Have you colored any pigs lately?
I grew up with an artist. My dad has loved art his entire life and I watched him doodle on everything from scratch pads and restaurant napkins to the wall of his office (a large green alien peeking over a wall). I posed for hours so he could draw me, with building anticipation of what was on the other side of the paper that I couldn’t see from my vantage point. He encouraged me to draw from an early age, and I guess my quiet nature was an easy fit for the hours it takes to transfer ideas onto paper.
As I got older, dad concentrated more on pen and ink fantasy drawings, and I drew less. However, I found other creative avenues I enjoy just as much as drawing that reflect some of my mom’s creative influences. Growing up she was always sewing, canning, cooking, and gardening. Like all kids, I’m a composite of the influences that were around me growing up. I “may have” found the colored grease marking pens in the barn too impossible to pass up one day and spent hours decorating the baby pigs; a story that is still brought up at family gatherings.
Today, gourmet cooking, painting murals, writing, discussing books and movies, organizing events, and decorating are a few of the things I enjoy most. I know I owe it all to the creative encouragement I received growing up, the wide open farm spaces that embraced my imagination, and a constant stream of pets who needed costumes designed for them. From time to time, I still get out paper to write or draw as I feel it helps me think and make a better connection when I have to contemplate deeply about something that demands a decision.
The Hutchinson Center for the Arts fills a void with a constant stream of artistic ideas and new people to meet who share in the passion. The Center for the Arts is committed to bringing the value of art to a prominent place in the community where it belongs. I know I can rely on the Center to place a high importance on a wide range of ideas that will continue to introduce me, my husband, and children to new art forms.
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