At Seventeen

I was rummaging through my old portfolio case to find some things I wanted to add to a new sketchbook blog I am designing. Thanks to the creative muses on blogland I have fallen in love with pencils and sketchbooks again. For the past twenty five years I have dedicated my art to painting, illustrating and crafting. My sketchbooks and pencils are only used for planning new paintings. After seeing so many sketching artists on the Internet I have been inspired to begin again. I enjoy using my computer with graphics and now the world of blogging has opened up a new dimension in creativity and networking with other artists.

As I looked through some of my original work I thought about how at seventeen I had such insight without any fear. Somewhere along the line I left me, got married, got divorced, had a career in Manhattan, moved to Princeton, got married, had two daughters, moved to Hong Kong, then to Canada, back to Princeton and now arrived in New England. Somewhere along the line I got back to being the person I was at seventeen. Unfortunately, with alot more wrinkles but in my spirit I feel like seventeen. Inside I still have all those dreams about what I would like to do, but perhaps with a greater sense of confidence.

Some of the sketches look like they would be totally in style right now. Back then I wanted to be a Fashion illustrator and I have many fashion sketches that look like I just designed them for young Hollywood. The styles are so similar. Perhaps my sketches have waited for me, reminding me that at seventeen I had nothing but dreams, without fear I believed anything was possible. The years made me less brave for a while and now in my fifties I feel alive with the feeling that anything is possible again and I have lost the self-consciousness of my youth. This song was popular when I was seventeen, but somehow it fits me better now, I do slow down to embrace life.

I love being an artist and recording not only words in journals but sketches that seem to memorize moods, feelings and mark the chapters of my life. Perhaps that is why the creative muses who live in blogland have reunited me with my old love. Sketching as an art is so exciting. I really love being in my fifties, this chapter is quite remarkable...you have the gift of wisdom from your life experience, but feel the joy that you held when you were seventeen. This song by Simon and Garfunkel was one of my favorites when I was seventeen...but today I can really be what the lyrics of the song sing about and I'm still feel'n groovy after all these years!

"Slow down, you move too fast, you've got to make the morning last
Just kickin' down the cobble-stones, lookin' for fun and feelin' groovy

Feeling groovy

Hello lamp-post, what's cha knowing, I've come to watch your flowers growin'
Ain't cha got no rhymes for me, do-it-do-do, feelin' groovy

Feeling groovy

I've got no deeds to do, no promises to keep
I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me

Life I love you, all is groovy"

The song for this post is sung by Simon and Garfunkel The 59th Street Bridge Song