More creatures. The animals outnumber all other ornaments, save for the Christmas balls. But that is to be expected, especially since I met Michael over four years ago and discovered his heart for animals, he having grown up on a horse farm. Before I get to all the unruly bears we share space with, this ornament: a cow in overalls from my middle school art teacher, Mrs. Walker, who had an obsession with cows. Are the animals we become obsessed with totems of some sort? Do we locate some primal part of our minds in their behavior? What does it say about an artist obsessed with cows, that there is perhaps a pattern to the stereotypical white and brown or black spotted cow that draws her eye?
I think Mrs. Walker has since divorced and is remarried to an English teacher I had in the 8th grade. I did my community service requirement in high school for her, returning to Nitschmann Middle School to help out in her classroom. I lost touch with her in the ensuing years (almost 20 years ago now), but her influence on my pre-teen self — introducing me to painting, getting me in to the BAUM school of art on a free scholarship based on talent — still resonates. I may not have chosen the visual arts as my path, but they remain vital to my creative life.
