Keeping the Embers of Art Alive

Polishing brass, spit-shining shoes, scrubbing pots and pans, mopping floors; being a teenager attending a military high school wasn't how I thought it would be. A Catholic Military school, at that. 

Priests and brothers were going to help me to find my way to adulthood, and a place in the world. Feeding cards into a computer, taking the innards out of frogs, knowing what elements the earth was made of, this was the knowledge I needed to get to adulthood. I had other ideas - like drawing girlfriends of my classmates for a few dollars and doing the scenery for the school play, or writing suggestive reasons why Jack chased Jill up the hill. Painting and writing were talents I had. I was more inclined toward painting than the writing though.

A penny a minute is what I got for scrubbing pots and pans and mopping the cafeteria floor. Days were long, back in my teens. Summers were the same - only adding the task of unloading boxes of food from semi trucks for the coming school year. No proms or homecoming games for me. My grades weren't good enough and I would have to pay for any schooling after high school, so work, work, work.

Drawing pretty girls and painting sunflowers kept the embers of art alive in me in those days. It was also a way to earn a few dollars toward my future.

The Moon, Stars, and Mrs. Seiback

Standing next to Mom, drying jelly glasses and listening to stories of her and Aunt Kay when they were kids. Jelly glasses were used for drinking glasses at our house. My week to dry dishes; Mom always washed them and us kids would dry them. Sometimes it was confession time… Gentle questions to find out who broke the musical Easter egg or how my toy cowboys got under the broken rose bush. Quiz time was another of Mom's games while doing the dishes, quizzing us about what we had learned that day.  "How you gonna keep them drying dishes once they've seen TV" was a little diddy she sang as she washed the stove.

Homework was done at the dining room table after dish towels were hung up. In summertime the back door flew open when dishes were done and my little sister and I raced over to our new friend Donny's for a game of hide and seek, or Red Light/Green Light. We were allowed to stay out even after dark in those days. The moon, stars, and Mrs. Seiback were things lighting up the night for Donny and me. Every so often Mrs. Seiback would stand naked in front of her bedroom window. It was one little treat both he and I looked forward to. Mom would call for my sister to come home and it was then Donny and I would take in the nighttime sights. I made plenty of efforts to draw Mrs. Seiback back in those days. I never got over Mrs. Seiback. Inspired by her to this day. 

I’m a bit better at it these days, but also distracted easier these days too by other things going on in the studio. Like Barb's afghan, that I found interesting to draw and Kim's little mutt. It was the kids though that were the real distraction. Many times I ended up with them laid out on my canvas with their moms napping in a chair. I love my studio and visions from the past. Mrs. Seiback looks better and better as I age.