The power of painting

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.
Albert Einstein (www.brainyquote.com)

While in Colorado a few weeks ago, my sister Cheryl, her daughter Jordan, my daughter Grace, and I took a fun painting class at a place called Canvas and Cocktails.  Cheryl had been before and suggested we all do it together.  I am so glad she did!   #14 Start painting again. I hadn't even thought of my list when she had the idea, but now I am a little step closer to marking this off.

The reason  I used the word "again" when making my list is that art and painting have played a big part of my life.  When I started college my major was art.  I loved all my classes--art history, ceramics, screen printing, painting, drawing, sculpture, you name it. Of course, this is before I changed majors to become a teacher.  However, visiting an art museum is still my idea of  fun!  The most amazing art museum that I have had the honor of visiting is the MOMA in New York City.  The Museum of Modern Art has some of the most famous and beautiful pieces ever, including The Starry Night by Van Gogh.


Something I notice about myself when I am painting, drawing, or whatever, is that it does something to me. The best way I can describe it is that I am transported.  Everything else around me fades away and I could do it for hours.  As many of you know, I battled cancer six years ago, Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  When I made it through that tough time in my life, I felt the strong desire to paint or create something  to try an express what I went through.  I drew many pictures, wrote many poems, and started one painting but never finished it. Being a cancer survivor is a weird thing.  That experience had a part in shaping who I am, but on a different level I wish I could just forget it.  I guess the better I started feeling after cancer treatment, the more I wanted to "move on" and so I stopped painting.  Maybe because I didn't like where it transported me to.  So, crossing #14 off my list is going to have to include me finishing my cancer painting, but at least the darling tulips we all painted at Canvas and Cocktails was a start!  Here's a photo of all four of us with our masterpieces.

Chef School...CHECK!

I could hardly wait to write this post to all of you!  The cooking class in Boulder at the Escoffier Culinary School was AMAZING!  Here is a pic of me holding the Pad Thai noodles that I made!  I don't think that smile left my face all evening...

My sister, Cheryl, and I went to the school and met with 7 other students for the evening.  Our teacher was Chef Suzanne Rudolph.  We started in the classroom and the chef went over safety in the kitchen, different ingredients used in Thai cooking, and explained all the recipes.  OK, OK...I admit I was a little excited so I pretty much answered all her questions that she posed to the class, rather than give other people the chance to answer questions.  I can't help it, I was pumped!  Instead of everyone making EVERYTHING on the menu, we broke up into teams and signed up for different parts of the meal.  I, of course, signed up for the noodles.  Cheryl signed up for making red curry paste, which is a complicated recipe in which she had to toast, grind, and mix a multitude of spices.  You go, girl!  Chef Suzanne even complimented her!

The menu for the evening was: Tom Kha Gai (spicy chicken soup with coconut milk), roasted red chile sauce, Panang Nua (Panang meatballs), red curry paste, Pad Thai, cucumber salad, and mango sticky rice.  Everything was delicious, but that sticky rice was fantastic!

Cheryl and I were so nervous at the start of class.  Once we were dismissed from the classroom we took our recipes out into this industrial kitchen and got started.  Chef Suzanne and her two assistants, Helena and Cleora walked around and gave us tons of help.  In the meantime, there are cooking classes going on for the culinary students.  It was fun to see them walking by with their pots and pans and see the food they were making.  In one kitchen they must have been working on baking breads because they had all sorts of amazing  smelling breads they were pulling out of the ovens.  I count the evening a success because we cooked, we ate, and we left with all our fingers intact!!

The evening was a dream come true and it is with great satisfaction that I mark off  #8 Chef school or cooking classes.  I know I will want to take more classes in the future, but this was a good start!  Oh, here's a picture of Cheryl, Chef Suzanne, and I.