Once, we were PAINTERS!

So, long ago before we schlepped our meager belongings across the entire country and started a new life, we were painters. All three of us! In our cabin deep in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California we’d occasionally have the time to drag an empty canvas to the studio and slap some paint on it. Frankie and the Bee were the more spontaneous artists, discovering where they were going on the way there and I was the uptight pre-planned type (probably  due to my colorblindness I guess). Frankie and I would share shows, her brightly colored esoteric and hauntingly beautiful paintings went well with the colors I was using on my paintings of tin toys (I also needed a theme to get me started) and Bailey would usually have some really cool superhero girls to hang. Bailey would also set up a spot to draw near the cash register and sell art hot off the sketchbook to any takers. The photos in this post are from a newspaper story the Fresno Bee did about our artistic family.

Nowadays, I spend all my time cartooning or doing various gigs to add to the family income while Frankie has embarked on a career counseling substance abusers (a difficult but rewarding gig that leaves one worn pretty thin at the end of the day) and Bailey? She’s in Art Boot Camp at  the North Carolina School of the Arts. She paints her butt off! I’ll do a post about that school and the amazing students there soon.

So, I’m pretty content cranking out as many cartoons as I can as fast as I can. It satisfies my need to be creative and hopefully will pay off one of these days. But, I need to figure out a way to give Frankie the time and peace she needs to get back to the canvas. Her paintings are gorgeous and I could look at them for the rest of my life, always finding something new about them to enjoy. Bailey? Hell, I just have to grab a couple of hers to hang onto before they all disappear. That kid is going places!!

So, here’s a snapshot of our creative family back in the cabin…and here’s to seeing some new paintings by  the women I love!!