counter top.  The design came from a doodle I did one day during a meeting at work  :-)!  I proceeded to leave it outdoors in the summertime.  I found out the hard way that was not a good idea - the underside was particle board which soaked up the humidity like a sponge.  It warped and many of the side and corner tiles fell off.  Now it is part of my worktable.

Well, that's it for now.  Story to be continued...
Maybe I'll see you this wekend at Good Samaritan or Maysies Farm.  See last blog for details.

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