Tayari's Blog: Portrait of The Artist as a Teenager

Posted by TayariJones on January 27, 2007 06:36 PM
Filed under Travels & Rambles

I ran across this photo on my father's hard-drive. This was taken around the time I saved all my money to buy a word processor-- you remember them; they looked a lot like typewriters and could see up to five lines of text at a time.

I was reading ahead to week 3 of The Artist's Way and it asks "If I weren't so stingy with my artist, I would buy her..." and it reminded me of myself as a teenager, sinking every cent I could get my hands on into something that I thought would benefit and please my artist. (I used it so much that it would start smelling like burning tires. I thought it was broken so I took it way out to Smyrna to the repair shop, three times. Finally, the repairman said, "Young lady, this piece of equipment was not designed to be a printing press.")

I am putting this picture as my screen saver, to help me remember myself when I believed completely in my art and made it my top priority.

[divider]

There are 4 comments on "Portrait of The Artist as a Teenager". If you'd like to leave a comment, click here to jump down to the comments entry form.

Comment #1, by Judy [TypeKey Profile Page]

Wow, what a beautiful picture! Oh, just to let go of all the thoughts and distractions and forge ahead as naturally as breathing; never losing faith in our ability to take ourselves just where we wanted to go -- and enjoy the journey. It was so simple once; it will be again.

January 28, 2007 06:15 PM

Comment #2, by carleen [TypeKey Profile Page]

Be careful that you're not being too hard on yourself. Sometimes, I think that in our efforts to do right by our art or craft we can actually be doing damage. As a teenager you probably didn't have bills to pay and your health to maintain, right? Yes, put your writing first, but if it's not all consuming every day that's probably OK. You have written 2 novels. I'm sure your next book will come as it's supposed to come. Trust that. That's being good to your artist too.

January 29, 2007 08:16 AM

Comment #3, by writergirl [TypeKey Profile Page]

Hi Tayari,

I loved this story! Thank you! I just wanted to let you know that everytime I drop into your blog I end up giving a little gift to my artist.

And speaking of gifts, thanks DIRECTLY to you and a forwarded list, I got an awesome fountain pen for Christmas from Jeff.

abrazos,
Monica

January 29, 2007 09:02 PM

Comment #4, by Allie [TypeKey Profile Page]

Amen Carleen...amen....

February 2, 2007 12:15 PM

Your Comments

You are signed in as (sign out)

Please keep comments relevant to the topic. Inappropriate and offensive comments may be edited and/or removed without warning. Comments found on this site don't necessarily reflect the views of Tayari Jones.

(optional)

(required)