Funny Where Inspiration Strikes

If you’ve been reading recently, you know I’ve been feeling puny battling pneumonia. In the middle of all my lovely coughing fits, I had to take my students to our end-of-the-year leadership awards banquet over in Wakulla Springs last Friday and Saturday; Wakulla’s about 3 ½ hours from home. I hung out with the students as long as I could Friday evening before hitting the hay, but managed to get a late checkout and stay cooped up in my room Saturday morning while the students went on their hiking excursion. Didn’t think I was up for that. I recently discovered Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, and once I found my first copy I had to immediately order the “back issue bundle” to get caught up. Love it! It combines two of my favorite things—paper and fabric—with great detail and instructions on projects (yes, I realize this has nothing to do with jewelry design, but sometimes I just have to try other things). That morning I was reading a story about artist Frances Pickering, drooling over the pictures of her work while looking out the window of my room, when I had a very strong flashback. I remembered that I used to be able to draw! And pretty decently!

When I was in 10th grade, I got very sick with a virus called Quincy. While DH and I were visiting the DC area and toured Mount Vernon way back in 1992, I learned that is the same virus George Washington died of, so at least I had a famous historical connection for my misery. Anywho, while I was dealing with that, I also had tonsillitis and needed to have my tonsils removed, but that couldn’t be done until the virus was gone, so to make a long story short, I ended up stuck in the hospital for about three weeks. To keep me entertained, my mom brought me a sketch book and some nice pencils. Luckily I had a room facing the river and Memorial Park (this was the old Riverside Hospital for those in you in Jacksonville), so for three weeks, I sketched the scenes outside my window. Lots of scenes of trees and flowers, street scenes with cars going by, the buildings around me, etc. Then I remembered that I took two drawing classes my first year in college. Since my first two years of college were on the very same campus I now work, I pulled up my old records and, lo and behold, I got an “A” and “B” in those classes. I must have done okay but I don’t think I’ve drawn anything more than a chalk mermaid on the side porch since! This has now inspired me. I’ve been carrying my camera around more (took a photography class in college, too, and a clothing construction class—are you seeing trend here?) and so now I’m going to attempt to carry around a little sketch book and some pencils with me most times to see if I get further inspired. Maybe I can do something with them… We’ll see what happens!

Like this post? Click here to sign up for free weekly email reminders. Click here for the Happy Shack Designs website.