Life Relection...

I guess it is normal at this time of year to reflect back on how the past year went.  I have been reflecting about the past 20 years actually.  How did I get here?  If I keep doing what I did will I be in the same place?  I don't know.  It is all too complex and draining to ponder.

I am a lifetime college student.  I do not see any reason to stop learning.  Not until I get an instructor that does not belong in a classroom.

As I have been reflecting this past few weeks, I came to realize that one of my greatest professors is not someone you would find in a classroom.  Although my History Professor was instrumental in directing me out of a Psycology degree into Professional Writing.  My English Professors influenced much of my style. Thanks to Professor Perry you will no longer find my writing wrought with contractions.

It is my Aunt Pat who has been the most influential to me over the past 20 years. Yes. Aunt Pat.  She is hard to explain being a complex being as she is.  Let me sufice to say she is a "self-taught everything."  Printer, Painter, Inventor, Screenprinter, Ceramists, Sculpture, Designer, Woodworker, Carver, Engraver, Sandblaster, Candlemaker, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer and so much more.  I mean a lot more!

I can not even think of one major or drastic decision I have made because of her influence. I guess it has been more in the day to day, quiet and subtle just-being-there words and ways that have shaped my destiny. I tell her everything. She is part Therapist too.

I would said, "...but I am not an artist."  She would say, "Oh don't be too sure."  I would say, "I don't I think I can..."  She would say, "Why not? I think you can..."  Do not say, "I am not" or "I can not" around her!

Aunt Pat

Here she is painting something.  Probably a cross.  More than likely, she sculpted the cross out of clay, made a ceramic mold and then mass produced the crosses. Then she handpaints each one, uniquely individual, so you would never know she has more because the one you buy is so personally yours that no one else will ever have one the same. 

Everything she does is this way.  She does not even know she is over 70 years old!  She does not know she is building a legacy. She is still taking classes. I imagine she teaches them once she gets in the room. If she does teach, she would not be aware of it.  It comes so natural.

She makes her own products, hundreds of them.  She built her own, highly elaborate website to sell everything she makes. Mostly she specializes in Southwest themed items but the whole operation is unexplainable.  Imagine not even turning on a computer until your are well into your 60's. 

Yeah. She impresses me.  Prepare to be impressed. Look at her website here:

http://www.hlbiznartz.com/