Influence...

I've thought a lot about my creative influences.  There have been many over the years and I doubt there will ever be a time when I'm not learning from someone.  But one of my first teachers and creative influences was my grandma.  She was a sassy, Southern woman who was always busy making something.  I can hardly remember a time when she was sitting idle.  She always had a project going... sewing a quilt, mending doll dresses, or making colorful lampshades, game boards, or rolled beads.  We made "rock dogs" from pebbles glued together and "potato people" stuffed into old mason jars.  (They were made out of old stockings filled with cotton and had goggly eyes sewn on.)

Not only was she always crafting, but she always "stuck up for the little guy".  Usually that was me.  I was the youngest of the grandkids and... well... I marched to a different beat.  I remember one summer, there was a considerable fuss because I didn't want to go to the tackle shop and wanted to go to the sewing circle instead.   It was very close to blasphemous!  Since I was a boy, I wasn't allowed to attend.  So, she hid me under the quilt.  I remember laying there, trying not to make a sound, listening to the drone of conversation and watching hands busily at work.  Eventually I was discovered and she was asked not to bring me back.  I was sad that my sisters and female cousins could go and I couldn't.  I didn't think it was fair.  So, she took me into her sewing room (which was forbidden to children) and she taught me how to thread a needle and make some simple stitches.

I think that one of the reasons that she's one of my greatest creative influences is that she was one of the first people who ever gave me permission to be myself.  When everyone else had an idea of what little boys should do and be like, she let me decide and encouraged me to do what made me happy.