I’m reading a book called Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. The need to create can be part of your nature that won’t go away, and yet trying to make a living by art is sometimes precarious. Your creativity can dry up and you are left with nothing.

My focus right now is on the shared experience of making art. I know how important it can be to children and I feel I have something good to share with my community here in my 3-acre lot. My location may be a problem to some, but Grand Rapids Public Schools is willing to bring children by the bus load for an hour or so just to run on the trails, and paint in the barn or to make Swedish Pancakes with fresh eggs. Thanks to organizations such as Loop, Campfires, and Summer Learning, there is funding available to give city children camping, art and enrichment programs.

Some of my happiest hours in life have been with a group of children making art.  While the window of creativity is open in childhood, before it is subsumed by the pressures to go work for an insurance company, if you are that kind of person, go ahead and visit me!