How Art Captured my Imagination

sketch of art cabinet*

approx 9" x 8" graphite on paper

People often ask me how I got started in art. I was first introduced to the world of art as a kid.

My father graduated from The Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts). In our basement was a large storage cabinet from his college days. I remember looking through the drawers and finding all kinds of treasures – charcoal and graphite pencils, old sketchbooks, pastels - it was a wonderland!

Occasionally my dad would take out his sketchbook and draw.  I was amazed at how he could make the object he was looking at appear on the page. And I wished I could do that too.

But I didn’t spend much time drawing as a kid. I do remember coloring a lot. But I also liked to do other kid stuff like ride my bike and play outside and watch TV and read.

After graduating from college and starting my job as a chemical engineer, I wanted to try a new hobby, and I wanted it to be something that was very different from what I did all day at work.

A creative hobby seemed to fit that bill. Remembering the cabinet from my parent’s basement, I decided to sign up for a drawing class at a local community college.

I loved the class from the very first night. Although I didn’t know then that I would someday sell my work, I did know that creating art was something I hoped to do for a very long time.

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* The sketch above was created mostly from memory. I did find an image of a cabinet online that seemed similar in style to the cabinet my dad has but the one in the picture was much smaller. Looking at my sketch now, I'm not sure dad's cabinet is this deep or that it has legs. I will say that as a child this cabinet seemed HUGE to me.