When I was in seventh grade, my art teacher randomly assigned each student in the class a month of the year and the task was to draw a picture about what that month represented to us. I got March

and it meant nothing to me. While everyone else was hard at work I could not think of a single thing to draw and sat there feeling discouraged. I knew St. Patrick's Day was in March, but not being Irish it didn't matter to me. The clock ticked and ticked and it was getting towards the end of the class and I still hadn't drawn anything. Then all of a sudden it dawned on me that St. Patrick's Day meant Shamrock Shakes at McDonald's...and I LOVED those things. I had a burst of inspiration and flew into action. I drew a rainbow leading to Shamrock Shake Trees with Leprechaun's happily dancing around them. I think I had a pot of gold in there somewhere, but I don't remember how it fit in. I was proud of my work and thought for sure the teacher would love it too. When she handed back the graded assignments she held about ten of them back to show the class. I was sure mine would be one of the drawings she'd talk about, but it wasn't.:

: When I got my drawing back I turned it over and it said: 75% and her only comment was:
"What is this, an ad for McDonald's?":

:
I can't tell you how sunk I felt after reading that comment. Here I went from having no ideas to having what I thought was a really good one and my art teacher, the authority figure in my life, hated it. I felt so judged and misunderstood. If only she knew the agonizing process I had gone through to complete the assignment, and if only she could have seen the imagination involved instead of the unintended commercialism, maybe then she wouldn't have judged me so harshly. From that point on I lost confidence in myself as an artist. I went from loving art (it was my favorite class at the time) to not wanting anything to do with it. I stopped taking classes in art as soon as it was no longer mandatory.
Many years later I realized I needed to have art back in my life. I started creating things that I thought were really cool and enjoyed doing so. It was only during this past week after an overwhelmingly positive response by the public to something I created, that I came to the conclusion that I have to trust my gut instincts. I can't be worried about what the critics are going to think because there will always be people who don't like what I do, just like there will always be people who do like what I do...that's life. The trick is to stay true to myself and create things that I find interesting and not worry about who's going to like it or who isn't. I'll find my audience...if there's even a need to have one. It's taken me almost 30 years to come to terms with this, but I think I am headed in the right direction and the wounded artist in me is beginning to heal.
