Day 13 of 100 Faces in 100 days

My lucky number .. 13. I was born on Friday the 13th. So growing up I always heard that it was a bad luck day but I always also thought how could it be a bad day if I was born? SO ...i reclaimed it as a lucky day. I do know that my mother was happy to give birth to me that day and told me many times that this was the day ......let's get on with it. I was her second baby. I am now the middle child ... haha .. first girl second baby. I bet you'll figure it out.

Growing up we lived in Africa. Back then my grandmother asked my mom how she could take her grandbabies to the dark continent. That's what she called it. Every summer when we were not in school we went back to the US. I think my artistic interests were sparked then. My mom and dad used to plan our trips to the states so we got to see Europe. My mother made sure we went to every museum and art gallery that we could go too while we were in a new place. I always enjoyed this. So early in my life I was drawing faces. I remember one summer we didn't leave to go stateside as soon as school let out. So I think we did some kind of summer camp there in Ethiopia. We were at a small military installation there and it is now Eritrea. I recall drawing faces and girls in particular. Other little girls would come over and ask me to draw their girls hair.. they'd drawn the face but couldn't figure out how to put hair on the girl. I laugh when i think of this .. it is a fond memory for some reason because it was the first time that I felt like I was doing something I liked. And people wanted me to help them. It was a good feeling to be able to do this for them. I was proud. Some where in there I kept going with the art and I perfected coloring when a neighbor girl that was older showed me how to make the coloring look pretty. Then since we were a small American school in a foreign country there were probably less than thirty students in each grade. I think it was my fifth grade teacher that was an art teacher who taught us all the subjects. He was a bit wild but he always inserted a lot of art in his teaching. I even remember painting a vase on some Ethiopian newspaper. It was the first time I had worked on shading. So many experiences that have influenced me in my artistic endeavors. I am grateful. And glad that I have taken this leap of faith in doing a daily painting. I was up early this morning excited to get started. This is a very good thing. Thanks for taking a minute to read and check out my work. Today's painting is a lucky $13. Message me if you are interested. I will go by the time on the requests to see who will be the lucky purchaser. I am filled with gratitude. My joy is abounding. May your day be filled with boundless joy as well. :)