The Reality of
Dreaming
Little did I know, when I left the corporate arena to go to college full-time to study fine arts it would be a dream realized. In the corporate world, I had reinvented myself many times due to moving as my husband’s career skyrocketed. At one point, we racked up nine moves in fifteen years. Experiencing many different corporate cultures and industries was quite an accomplishment as I was challenged with finding new employment with each move.
It wasn’t until I lost my job along with 182 fellow co-workers that my path took a hairpin turn. At the time I was a purchasing manager, reporting to the President. I had started as a temporary hire to centralize their purchasing. Given five percent of the spend, I managed in 1999 to save the company $280k in eighteen months which led to earning enough of a fan base to take on the goal of completing the centralization of purchasing, as the company’s new purchasing manager. It meant creating a team and launching a quality system called ISO 9001 and TS16949. But all this came to a halt in 2006 when the company headquarters in Germany, decided to move manufacturing overseas.
While I had a glorifying letter of recommendation written by the President and several supplier representatives eager to give me leads, I hit a roadblock. I mean it was a full stop! I had a storied list of accomplishments. I had several second and a few third interviews. What I did not have was a college degree. Raised by parents who would always tell me to give eight hours if you are being paid for eight hours. They also said, leave it better than you found it, be on time and take care of your community. I grew up with a real sticktuidness attitude. At one point, thinking I was going to be offered a job, an HR administrator had invited me for a third interview. But she had a question, wanting to know where I had gone to college. When I said I had accomplished it all with a high school diploma, she informed me that they could not have me managing degreed people but if I were ever to get a degree to please reapply.
This led to the hairpin turn. After talking things over with my husband, I decided to go get a degree. But I wanted to focus on art. My husband was skeptical, which is rare, but he knew what it meant having done it himself, along with a master’s degree. To start, I took four classes to test the waters at a junior college. I had consumed a little of my husband’s apprehension. But as the saying goes, I took to it like a fish to water. What should be known was I had thought a was a bad student. I had shied away from college after high school because I could not afford it either. But I did not give it much weight. Truth be told, the weight I held was something I had not realized until many years later.
When I was thirteen, one of my three brothers drowned while with a friend at a small lake in our small town. It is a whole story in itself, but this was the unrealized weight. It had affected me more than I ever thought possible. He was Mr. 4.0, on student counsel, and it was a huge shock to our small town. My family at that time just moved past the event as back then counseling was not a thing. Like I said, there is a whole additional story here. It speaks to my self-reliance, my self-preservation and how I survived. If you want to know more, askme to write about Charlie. Now back to the hairpin turn.
My husband would tell you I have always been an artist. Maybe I did not give myself permission to indulge in a pipe dream. But here I was looking at arts programs and settled on Houston Christian University (HCU). I had signed up for a meet and greet. It was a full day, and walking on campus was as if I had arrived home. At the end of the event, I had yet to see the fine arts department. When I mentioned this, they radioed for a representative and I was whisked via a golf cart to the fine arts building. Thinking I would be there for a quick tour, I was surprised to spend the next three hours speaking to six professors one on one. I was hooked and signed up to transfer to HCU.
Time flew by and I knew I had to produce a lot of work to give my professors visuals to work with so when they said do 35 works of art this term, I would do 70 works. They would critique and have me look at other artists. They were introducing me to new materials and artists. I was so drawn in to the processbecause they were helping me find my art voice. It wasn’t until I responded to an internship with Wade Wilson’s art gallery that I started to believe I was moving towards a life with art. I interviewed and got the internship, but it was at a staff meeting one Saturday at the gallery that blew me away.
Unbeknownst to me, Wade had been peaking into my studio at school. That Saturday, at a staff meeting Wade announced that he was planning an event for emerging artists. He had chosen seven artists. He started listing them for us and number seven he announced was me! I was shocked. Someone believed in my art. He asked me to bring in a few works for consideration. I brought in at least 20 works of art. He chose ten, earmarking one for himself. While they were laid out on the floor a collector came into the gallery. He popped in to see Wade but ended up asking if one of my works was spoken for because he wanted it! Wade chose ten for the show. Three were sold before the event opened and a fourth was sold on opening night.
