Infection

I remember how it all started. I was around four and a half years old and was recovering from a serious illness and a major surgery. I was the youngest of three children and our family was moving into our latest home in Raleigh. To keep me occupied and safely out of the way, my mom sat me down in a corner of the living room and presented me with my first box of Crayola Crayons with 64 colors, along with some sort of coloring book.

It was my first time seeing new colors like Forest Green, Green Gold and, "oh-my-God!", Periwinkle! Per-i-wink-el! Even the name is fabulous. It was like fireworks went off in my little brain. I set to work on the coloring book with a sense of purpose. I had been infected.

Cut to my Second Grade field trip to the North Carolina Museum of Art. It is my and everyone else's first time in an art museum. We have no idea what an art museum even is. At first we are all tittering at the naked penises and breasts that were, seemingly, everywhere. Okay, good so far.

While the teachers were "having a little talk" with the rowdy ones, I became captivated by the intoxicating smell of the place. It smelled like mummies, dried paint and important stuff. I loved it.

I can remember the sound that the old, wooden parquet floors made when you tried to walk quietly, like tiny mice, like our teacher asked. The slower you walked, the louder it got. Crunch, crunch, crunch!

We slowly and non-quietly make our way to the first painting on our tour, I was awestruck. It was a very large picture showing the interior of a cathedral filled with very expressive, animated people. Cardinals, commoners, and even a dog urinating! It looked alive. And it was 300 years old. This guy from the past had seen something really cool and wanted me and my friends to know about it, so he painted a picture for us. Cool!

I simply had to learn how to do that someday. My big sister was a budding artist herself and she always took the time to teach me what she was learning. She took me back to that museum many times over the years, where we both strived to figure out how to create these beautiful objects.

I am still trying to figure it out. There's no cure for this infection.