Starting out

After reading an article that cited several artists' beginnings-the moments when they first knew that they were going to be in the "creative" field, I'm a bit blank.

Here's several incidents I remember:

Making something out of clay in a pre-kindergarten special session, accompanied by both Mom and Dad. After splashing some primary color on this (and having the notion that I didn't know WTF I was doing), this object came home in a shoebox. The diorama has always been of interest to me and here I am, eons later, still working within the confines of the box…calling Sigmund….

A class session in Junior high School (aka 7th or 8th grade) in which we looked at Bridget Riley's OP Art paintings and were asked to do a graphic impression of same. Turns out, I was able to draw some fairly concentric rings. This, in turn, won me some praise from the instructor. Again, I didn't know just what I was doing or why I was doing it, but it got me some sorely-needed approval.

A set of watercolor paints was purchased for me at J.J. Korvette's. Dunno if I asked for these or if this was my Dad's desire to see his son become the artist he wanted to be (but was severely torn about, as later, when things got more serious for me and I wanted art school, not college). In true form, I was given some sheet rock panel scraps to paint on, made a mess (but a mess with intention: a seascape) and forgot about the watercolors (I'm still fairly allergic to this medium).

Wish I'd some beautiful/funny/tragic story to tell about my first steps towards becoming an artist, but this is the best I've got-pretty boring, yet all true.