Art Supplies

This is a true luxury. No one NEEDS paint and brushes. No one needs charcoal or pastels. I’ve lived without, but thankfully never for long.

When I was a child art supplies were in short supply. My mother kept an immaculate house. If she saw anything messy it went straight into the trash. Broken crayons didn’t stand a chance. I hid paper and shabby boxes of crayons under my bed, which was not really a hiding place if you’ve ever lived with anyone like my mother.

I had fun aunties who restocked my little stash on birthdays and Christmas, but there were long stretches in between that challenged my creative brain.

I pillaged sewing scraps from my mom’s sewing room waste basket and taught myself to sew. I know it sounds crazy, but it was the seventies, my mother was more likely to notice if her good scissors were misplaced, than whereever I was hiding out using the giant silver Fiskars at age four.

It was a golden time for a lot of reasons. Freedom and opportunity fueled my ingenuity. I made myself tiny stuffed animals. (Stuffed with toilet paper, they were cuter than you’d think).

Houses were being built near where we lived. Drywall chalk is great to draw on the road with. I guess I invented my own sidewalk chalk. No one I knew had ever heard of the thick pastel filled tubs kids have today.

I cut paper grocery bags into paper and used my mom’s check writing pens to draw. Any show with an art activity segment, captivated me, gave me ideas. I was clearly motivated. I often wonder why I was born with such a need to create.

Art is a luxury I have always found ways to not live without.