Why the SPARK are we here...

When I was a kid I was obsessed with books and reading; I still am.  If anyone asked me from the time I was about 8 until the time I was 28, what I wanted to be, the answer was "writer". I dreamed of writing a great Canadian novel. The kind of book passed between friends. A novel so good you wrote your name in the cover so you could be sure to get it back.
In high school I did some writing. I wrote some short stories that were published in the year book and one of them was published in a local Oxford county publication (#biggoalsat14). And then I dreamed bigger. I started a novel. About a million times. But I never finished anything. I went to university (not for English), graduated, started working, and I wrote less and less. I let life get in my way but in the back of my heart, I still called myself a writer.
But I had a problem. Stephen King is an amazing and prolific writer and I will never forget this quote I read that was attributed to him:
 "If you want to be a writer you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot."
I was reading a lot but I wasn't writing at all. I failed myself, I let my dream die.

In this blog I will talk more about dreams and how they thrive and how they die. I dream of this being a conversation among the as-yet imaginary people who will read my story. It might get messy. I believe in vulnerability - all the yucky uncomfortable pain and joy of it.

Writing is an incredible art form, but that's not what this blog is about. This blog is about visual art and artists, makers and creators that work with their hands, their materials and their minds.

The name of this website is inspired by Stephen King's advice.
If you want to be an artist, you must do 1 thing above all others: Make Art. Because Artists Make Art.

I hope you can join me on my journey of making art and being an artist.

--Cheers, Andrea--