Bent

There's somewhat of a creative bent in my family. 

We were all surprised a few years ago when Dad, who is a consummate writer and had started to jot down his memories, pulled out some sketches he did as a kid - they were pretty good. 

One of us, all of which had grown up with the ready answer to the question on the origins of Wild Wings: "No, dad isn't an artist, he can't draw a lick, he's just a really good salesman" asked him "Why didn't you become a wildlife artist then dad?" 

"I'm not patient enough." he answered. 

But he was patient enough for photography. The first thing he bought out of the service, where he was an aerial photographer in the South Pacific, was a $600 Speed Graphics 5 x 7 format camera (that was a ton of dough back then for a 21 year-old without a car or college education.) 

Over the years we "suffered" through endless family photos. Some of us weren't always cooperative - see my first cognitive family portrait experience in Christmas 1964.

So it was no surprise when some of his photos were accepted into a World War II exhibit a few years back at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. 

Mom on the other hand, we knew had no artistic abilities. Until she won a blue ribbon at the state fair for one of her rugs. I guess we'd missed the manifestations of her creativity throughout the years - as she focused on raising seven animated kids - our house that's been in the family for over a century, outfitted with old cool art, furniture and antiques; or her eye for style: "You're an Autumn Andrew, you shouldn't wear pink, you need to wear peach…" and "Not that one, can't you see this tie has blue in it, so it goes with that shirt?" 

Then she started rug hooking (a good representation of this 200 year-old pastime is on Wikipedia - she dyed and cut her own wool, creating works exploding with color. See one of mom's rugs here.

And Kip (Christopher), well, Kip's art you just gotta see. He studied fine art at Parson's in NYC, he worked in a bronze foundry, as a farrier blacksmithing, metalworking and currently works as a graphic designer.

IMHO, his talents are only preceded by his sense of humor - a common trait in our family. If you do nothing else, look at Pug.

The rest of the family demonstrate their passions in a venue only the eye, palate and nose can appreciate - the kitchen (it was dad who taught mom how to cook, and mom in turn got us all started at an early age making whatever we wanted - I was baking by 10, my sister's deserts are to die for, etc.) 

A link to some of my photography follows: Photos.

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