On Fire

I was so nervous maybe I would pee my pants like a submissive dog. I'm not a trained artist and I almost never show my work except for here in the very public realm of the internet where no one knows me. Wednesday night was the last "Illustrating for Children's Books" class. I was proud of myself for NOT slacking off and skipping the class, eventually not accomplishing anything.

Instead, I was like the stalwart toddler who scales the furniture to it's highest peak standing precariously on the back of the sofa, teetering and tipsy from the bird's eye view and proud to have reached the acme of the living room. I was the Queen of all I surveyed. When I opened my benign purple file folder (misbegotten from the office supply closet), the room instantly became filled with pleasant gasps of approval.

It was a very nice stroke as this class is heaped to the brim with professionally trained artists and graphic designers. My classmate 'Sal' told me she was glad that I used my digital talents because that was what seemed to excite me the most at the beginning of the class. She was right. I was so frustrated by my inexperience with technique and the lack of quality art supplies that ultimately I went back to what I knew best. Isn't that where I should have started? Everything is a process.

I felt like an Oscar winner. To receive that kind of feedback from people much more experienced and trained is mindblowing. The words of that flaming artist(see #4) I met on State St. in 1994 come back to me, "Girlfriend, you are on FIRE!"

digital art, illustration, kids, outsider art, funky giraffe