I've been doing some form of "art" for as long as I can remember. I think it was around preschool when it all started. I say preschool because I think that was when I started having the ear aches that had me going to the doctor all the time. My doctor was fantastic and I had him for my entire childhood. I liked him so much I would draw things for him. My mom told me years later that he pulled her to the side after I had given him a drawing and told me she should encourage it as I showed a natural aptitude for it. So, she did as well as she could with no money, and thus an artist was born. By the time I hit puberty, I had already done every kind of art you could imagine from drawing to sculpture, from sewing to music. The only thing I hadn't gotten into was oil paint. I tried it once when I was about 17 and was frustrated by it. I didn't know anyone else doing it, and this was pre-internet. So, I left that paint-that-seemed-to-never-dry behind. Many years later--late 2024 to be exact--I picked it back up. My past forays into acrylics and watercolor did not prepare me for the complexity, versatility and joy of oils. I only wish I had started earlier.