Hola from Arizona!

[Kimber Scott]

I don't speak enough Spanish to have a conversation, so, please, don't test me on it!

Four years ago, with the help of my fiance' - now husband- I decided to pursue my passion - painting. Well, I took the long way around to get to it, but I'm out of the closet now. I like to paint. I want to paint and I need to paint. Four years ago, I said I wanted to go back to school to pursue a degree in graphic design. It was a ruse. I was fooling myself and everybody else. Graphic designers have "real jobs" and one only goes to school to be trained for real jobs, right?

So, I began taking my "graphic design" classes at my local community college. Fortunately, one of them was drawing and fortunately I got a REAL teacher. One who insisted I learn to see shape and value. One who liked to yell about "gestalt" and chanted idioms incessantly, "Where one plane comes in front of the other, you need to lower the key and feather the edge!" Only one drawing class was required for an associate's degree in graphic design, but I took another and another. I took life drawing classes and a painting class from the same teacher. I took his portrait painting class in the summer. "You don't paint eyes, noses and mouths! You paint planes!" "A red dress is still red in the dark!" I cried everyday it was so hard, but I loved it. So, the next semester, another painting class.

"I'm not going to be a graphic designer," I told my husband. "I'll teach," I said. "I'll be a high school teacher." My mother laughed. "You? A teacher?" I thought if I said I wanted to be an art teacher, I could keep going to school, keep learning. So, after my beloved, crotchety and very loud and very honest, Dr. Hillis retired from the community college, I transfered to the university. "Don't go for a teaching degree," Dr. Hillis said. I didn't, but I didn't tell anybody about it. How could I tell anybody I was majoring in "painting?"

They don't teach you how to paint at the university. I don't know, if they do at other universities, but at mine, they teach you how to talk about painting. We sat for long hours critiqueing work that had never been worked on, only mushed around and muddied up. Work that pretended to be painting but was something altogether different. I got confused. What is this? I'm in the twilight zone. The emperor is naked and nobody notices. Many of these people are graduating. Four years of university training and they have so little to show for it. My own painting began to stagnate. The bar was too low. I wasn't progressing. I was depressed. I quit the university after a year and several thousand dollars. Now, here I am. My husband and my family know I am not a high school teacher, or a graphic designer. I am an artist. That's all. They always knew, even though I was afraid to tell them. Why, I don't know. (Well, I do know. I spent 10 years as a mortgage loan officer. When I realized I was living somebody else's life, business was really starting to boom. Taking off those golden handcuffs was hard. I thought I needed to justify it.)

I have so much to learn. I spent so many years of my life just trying to survive - trying to make money. I have so much catching up to do. I will be reading and painting for a while. Then I will show you something. The bar is so high here I will never reach it. I like it like that.

www.kimberscott.com

[Garth Herrick]

Kimber,

Welcome to the Forum! I think you will enjoy the sense of community and camaraderie, and I look forward to your participation.

[Terri Ficenec]

Kimber,

Hi! And thanks for sharing your story! I'm also making a (mid-life) go of it as a painter with grudging acceptance from my husband who's rather skeptical about the whole thing and thinks maybe I should have a 'real' job with a 'real' paycheck...

But I've never been happier and It sounds like that's true for you too.

Welcome!

[Kimber Scott]

Terri,

I have the opposite problem. My husband thinks I'm going to be famous! It was me who felt I needed to bring in a paycheck in order to feel like I was contributing. He has supported me through all my mental twists and turns. Poor thing. I wonder what he'd do if I told him I'd decided I was going to be a prima ballerina? Well, I know what he'd do. He'd go out and buy me a tutu and wish me luck! (He'd look at me funny, though.)

You're right about the happy part. That's what it's all about, famous, or not. There's something about reaching a certain age and realizing this is it. Life is a one shot deal. We're lucky enough we have a chance to pursue our dreams.

Garth,

Thank you for the welcome! I think I will enjoy it here.

[Linda Brandon]

Hi Kimber,

Always a delight to greet another denizen of the Hot Zone.

Welcome to the Forum, and feel free to comment regardless of whether you've posted work or not.

Best wishes,

Linda

[Patricia Joyce]

Nice to meet you, Kimber! Your story is inspiration and you are VERY lucky to have a husband who will support you emotionally and financially!! My boyfriend is my greatest fan, too. He really believes I will reach my dreams. Now, if only I could convince him to support me too!!!

I look forward to your contributions. I can tell you will have allot to contribute!! Don't wait to post your work. Is the image you did attach, one of your paintings? It is beautiful and very expressive.

[Kimber Scott]

Thank you, Linda, for the welcome. I've noticed there are quite a few Arizonans on this board. A couple of them have mentioned we should get together sometime. That might be fun. I looked at your work, it is wonderful.

Patricia. Thank you. Nice to meet you! Yes, the painting I attached is a watercolor I did of my granddaughter. It's 22" x 30" and is the first watercolor figure/portrait I've ever done - excepting a couple of horrid attempts at self-portraiture. (It's that looking in the mirror thing. I keep moving!) I don't know that one would call it a portrait. I don't know what the "rules" are regarding what a portrait is and what it isn't. So, I was hesitant about posting it here.