My artistic trek began with an interesting sherpa in the guise of my mother’s mother. Alice Marie Buckalew was a one of a kind. She played boogie woogie/blues piano and sang along in an uninhibited fashion. St. Louie Woman was her theme song. She was also an avid self-taught oil painter. My first art lessons were alongside her in her studio, at that time, in Oklahoma. In my thirteenth year I lived with her and my brother. My brother was avidly pursuing football while I moved paint around on a canvas. There were lots of crazy adventures during that period. Once she reported her car had been stolen from the Safeway directly across the street from the police station. They asked if it was a 1964 LeMans. When she said yes, they told her that she’d left the car in neutral and it had rolled across the street and into their parking lot.

I eventually found my scholastic bearing in OU’s art school getting a BFA in painting.  There will always be that thirteenth year with an eccentric grandmother as a guide to follow your own path.