An ordinary life

It’s funny the different pieces that make up a person’s life, how a collection of seemingly random interests and activities dovetail together to make up a personality.
I was thinking about my week last night as I was getting ready to attend an art show featuring local water color artists.
The artists included a local businesswoman who studied art in college for one year before marriage; children and helping her husband build a business came before her artistic yearnings. But still, she painted lovely little controlled pieces of old buildings around our town. She sells the prints at their store, although she hasn’t painted in years.
A second artist, a middle-aged man with a thriving career as an air traffic controller, walked into his first art class two and one half years ago at the urging of his co-workers. The man loved to doodle, and his free-hand drawings so impressed everyone who saw them, they urged him to study art.
His works were lovely, bold and technically strong. The man is a born artist. Although he couldn’t tell by looking the difference between burnt sienna and raw umber, his colors are beautiful, his drawings true, his brushstrokes bold.
A third artist, who I was unable to interview, had what the gallery owner freely admitted was her favorite piece in the show, a painting not much bigger than a post card of the head and shoulders of a Herford cow. It was the sort of illustration one might expect to see in a children’s book. Clearly it was a cow, but it had some human characteristics too. The cow appeared to be smiling.
It was fascinating to see how each artist’s personality came through so clearly in their work. Knowing their history made the artwork even more interesting.
After the show as I walked to my car I noticed how different my little town looks at night. The streetlights, traffic, and reflections of moonlight on snow gave it a urban look I don’t usually associate with the community.
Before driving home I snapped a few photographs of the park and an aging hotel now converted into an apartment complex.
As I wandered around in my professional art gallery clothes, camera in hand I remembered that at the same time a week earlier I was sitting around a dining room table with seven of my closest friends. We were wearing pajamas, laughing and swilling down peanut M&M’s and Pepsi.
This has been an extraordinary week for me, yet very typical. I did the usual chores, washed and folded laundry, cooked dinner, paid bills, loaded and unloaded the dishwasher.
I spent time with a friend looking at her layouts and scanning them on my printer. I wrote a newspaper story about a couple with an enduring marriage. I spent a lot of time in my scraproom, and a lot more time on the computer. I cuddled with my babies and my DH, listened to my youngest son read, helped my boys set up science fair projects and watched television.
It all sounds rather ordinary.
But it is my life, and I love it.

Update: I just posted my first project on Scrappin Trends. Here's the link to my work: http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/mb/scrappintrends?forum=40745