HUM 6375 – Arts and Human Development

Creative Post #1

What a challenge to introduce oneself with a work of art! I have asked myself whether I should draw or paint a self-portrait, which in itself is difficult. But upon further consideration, that wouldn't tell the viewer very much about myself for I am much more than the outer appearance.

So how does one capture the essence of who one is? Do I even know what my essence is? Yes, difficult to put into something visual. I could write about myself for hours but to crunch all the rich experiences of my life that have shaped the person I have become into a single piece of art? Well, that is another story.

Fortunately for me, I love the medium of mixed media collage. Through this technique, I can add descriptive words and images along with hidden symbolism to express the true me. It isn't a picture to hang over your couch, but rather a sort of journal on canvas, rich in content, just like me.

It's actually just a photo montage with some highlights of my life along with a collage of all the things that are important to me today.

I was born in Arkansas to Melba and Robert Windland. The top left photo is of my maternal grandmother, my mother and me. I wish my great maternal grandmother had been in the picture, too. We just missed having five generations of girls because great grandma's mother passed away just two months before I was born. I am the oldest of five children. We had a little sister arrive when I was seventeen years old. I left home the next summer so didn't get to know her very well.

Growing up, I spent most summers going to visit both sets of grandparents and great grandparents. The great grandparents lived on farms and I adored going out there to be around all the animals. I got in trouble for picking up the chickens which drove my sisters crazy because try as they might, they just could not get those chickens to come to them.

I had a pet racoon when I was in the third and fourth grades. What an experience! I was the coolest kid in town because of her. Daddy was a salesman for a large fertilizer company and one of his customers had a bunch of baby racoons that had fallen out of the hay loft. Daddy brought one home for me and for my sister, Paula. It was an exercise in responsibility, as we had to hand raise them and they were sick when we got them. Luck would have it that my sister's did not survive so we ended up with just the one racoon.

I married straight out of high school but that lasted only a short seven years with no children. My second marriage lasted for twenty-one years. I had one child who is now 32, married and expecting their first child in April. The bottom left photo is from his wedding and shows my current husband, the love of my life, and my siblings with their spouses…except for the baby sister who couldn't make the wedding.

My husband Michael and I are avid cruisers and meet wonderful people from all over the world. There is a photo of a darling little Chinese girl that I just adored. She brought a new artwork or lettering piece to show me every night of that trip.

The other photos are just me having fun with art. The first love of my life. It has been a part of who I am for as long as I can remember. I couldn't imagine my life without it.