A Year Of Firsts For Me

This may be my 51st year on this planet, but it is one marked by many firsts and yesterday was no exception.
1.  I retired from my position as Business Administrator of 27 years.
2.  More than doubled the number of individuals that call me "Grandma" after the birth of my 3 new adorable grandbabies.   Sept, Nov and Jan saw the Townsend Clan greatly multiply and if you have the joy of being a grandparent, you know just how exciting that can be.


These are personal changes but I have also experienced a complete career change.  It has always been my childhood dream to someday be considered and "Artist".  Now that I have time to pursue my passion I am seeing a number of exciting new developments in 2013 already.

1.  My art is hanging in a small co-op gallery down in the heart of the Las Vegas art district.  It's just a tiny wall, but it is a start to have my work publically displayed on a regular basis

2.  This past month saw the publication of the magazine article in Gold Prospectors Magazine that featured my love of painting Nevada and it's rich mining history.

3.  March also saw me selling my first piece of original work and 2 prints (thanks to the exposure that the magazine article provided) to STRANGERS.  Collectors unknown to me and are spending their hard earned money because they like my painting rather than buying it because they know me.

"Dreams in Shades of Gold" packed up and ready to ship off to a new home.

4.  It is only the 2nd day of April and I'm sitting here considering another first.  I have been contacted by a company in California that specializes in mining equipment to paint an original piece that they want to hang in their store and also use as the image on their business cards.  They have offered to allow me to add my website address to the cards for self promotion.  This is what I think you call a "Commission".  My FIRST!



You know when I turned 50, I thought that was a really BIG deal.  Who would know that being 51 would be SO much more exciting!

Small World

I was just thinking today about when you are almost 50, as I am soon approaching...you have an interesting perspective on the world.  I have clear memories of my youth when technology hadn't yet expanded our neighborhood to include the entire planet.  Yet, I'm young enough to be somewhat comfortable with today's technology.  For example.. I love my smart phone, my social media connections like Facebook and twitter and of course, as you can see here, I am trying to be a blogger.

What a contrast to the the days of my youth when I traveled to school in a horse drawn wagon...(Just kidding) but in the minds of today's youth it might as well have been because they just can't imagine a time when the main communication consisted of mailing letters and waiting weeks for a reply.  And who can forget the telephone party line.  In Eldon, Missouri we didn't just share the phone line but we also shared phone rings.  At my house we answered the phone if it was a long and a short ring, but we could also hear the neighbors phone ring.   Maybe it would be two long rings or two short rings.  Believe me when I say, there were no hour long teenage phone conversation allowed.  The world at that time was small and the ability most of us had to impact that world was equally small.  

Today, I'm at lunch, when I received an IM from my Facebook account from a young girl in Saudi Arabia that likes my paintings and is anxious for me to see her newest piece.  Can you believe it... I'm actually encouraging a young artist in a completely foreign culture to my own, with thousands of miles separating us and many years between us and yet... there she is talking to me excitedly telling me about her new painting...Yasmeen, you did a beautiful job on your painting and without knowing it you have greatly inspired a middle-aged, American woman learning to fire that passion for art in her own life.