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My Mentor - Jon Gnagy

1/1/2011

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The first of my blogs shall begin with the start of a new year.  This segment is about coming full circle in my artistic life.  When I was a small child I would watch the Jon Gnagy Learn to Draw show on my black and white TV.  Jon was a big part of my growing up and very influential in my young artistic world.  He taught his listeners how to draw a circle and make it into a ball by shading and perspectives.  He believed everyone had some sort of artistic ability.  For Christmas I begged Santa to bring me a Jon Gnagy Learn to Draw Set.  I wanted it so I could have all the right pencils and charcoal to sketch with.  I woke up on Christmas morning and there it was under our tree.  That kit never left my side during my childhood.  It came with various pencils, charcoal, an eraser, a smudge tool, paper, tissue, drawing board, sharpener and a   "How To Draw" booklet.  This year I told my daughter if she wanted to get me anything for Christmas it would be the same kit I once had (there are various kits out there).  This Christmas I opened up my present and found that exact same kit.  It was complete with pencils, charcoal, eraser etc.  She had found it on Ebay and was from an estate sale the seller told her.  It even had all of the paper including 2 drawings the previous owner, maybe 40 years ago sketched.  The next day I began reading his booklet and in his introduction I found this written....

"I believe that in the life of everyone there comes a time when the Art Spirit is dominant. You may have passed it when you were 5 or 7 or 11 years of age. But it will come again several times in your life when you are looking for something outside your practical everyday routine".

This statement was so true in my life.  Upon opening that present I had told my daughter that it  was a reminder that I had come full circle in my life (not knowing about the quote).   After many years of raising a family and not painting or drawing, on a whim a few years ago I started to paint and sketch. I'm much better now than I was when I was 8 years old but I credit my ability to those early years of watching those TV shows and practising my sketching skills using his art set.

He was my mentor.

I believe everyone goes full circle in their lives. We find something we love, we wander due to growing up and growing away from our comfort zones and then we come back to those comfort zones years later much wiser.

Therefore I hope everyone has a wonderful mentor in their lives and to always believe that the good things will always come back to us.

Have a great New Year!


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    About Me

    I am a self-taught wildlife artist from Muskoka, Ontario Canada

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