As a child you couldn’t get me away from the window or keep me inside. My father, when he had free time, would take me pony riding at a park downtown, and I convinced myself we had enough room in our backyard for one of my very own.
I used to defy my grandmother and feed the wild ducks and geese, gaining their trust until I had them eating from my hands. I would turn over our stepping stones to collect worms for the ducks, and in the spring catch butterflies (but let them go), lady bugs and wanted a pet snake...I also practiced a form of fishing called “Catch and Release.”
I would walk barefoot in our backyard, because I loved the feeling of the earth...until I walked through our wood chips. My grandmother then had to catch me while I was sleeping to tweeze all of the splinters from my feet. Don’t believe me, I still have one right in between my big toe.
I never had a nanny, just my grandmother and after school we were inseparable. She and the entire family had me creating everything. Even before I could read her thick novels I used to take books from her library and sit next to her turning a page as she turned hers, pretending to read too. She would ask me what my book was about and I would tell her an elaborate tale influenced by the color or small emblem on the cover.
My most favorite past time was finger-painting and gardening. Painting with a thin water soluble paint that was cheap from the local drugstore felt amazing between my fingers! I used to mix colors until I had something close to a dark blue-ish green. I would paint for hours and let them dry in the hot Sacramento summer air and by the next time I came to visit, they would be framed and hung all over my grandmother’s house; my very own gallery at age five.
Gardening became another thing I loved; my grandmother would take me to the local drugstore and tell me to pick out what I wanted to plant. I would pick out about ten different flowers and once home we would sit in her backyard and decide where to put them and which plant needed what color flower. We had everything a child could need: Fig, Grapefruit, Two peach’s, Cherry, Plum, Orange, Walnut, and Apricot trees...black berries, raspberries, Grape Vines (table and wine) and at home my dad handled the fresh herbs, vegetables, Asian pears, Kumquats, more oranges, lemons and I would root garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, avocados and once a pineapple!
I would receive artistic gifts from my entire family. My mom, the drawer/painter, and my dad, also painter and writer (on the side of their full time jobs) encouraged me endlessly. My grandmother bought me my baby grand piano, because of my apparent good ear...my great aunt, the ballet and modern dancer would send me oil paints, pastel kits and jump ropes. My other great aunt who made gold flecked china would send drawing books, so I could draw the horse I knew could fit in our backyard. My great uncle, the Navy man (who managed to pass and not be a cook in WWII) would send me books on science and his wife hand crocheted Barbie furniture and clothing for me! All of them so excited about influencing my development.
NOW, after saying all that. I have changed some.
I love art, never took to painting, I play the piano some, and took up classical opera training in high school. I sketch some, but my current mediums are mixed media, photography, charcoal, pen and ink, jewelry making and linoleum cut block printing....and I hate spiders/bees...but as to nature? I am more of a beach girl now, because I fell in love with sound of the ocean and the beauty of the sun setting in this vast ocean, around age eight.
