[Woodcarver] success

[maricha]

wow, Joe thank you for the question. 

 success wealth prosperity... what is it really... art the language of the soul.
with all the wonderful replies to this wonderful question, who am i to put two bits in. yet i am compelled to do so, if it will help.  

art has always been such a precious gift that i have felt like a tool, trying to do the best with  whatever pallete, tools, time etc. you have. i always felt it was such a great gift, that i treated art with respect and love and always tried to do the best i could do. as a child of 5 i remember needing to do little sculptures but with no material to work with, the only thing left was soap.... so i used to make little figures in soap, or faces etc.  .....but of course was in trouble, because during the war ... soap was such a luxury and in the tropics....bathing and soap is a necessity.....yet i felt something special about carving the soap, like saying thank you for the wonderful gift. at times of anguish and despair, what transported me to a wonderful haven was painting carving or creating..in times of sorrow, desperation, and near death, it brought life and sanity.  art is  such a sacred emotional and reasoning  power that brought peace and joy and comfort to my parents siblings ( 6 siblings survived) and myself. i did not understand a lot of this 'art' business.... alll i knew was that it was like breathing and being alive..... so like all of you lots of things are tried, and one learns so much about life, and the need to survive and eat, and what is success.....?   to me success after winning lots of prices, scholarships, selling works of art, and what not....success is nothing.... what is successful is that that precious true gift is still with me in my old age, i respect it, i treasure it and it keeps me alive... now after surviving a war, immigrating to a new country and starting a life of a kind of 'refugee'  being a mother, sister, wife, grandmother, i am still surprised that i  am the recipient/tool of such such a great gift... and that i have been given it... so , i keep trying to improve, day and night, how i can say thank you properly to jesus for giving me such a gift.... so in preparing for my exhibition to say thank you, i have gone back to my sketches and drawings, (more than 40 years of not touching brushes or pencils) and I did some sketches of my grandson and husband and loved ones....and asked my daughter to come with me as i was not sure if i  should frame my work....my daughter (who is an art teacher and never says much...) for the first time saw my drawings .... all she said  was .. wow, mom... and tears rolled down her eyes, then my tears rolled down my eyes.... nothing was said... then theproprietor/ framing lady said ... she had seen a lot of work but would not frame this unless i signed them......then an artist who frequents the place for frames said .., if i was the artist who did that, because it has something....i would put my name in great big letters....... 

all i can say is, i am so fortunate to have this chance, which is what i call success.... it has made me a better person and kept me sane, and my models, such as my grand children, husband and other models are angels, sacred wonderful objects for us to work with and bring out the beauty and illumination that comes from heaven. 

cheers
maricha
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