Serpentine

For those of you who don't know me, I have several unique obsessions. For example, one of these  is my strange fascination with the taste of gravy. I could eat gravy multiple times a day every day. I'm not sure why, but there's something about the savory twinge of salty taste and the liquid consistency of such texture that I simply can not ignore. Some people love their chocolate, and some people can't go without their daily coffee. Get between me and my favorite snack, and the consequences could be disastrous.

On a slightly different note, another of my obsessions includes drawing dragons. I had, and perhaps will always have a peculiar love for scaly creatures. When I was much younger I spent my summers in our backyard, hunting for snakes and bugs, pretending to be some sort of scientist, or Steve Erwin from Animal Planet. Our family would go swimming sometimes, driving out to the country, and I would fascinate myself by trying to catch the tiny brown and blue lizards that made their home among the rocky crevices where the water level had long ago abandoned. 

I remember distinctly being in the fifth grade and going to the Boys and Girls club after school until my mom was off work. They had an arts and crafts room, and it was there with some of my friends that I learned how much art meant to me. While I was there I would draw dragon after dragon, all kinds of species that I made up as I talked and laughed, having not a care in the world. I remember showing the adviser for the arts and crafts room one of my drawings, one of a particularly detailed (for a fifth grader) red and black dragon made out of coals inspired by a figurine I saw in Wal-Mart. She looked over my drawing and said to me, "You're so talented. But it's funny that you like to draw things like that." It was probably the first time I felt seriously offended by an adult. Was it funny that I had some individuality? Was it funny that I didn't like what other girls my age liked? I didn't stay hurt for long, however, and I soon moved on to the other pressing issues an elementary student cares about- many of which I can't quite remember.

I entered this original piece in our school art contest the past school year. It received 1st place in the drawing category of the contest (paintings and mixed media were also entered).