ANOTHER REASON TO HONOR THE INNER CHILD

Ok, so this my memory of the Yellow Submarine and, to those who know me, it is no surprise that is my grandson's trip underseas. The picture came about because he was part of the first crowd to see the new Aquarium in San Francisco. For a short period in his life that I hope repeats itself, his joy came from seeing life underwater...fish, octupus, turtles, etc. I love the excitement that comes when he moves to a new interest, partly because I still have a kid in me that moves from one fascination to the next. I often feel that this feeling is immature, that I should stick with a set of interests for a while. But the truth is that I want that same fascination all over again and I head for it. I am a fascination junkie.

Last night the gallery I belong to had a reception for one of our plein air painters. He finds his fascination in local scenes, and the ever-changing light and color of landscapes everywhere. But as I get to know him I know his paintings are appealing because he is happy when he is creating them....the whole process, standing in changing weather, painting fast and by instinct after years of practice and always finding something new that he can add to the process. It is this happiness and energy that we feel when we see his work.

In a conversation last night, a supporter of the gallery said my art makes him happy because it makes him feel like a child. He also said that one of my prints from the north reminds him of Chinese art. He had lived in China when he was younger. He did not evaluate my art, just told me how it made him feel, and picked a logical reason why he liked it. I think what he could feel was that I was happy and somewhat full of childlike abandon while creating the art. There is something inside of me that believes others can share the feelings we have while creating someting when they see it.

I admire people who spend as much of their time possible doing what makes them feel full of energy. Often when we do things that make us happy, we refuse to feel like we have done any work. When I wrote one of my picture books, I kept trying to find things to improve in it because it wasn't as hard to write as some of my others. My editor finally said, "Not everything needs to be hard to be good." Somehow we have equated work and quality with sacrifice, and if things are easy, we feel we should be "working" on something harder. I would like to think that working on our own happiness is the best career we could have, and while it may take energy, it is good energy, a chidllike energy that other people can enjoy as well.