I had an old box of slides in my garage, but no slide projector. This past week, I tried putting the slides on my Lightbox and shooting them with my phone.

My Dad shot these pictures of me by our house in Liberia when during my senior year of high school.

My first day at GRSBM, September 1979.

Today we went downtown Grand Marais, to Harbor Park, where chalk and disinfecting wipes were left out.

This morning I finally realized that it was the invention of photography that opened the door to modern art.

Photography meant that art was no longer needed to create images of the world. This freed painters to create abstract images of self expression without representing objects or scenes.

Reporting physical facts was no longer the primary function of art.

Watercolor, gouache and ink on paper.

I grew up with a lot of self doubt and low self esteem. This lack of confidence did not lend itself to my recognizing that I am a creative person. I enjoyed drawing, that wasn’t the issue. It’s in realizing and being comfortable saying “I am an artist.”

I overthink things, and in my own mind, I magnify my faults and failures.

When I say I am a painter, it means I paint. When I say I am an artist, it means I express myself through art. I don’t have to compare myself or my work to anyone else.

I can’t remember a moment of decision or epiphany when I knew that this is what I wanted to do. From an early age, it was just something I did. It was who I was… my identity.

There were no other artists in my immediate family, although I was very impressed by my brother’s illustrations of fish. I didn’t do well in school as a child, so my parents encouraged my art, either because they thought I had some talent, or because I didn’t show promise in another area.

My earliest creative memories are drawing with crayons in the basement while my mother ironed.

There was a black and white tv in the basement, and mom was watching Walter Cronkite on the news one day. I thought he could see me, and so when mom wasn’t looking, I made faces at him. He didn’t respond.

To draw, I guess you need spatial awareness and dexterity. To be an artist, I think you need imagination to express your ideas or emotions through any of the many artistic mediums.

We all have emotions and ideas, and most people have a certain amount of dexterity. Expression is the trait that makes an artist.