Rick was born with a pencil in one hand and a sketch book in the other. While he never used the walls as a drawing surface, every other surface was fair game. He loved to draw, mainly monsters and other scary things. When he was in third grade, the class had an assignment to describe what they wanted to be when they grew up. Rick wrote “When I grow up I want to be a cow”. I can only assume that writing, as most of the boys did, a policeman or fireman or astronaut would have taken too much time…

As Rick progressed through school; there was a consistent theme to the parent-teacher conferences: Rick is doing fine but could do much better if he didn’t spend so much time drawing. All of his school work had drawings, some quite detailed, covering the back and even sometimes the front of the paper. When he graduated from high school, he went to the local community college for one semester and then started at the Art Institute of Seattle.

It was hard having him in Washington while I was in California but at least he was following his dream. Until he was eight weeks from graduation of the two year program… I’ll never forget the phone call “Mom, I’m going to take a break; I can’t draw right now”. During the course of a few calls, I remember at one point calmly – okay, not so calmly – telling him that I didn’t care if he drew a stick figure, just graduate!

But take a break he did, for about 10 years. Then he went back and finished his degree. And as so often happens, he was right to take the time off. He’s developed his own unique style and is doing quite well with it. His art awes me. I don’t know where the talent comes from, certainly not from his father or me. It is uniquely his own.

And Rick and I both look forward to the day when he can tell his primary, middle, and high school teachers “See, I don’t use the arithmetic but the drawing sure paid off!”

I hope you enjoy the art as much as I do.