The Dabbler

Unedited

Last Tuesday, shortly after my three hour pottery class had ended, I found out that it was “World Art Day”. Apparently, every April 15, the fine arts are recognized and awareness of creativity worldwide is promoted. In 2012 The IAA/AIAP and UNESCO started this day of celebration, to coincide with Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday. Finding out that I had unknowingly marked this special day made me happy.

From an early age, I wanted to be an artist: my passion was to do anything creative painting, drawing, sewing… The dream never came to fruition. Dabbling in the arts is what I have done throughout my life. Here is my story:

My favorite pastime when I was little, was sewing. I learned to use a needle and thread at a young age. Many hours were spent creating plush animals.

At the age of 12, I made my first earrings by drilling holes in two Canadian dimes with a push drill. Not really know how to insert the drill bit properly, at one point the drill slipped and the bit went through the flesh of my middle finger. I persevered and finished the holes the same evening. They earrings were basic, with some metal ear wires.

In college I had no idea what my focus of study should be. Stupidly I chose English as my major, because I loved to read and write, art was my minor because creating had always been a part of who I was.

The studio art classes were my favorite. My sophomore year, I took silk screening. I spent hours in the art studio working on my projects. The process of figuring out what the image was going to be, preparing the screen and using the inks in layers, to create a print, was so much fun!

I studied in London my junior year of college. The first semester I took a photography class, this was before digital cameras. The pictures were shot in black and white, as part of the class was learned to develop the film.

Here are a few of my photographs:

I became a volunteer with the Jesuit Volunteer corps, late in the summer, after graduating from college. My job was working with young children in a federally funded research project. Apparently, I continued not try my hand at some simplistic renderings …here are some things I found from that year:

I worked for two years as an assistant teacher, then went back to school and received my Master’s Of Education. My course of study specialized in teaching through the arts. The idea of this program was to incorporate art into every aspect of learning. Unfortunately, I found this was hard to do in public education and in most school settings.

I had one great year, teaching Kindergarten at a day care, where I created my whole curriculum and was able to use what I learned in school. The pay was poor, the hours were long, but I enjoyed the work. At the end of the year, I moved to another state.

The year before my kindergarten position, I spent substitute teaching. For a little while, one evening a week was spent at a quilting class. Once again I found myself working with Fiber Art.

Time went by. I focused on teaching, was married and separated with a child on the way. Just before my daughter turned one, I found myself spending hours in my garden while she was with her father. Gardening was therapeutic and I had no desire to go back to teaching, thus landscape design caught my interest. The fall after my only child (at the time) turned one and my divorce was final, I started taking classes that would fulfill my need for creativity and perhaps lead to a future career.

I loved the classes, and did well on my projects. Then I learned the hard truth of working as a landscape designer: “You need to be able to sell yourself” and that wasn’t my strong point.

Just after 9/11, the year I took my landscape classes, I met my husband. We were married a little over a year after we met. Life went on and there was little time to think or work on my own creative endeavors. Lack of artistic undertakings didn’t phase me because, despite some hard times, I loved my life and my family.

In 2018 life took us on a roller coaster ride By mid 2019 I found myself needing a creative outlet, and I started working with beads and jewelry once again. Many necklaces were made between 2019 and 2022.

During COVID, along with the beginning of beadwork, I started crocheting a king size blanket; it was finished it late in 2020.

In the fall of 2022, I discovered a jewelry center that offered classes, My first class was a four week class teaching us how to saw, rivet and patina silver nickel. Ee could create a large pendant or key chain. With that class I was hooked!

I have continued to take metal classes and work on jewelry in my own time. For now, wearable art is my creative outlet of choice.

Many different artistic pursuits have been tried over the years. I have never stuck with one long enough to perfect the art form. This is why I call myself a dabbler. Could I call myself an artist if a focus was chosen and continually practiced? Perhaps. Maybe if my newest pursuit continues, in 20 years (at the age of 76), I will allow myself the title.

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