Art as a language.

Have you heard the phrase that when people are fluent in a language, they dream it? If art is a language, then I am fluent in it. 🙂 The last few weeks, I have been painting in my dreams! I can see the colors and feel myself doing brushstroke techniques…blending and creating. Considering this week’s schedule, I guess the lack of sleep and all those hours in the basement were rewarded today!!

Let’s just say today was AMAZING!!! What a neat experience to be part of the Art on the Lawn Festival in Yellow Springs! I met so many nice people and some of my friends came too! It was a long day though! Starting out the event with only a few hours of sleep is not ideal, but I am planning on catching up on sleep tomorrow. Anyway, the day was a grand time! Kicked off the event by twisting my ankle in a hole incognito by the grass as I was walking to the registration table. No harm done…only grass stained pants! My family was there to help set up, which I think they did a superb job!! (Kudos!!!) During the day, most conversations were giving information…most people have never heard of the disease before. I had a story board there with some pictures to explain some of my story, which helped a lot to understand about the genetics and why I have the disease. Because a portion of my proceeds are going to be sent to The Children’s Tumor Foundation, they were able to send us flyers for more readings. I think we passed out all but two! I was amazed though at the occasional conversations with people who are either cancer surviors or knew someone who struggled from other benign tumors or even NF1. To think that these diseases are so different and yet there is a common ground. We understand each other. 🙂

Today just could not have been any better! I raised over a hundred dollars for The Children’s Tumor Foundation! Thank you everyone who contributed! God even blessed the day with super dark, rainy clouds that never poured! Only a few sprinkles! And to end the day, some of our family friends were there to help take down…which was a blessing, because I think by that time we all were pretty much exhausted! I even fell asleep at the dinner table! LOL. My favorite part of the day was sharing all the excitement with my family. They deserved it just as much as me. Although they would deny that–but I would not be doing this without their ideas, support, prayers and encouragement!

I was asked a few times today what inspires my paintings. Truly a good question! The only answer I can say is that this is a gift that God has given to me. I love to encourage people. And now I have a new passion to share my story, think of others above myself, stretch myself beyond what I think I am capable of doing, and have fun in the process. Today I was called an artist. As an artist, I am still not sure where this leads but I would love to be part of something like this again!! Right now, I just look forward to things getting back to normal for a few days: Back to normal sleeping schedules; back to one cup of coffee a day (not three!); back to normal work hours; and back to writing blog posts more frequently.  🙂 Speaking of which–I am starting to fall asleep. Time for rest! More to come…