Mary E Young
I enjoyed my early years with a cozy family in a tree-lined town in Indiana. I brushed my teeth, ate my Cheerios, kept my crayons handy, did my homework, and waved goodbye to high school. The familiar hometown college beckoned, and I walked three blocks up the street to new classrooms, a dorm full of friends, and graduation from Manchester College. Leaving the familiar Midwest nest, I traveled 7,000 miles to Korea to serve in the Peace Corps and to be served by the people of Korea. Home from the Far East, I traveled to the far east of the US in a Volkswagen Super Beetle, "The Blue Nun," which dropped me in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Maple syrup, and eventually my husband, Wayne, sweetly persuaded me to stay and make a home among the comforting hills and dirt roads. Homesteading, mothering two glorious sons, and gardening occupied the first years of this life chapter. Amidst family life, flowers, and vegetables, I attended graduate school and turned to gardening of the heart, enjoying being a psychotherapist for 30 years.
Art has always been woven through my life - as the child jubilant over crayons, the decorator of living spaces, the therapist encouraging feelings to flow through art, and even paying bills with an envelope decorated with a nodding poppy. As an adult, I had the pressed flower period, the crayon time of emergence, pastels of deep emotion, watercolors expressing the joy of the world I live in.
In the depths of winter and the wavy edge of spring of 2023, the boldness of a group called Art2Life blew a wild breath on the ember of creativity. I picked up acrylics, allowing myself to revel in the luxury of painting and repainting, scratching, collaging... and doing it all again! The cream-textured paints on my palette sing vivaciously of colors yet unknown, inviting boundless creation with every breath.
“Her life flows on in endless song …. “