Creative talents

As a child, I always enjoyed painting and drawing and I imagined that I was a fantastic artist. By the time I entered junior high, I realized that I had zero raw talent. This fact was reinforced by attending school with kids who had amazing artistic abilities. My mother and her brother can draw and paint and I obviously did not inherit any of those traits.

So I then decided that I wanted to play the piano. I had taken flute lessons in elementary school and was a fairly good flutist but again, there was not enough raw talent for that wow factor. I had to practice and I only excelled because of lessons and practice. But then I knocked out my front tooth (permanent tooth) and my days as a flutist, sadly, were over.

After years of wanting to take piano lessons, the stars aligned during my senior year of high school. Again, I had to practice. I had to take lessons. And then I dislocated my knee cap and couldn't sit at the piano to practice because of the brace on my knee. Awesomely fun times. I did enroll in piano classes in college (and I think I earned an A (or an A-) for a grades.) I eventually purchased a piano and continued on by teaching myself for a period of time. But, sadly, I knew that I would never be a Tori Amos or a Vanessa Carlton.

But now I have photography. Yes, I had to practice to reach the level that I'm at but it has always come naturally to me. I didn't have to struggle through lessons or classes. My father is a photographer (along with other family members) so I must have inherited that from him. (I certainly did not inherit my Papaw's ability to play guitar.)

I took these photos of Allie a few weeks ago as she painted pictures. I love how intense she is when concentrating.











It appears that the girls have inherited my eye color: whale.