About 20 years ago, I fell in love with painting and have been trying to turn a flat surface into a three-dimensional picture ever since. Little did I know when this journey started that the greatest joy I'd receive would not be from any painting I might do but would be from the friendships I made along the way. For eight years, 2004-2011, I painted at Dollywood during their Harvest Festival. The management, employees, and craftspeople become your "Dollywood Family". You share the sweltering heat at the opening of the season, the beautiful, clear fall days in the middle, and the frigid cold and some days snowfall at the end of the season. Every year you look forward to reuniting at Harvest time and learning what has happened in the lives of this special family since the year before. Many days, the Park would be at capacity, 10,000+ people. Folks from all over the world come to visit and enjoy Dollywood. They love our mountain culture, art, crafts, food, and music. And, of course, they all love Dolly. What could be more inspiring than knowing that a piece of your artwork went home to be enjoyed by someone in Germany, Norway, England, Scotland, Japan, Australia, and Canada as well as a number of states in the good old USA.

I belong to several art organizations including The Tennessee Artists Association. This is a dedicated group of artists that I am proud to call my friends. We paint together, travel together, party together, and learn together. Twice a year TAA has an exhibit of members' work. These are extraordinary shows that are planned a year in advance. In March of 2019, the exhibit will be at The Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center in Townsend, and in September 2019 at the Emporium Gallery in Knoxville. One event that I and several members enjoy traveling to is the Portrait Society of America's Annual Convention. The world's best portrait artists gather there to demonstrate and share their skills. It was at one of these events that I met famed Artist Raymond Kinstler who has painted more U.S. Presidential Portraits than any other artist. I particularly enjoyed his story of painting President George Bush at the Bush Ranch in Texas. He said he was there about a month and made eleven attempts at a portrait before one was accepted. It now hangs in the National Gallery which is one of several museums that TAA friends have visited together as well as The High Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (No, I didn't see Rocky running up the steps, but I did see an amazing display of the world's finest art.)

Painting gives me many gifts. The gift of creativity, of recording history for future generations, adventure, travel, and the gift of sharing this craft with other people. It is therapy at its best. But the greatest gift of all is that of the friends that Stan and I have made along the way.