Karen Hersey – My First Mentor

I have wanted to blog for a long time but kept wondering who would be interested in reading about me?  As I pondered this question, I realized that my life has certainly not been the norm.  Every morning I wake up and wonder what the day will bring? What will I create or not create?  And in the last 4 years, I have found the glorious world of words and now I contemplate what will I write today?  Using my new found passion for writing, I look forward to sharing stories about my life in this business of being an artist and now a writer and I hope that you will get to know me a bit better.

How did I become an artist in the first place?

I was twenty-one years old and half way through my undergraduate degree majoring in psychology when, in an unexpected moment, I decided to take a semester off from University.  This impulsive decision resulted in moving back home with my parents who were living in a large log home on ten acres in the middle of the bald headed prairies of southern Alberta with a view of nothing but endless skies. Living in this place changed me and I never returned to those University classrooms to complete my degree. I spent the year floating; travelling and wandering aimlessly trying to discover exactly what it was I was meant to be doing with my life.  At this point, all I knew was that psychology was not it and art could not be further from my mind.

  In October of 1994 everything changed.  Karen Hersey literally walked into my life.  There is a famous saying that when the student is ready the teacher will appear.  Karen came across me by sheer chance even though I lived forty kilometres from the nearest city and people rarely graced our front door.  A friend brought Karen to visit my Mom on that autumn day. Karen took one look at our large log home, the views of the prairies which went on forever and said to us “I want to live here!”.  We all chuckled and little did we know that within a few months she would do just that.  Meanwhile, during our first visit, over a cup of coffee, Karen looked over to me and offered to teach me to paint. I politely replied “No thank you, I have absolutely no talent when it comes to painting and drawing.”  When I was a little girl my Mom put me in art lessons and bought all the supplies but I didn’t take to it.  I had no interest in taking art in school or university.  Mom had always kept me very busy with creative projects but art had never been a part of our life when I was growing up. Mom taught me to be a custom seamstress and I made all my own clothes but painting was not my thing.  I knew little of art, I could not have told the difference between a Michelangelo or a Monet. Yet Karen was determined to teach me and refused to take no for an answer.  Despite my resistance, I took her up on her offer to teach me to paint simply because I had nothing better to do at the time. Karen was a professional artist and teacher for thirty years but due to health issues she was not painting and had plenty of time to teach me.  She was a strict teacher and insisted on abiding by the rules of fine art. Our weekly lessons began with a sketchbook and pencil as she trained me in endless art theory.  She taught me the art techniques that the Masters used and she insisted that I needed to know the Masters themselves as she handed me a 3 inch art history book and said “read this”.  I rolled my eyes and tossed the book on a shelf.   Considering I wasn’t interested in painting in the first place, my dedication to the lessons waned quickly.  The spark did not ignite until she finally handed me a paintbrush!  Hallelujah!  From that point on there was no turning back. I still have my first painting to remember those first strokes that started me on a lifelong love affair with paint.  In those early days, I had no idea of the magnitude of the gift that had been handed to me.  I could have searched everywhere for an art teacher with Karen’s qualifications as very few artists are capable of passing on the knowledge that she had.  I shudder to think of my life if I had not agreed to her generous offer.