When I hit a bump in my artistic flow, I start looking at my childhood and younger years to find much need inspiration, to see if I can find a direction for my art that fills me with excitement and energy.
When this happened recently, it got me think about what I wanted to be when I grew up (spoiler alert, it wasn’t an artist!) It changed several times throughout the years but it went something like this…
(if my Mum was here, I’m sure she’d tell me I had this in the wrong order and that there were a dozen other career paths I wanted to follow!)
A ballet dancer - since I’m hypermobile, I was actually quite good at ballet. Although I’m pretty sure that’s why I have arthritic toes now 🤣
A Palaeontologist - The hype of the first Jurassic Park movie had me wanting to be a Palaeontologist. I already had an interest in fossils and collecting gemstones, probably encouraged by the walking history book that is my Dad and trips to Creetown Gem Rock Museum! I also liked to collect skulls I found (putting them in a bucket of vinegar which sat at the front door for weeks until it cut through the flesh!) and I had a thing for anything dead and unusual. I was out on a bird watching walk with the Young Ornithologists Group once when I came across deceased shrew. I was so enamoured by its little features and velvety soft body that I popped it in my pocket like a talisman. Needless to say there were tears and tantrums when my Mum flat refused to let me in the car with it when she came to pick me up!
Zoo Keeper - I then wanted to work in the zoo, looking after the Giraffes. I loved Giraffes so much that I rated them equal to horses and dogs, which is weird because I’m not so obsessed by them now. Although as I’m sure you well know, dogs and horses are still my equal number ones!
And from being a zoo keeper to wanting to be a vet nurse.. not getting the grades but deciding that I would be satisfied with working in a laboratory. I was offered a job at The Roslin Institute where Dolly the Sheep was created, though I turned it down because at this point I realised that I wanted to go to art college!
I attended life drawing classes and summer school at Edinburgh Art College and went on to further build up my portfolio at Telford College. I lasted just a couple of months before being chucked out for skiving.. I was “a wasted talent”, the one tutor who got me, said. Until recently, I hadn’t regretted my choices, but as I age, I do wonder where I’d have ended up if I had actually stuck at it!
Art got sidelined as I navigated young adult life, having various retail jobs until my Mum bought the family newsagents and we moved down to Biggar, which is where Anj Art all began. But that is a blog for another day 😁