I was recently reminded of a remark made to me by my then 8 year old.  She had come home from school and was sitting at the dining room table, when she looked up at me and said “Mom, I’m going to be an artist when I grow up.”  Like all mothers who are preoccupied with other things going on around them, I said she could be anything she wanted to be.

At the time I really thought it was a phase.  You see her father had just bought her an artist kit.  Not a kids size one, but an adult kit.  He made sure I understood that she was to have complete access to all drawing materials right away.  He had taken the time to show her how to use pastels and watercolor pencils.  I threatened him with bodily harm, should he introduce her to oils until she was older.

I never realized how important it was to my husband that our daughter be exposed to this side of art.  He is an artist himself; the difference is he deals in three-dimensional art.  He told me when he was young and he would be drawing a car, his father would come up behind him and hit him across the head.  He would tell him that he would never amount to anything if he continued that pursuit.  That he needed to concentrate on getting a “real job”, and to stop wasting his time.

My husband harbors that resentment to this day.  Fortunately, he didn’t heed his father’s advice.  He recently retired from a major automobile company after 33 years as an Industrial Sculptor.  For those of you who don’t know what that is, basically they take a one-dimensional drawing from the designers and produce a full size model of the automobile in clay.

Back to our daughter.  When she was 12, she had an art teacher in school tell her she had no talent.  She was devastated.  When she came home crying, her younger brothers were ready to defend her.  Her mother and father had different reactions.  I immediately called the school and asked to set up a meeting with this teacher.  My husband came home from work, and asked her what she wanted.  She wanted to be an artist.
He said ok, if that is what you want to be, then we will get you the training you need.

My husband in his calm way assured our daughter, and our sons, they could be anything they wanted to be. They did not need anyone else to give their approval.  They had our backing.

Our daughter was enrolled in an art college in our area.  They had student programs for children. It taught them the basics.  After the first summer course, our daughter talent carried her through her senior year in high school.  She went every summer, from 7th grade on paid for with student scholarships.

Throughout high school she received many awards for her art.  And the teacher from 7th grade, she took all the credit!

She continued through Art College and now has a wonderful job with another auto company designing cars.  She has sold a few of her watercolors and is having her first show in January 2008.  

I really believe that the calm way, in which my husband reassured her that she could be an artist if she wanted, was his way of telling his father that art is a career.  Unfortunately, my father in law passed away before admitting to his son that what he did for a living was a career and not a pipe dream.

Two of our four children are artists.  Our other two children are following their dreams.  They have always had our backing no matter what they pursued; just as we have theirs in our later years.

I wanted to share this true story with my readers.  Parents today have a busy schedule that often times their children’s’ dreams either get pushed to the back or thought to be a phase.  Listen to your children…it is the best gift you can give them.