A while back we visited the Fenimore Cooper Art Museum, in Cooperstown New York. There on display were paintings by Grandma Moses. What a special time that was for me. Her life and work has not only inspired me through the years, but I've often thought of how my first attempts at drawing and painting, were somewhat like her life's work. Seventh grade, art class comes to mind and I'm remembering a winter scene. The setting a small park, snow on the ground, a frozen pond and children ice skating. I received an A+ for my efforts and became convinced that I was an artist. Years would pass, but not until my children were school age, would I take drawing and painting classes, taking up where I had left off. I dabbled in art for a while, but life's necessities came first. Having read about Grandma Moses in recent times, I've been inspired once again. What an amazingly resilient woman she was. After losing her husband and with the children grown, she found herself alone at sixty-six. She refused to give in to loneliness or step back in life. She took up the challenge of painting and her last years glowed like a beautiful sunset. She would have produced around fifteen hundred paintings by her death at the age of one hundred and one. She had begun painting at seventy-five. An ordinary farmer's wife, she had never studied painting. While reflecting back over her life, she was quoted as saying "I look back on my life like a good day's work. It was done and I feel satisfied with it. I was happy and contented. I knew nothing better and made the best out of what life offered. Life is what we make it; Always has been, always will be." Be blessed and inspired today....Dee Dee
