Sounded Like Love to Me: Why I create art

My mom and step-dad visiting me at Rich Haines Gallery in Park City

I know right out of the box that this will probably only be read by 8 - 10 of you out there. That's fine. What matters is that this blog entry is relevant to my motives, and that kind of insight helps me remember why I put in the hours to try and do this well.

If you know Chico, the city I grew up in (located in the near center of the top square of California), you know that it can have serious rain that comes in off the coast. I mean ... serious rain. Big rain. It can stay for days on end sometimes.

I love rain.

There's a feeling like everyone is somehow
off the grid when it rains. You keep the flashlights and food supplies close at hand when it rains hard. Those are the kind of days when kids either curl up with a good book, watch cartoons on the television, or drive parents crazy.

That's where my mom offered an alternative.

Sometimes, she would try out new art projects on us during rainy days after school. One time it was making pictures by melting crayons. Another time it was drawing on plastic container lids (we called them "liver lids" because they were the lids grocery stores used to hold chicken livers for sale). For this project, we used colored markers to draw something and then they were baked in the oven for a short time. They shrunk down to hard, coin-sized medallions that were really cool. There have been products on the market since then that do the same thing.

It wasn't like mom had us create art every time it rained. She did this once in a while, but it has always stuck with me how my connection to can—in part—be directly associated with these activities as a family on a rainy day.

I believe that is why I enjoy creating art today.

Art just sounds like love to me.