So Vicki has an artist friend who finds it difficult to paint in the summer. Fellow authors, let us shed a few tears for this poor oppressed artist. If only I could be so lucky as to have the talent she has. Maybe I was born too late. I picture myself out in the fresh air with my easel, my staw hat, my canvas and my tubes of paint creating masterpieces that would hang in museums all over the world. Passersby would stop and stare in awe at the landscapes I'd painted. I'd be lumped with Monet, Monet, Pissarro and Renoir. The money would roll in. Although living the simple country life, I wouldn't really need it. Goodbye 21st century with your computers, e-mail and Internet. I've returned to the 19th century and I don't miss cars, TV or rap music. As for writing those books I used to do, painting looks so much easier. Just blob some paint on the canvas, stand back and give it a name. Like - "View From My Adjustable Recliner Chair." Or "Exhausted Author in Overgrown Garden." "Deserted Desk." " or "Former Writer in Hammock" That's what's called Impressionism!
What would you be if you weren't an author? Artist? Psychotherapist? Veterinarian?
12 comments:
I was a full-time freelancer writing non-fiction books and articles when I went into real estate, chiefly because I missed talking to people. I loved my new career from the beginning and thought I had left the writing life behind. HA! Not to be! Now I juggle the two and enjoy using different types of energy at different times. Possible moral of the story: the need to write is in our DNA. Carol, if you became an artist you would no doubt be penning mysteries about a watercolorist stabbed through the heart with a paint-smeared brush. Or a how-to for the aspiring sculpter.
I think we all feel the urge to "unplug" and that is part of what you are voicing...
I think when you do something i the arts, such as writing or painting, it chooses you not yhe other way around.
Giggles and Guns
I'd be a painter, just for the reasons you and Vicki describe. So appealing...
For me, it's not what would I be if not an author. Being a writer is my "what if" career. Growing up, I always told people I was going to be a writer. However, I have spent 37 years in law, as either a legal secretary or a paralegal. For me, the question was: "what would you be if not a paralegal?" One day, I said enough and followed the path to being what I always wanted to be when I grew up. Although I enjoy my legal career, it doesn't make my heart sing like writing. As exhausting and frustrating as it can be, I am pursuing my dream.
I would have been a bareback rider in the circus, wearing a spangly costume and standing on the back of a beautiful white horse.
(Hiya, Carol ... welomce!)
A bareback rider in the circus, Deb? Now "that" I'd like to see.
I've tried a little of everything. Painting ... I painted one picture and didn't feel the need to do a second. (Yeah, it was that good. ;) I've been a musician, done community theatre. I guess I have to agree with Mary, writing become the one thing that I really seemed passionate enough about to stick with. So, I guess you could say, it chose me.
Umm...well, I always said I wanted to be a writer. Because, actually, that's all I *can* do! :) You talented people have it easy...
I need to write. But I also understand the summertime conflict. My physiology sends me urgent messages to get outside and work in the garden. I do a lot of food preservation in the summer, so I always feel pulled in two directions at once. One of the reason I love autumn!
I'd be a whitewater rafting guide in the summer and a work for a ski resort in the winter, as an instructor, patroller, or whatever. I wouldn't earn much money, but hey, I don't earn that much now, either! :)
I wanted to be the first woman astronaut. Then I found out NASA isn't interested in prospective astronauts who get car sick! So I gave up on flying to the moon and decided to star in Broadway musicals. Guess what? Broadway isn't interested in singers who can't carry a tune or dancers with two left feet!
Oh, Lois, a Broadway musical star is just what I always wanted to be and still do. I know all the songs, but I hear you really have to stay on tune and actually dance, true??
Deborah, don't give up on your dream, they are actively recruiting bareback riders (high attrition rate). Get your spangly costume ready.
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