Publisher's Notes

In 2008, during my time of publsihing TPR as a newspaper, I had written and publsihed a story about an artist from Texas named Marty Caldwell.  She had won the Delta Creative Challenge and that was how I came to learn about her. 



We had conducted our interview over the phone because of logistics, (Marty was in Texas and I was in NH) but really enjoyed our conversation together.   That summer Vic and I went to the HOOT convention and we met Marty in person there.

    

(Tracy is on the left and Marty is on the right)

Marty is a very friendly woman and an extremely talented artist...just a lot of fun to be around.   We have kept in touch through email since then.  In November of 2009 Marty and her husband came to Massachusetts and Vic and I went into Boston and met them for dinner.  We had a really good time and it felt like we had been friends forever.   Decorative Painting has allowed me to meet great people that I probably wouldn't have met if it weren't for conventions and classes and such.

    Hobbies connect us with others and allow us some common ground to make new friends.   In classes we sit next to others and conversations start up.   Sometimes the common ground is poking fun at ourselves for not being able to get a technique quite right..... In one convention class my friend Leesa and I tried a new technique and found that it really wasn't for us.  We enjoyed ourselves just fine but laughed through the class at our inability to master the new method of painting.   (BUT we didn't blame the teacher).   In other classes we may make friends by being able to help the person sitting next to us or it may be that they help us.   I have seen people become friends just by discussing thier tools.  One woman had a brush that she loved and she let her neighbor try it out and before long they were going to lunch together.   One year I went out to a National convention alone.   I got off the plane in a foreign city without knowing another person.  Later during the trip I met some other ladies and was invited along to dinner and shopping with them. 



I hope your hobby brings new friendships into your future.     Tracy