The Challenged Artist

This week's blog challenge, courtesy of Stacy over there in Cowtown:

• "Every child is an artist.The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."-Pablo Picasso
  Reflect on this quote. What was the first piece of art your created? Were you artistic as a child? Did you love to color? Did you learn any art forms - needle arts, painting, sculpting? Did anyone nurture your creativity? Were you drawn to any specific type of art? Has your child created something that he was proud of? Are you still an artist today? In what way? Do you consider scrapbooking an art? Choose any aspect you like, but incorporate a childhood artist somehow into your story. Dig deep, and have fun discovering your forgotten childhood artist!

I'm sure if my parents were available for comment, they would have some truly embarrassing story involving me and art created on an inappropriate surface using a non-kid appropriate medium. But since they aren't around, I can only guess that yes, I enjoyed creative expression since I was a child. I can't recall the first piece of art. Nobody in the family was big into keeping those preschool masterpieces. There are a few odds and ends drawings stuck in a box that somebody thought worth saving, but no real story behind any of it.

Now as an adult looking back, I think of myself more as a crafter than an artist. I guess because next to nothing I make is an original idea. Sure I take a pattern and make it my own. But to make something start to finish without any copying involved, it happens so infrequently that I just don't think about it much.

And yet, I am perfectly OK with all of this! Before taking up scrapbooking, I was a huge cross stitcher. I still have a couple of my favorite works tucked away here and there. One of my first projects I made and had framed was for my great uncle. He loved trains and so one year we made him a train. I'd long forgotten about it. Until one day, a package arrived containing the cross stitched train piece. Uncle Jack had passed away. Somebody (either my dad or my aunt) noticed my name on the back and sent it back to me. How perfect to receive this piece of work...especially as I was pregnant with Thing Two, expecting my second son who would one day become fascinated with trains as much as his great great Uncle Jack did.

That's what makes me pursue my current favorite craft with such passion. The thought that someday my boys will look at our family albums with their children and be reminded of the many fun things we enjoyed as a family.

It really is all about telling the story, isn't it?