My first commission

I’ve been told that an effective way to determine what job would really make you happy is to consider what you liked to do as a child, before everyone started pushing you & pulling you in different directions. Generally speaking, it made sense to me but I didn’t realize just how accurate it could be until I was looking through some of my father’s things recently.

There it was… a tiny little pumpkin sketch. The drawing was no surprise to me, there are many of those in his things, tucked in pages of books & folded in neat little squares. I immediately flipped it over to see what he had written on the back & smiled as the surprise registered on my face. On the back of this tiny paper, he explained that he had placed an “order” for the pumpkin on the notebook I hung on my bedroom door, while explaining to everyone that I had placed it there in case anyone wanted some art. I was eight years old.

   

All this time I thought I had accepted my first commission for art in 2008, when it was actually 1982. And with that little note that my father took the time to write for me, I am reminded that making art was what I was always meant to do… even if my pumpkins could use a little practice.